Cumberland Church Blog

Share the "Win"!

367!!

Believe it or not...that's the number of adults in a small group at Cumberland Church right now!

What's even more amazing is that 367 adults is MORE than the average number of adults that come to a weekend service at Cumberland (about 300). Meaning, we have more adults in our small group environments than come to Cumberland Church on the weekends. That's truly unheard of in a typical church. Most churches are ecstatic to have 50% of their weekend attendance IN a small group, let alone more. Amazing!

So what does 367 tell us? It tell us that you guys are doing a GREAT job of inviting your friends to "do life" with you and partnering with us to accomplish our of mission of leading people into a growing relationship wiht Jesus Christ. Awesome job gang! Proud of you for this. Thanks for choosing to partner with us! God is truly doing something amazing here with us at Cumberland Church.

Pictures of our new worship environment and HD system

 

 

Was Andy really at Cumberland Church on Sunday?

Hey Cumberland Church!

If you weren't able to make it this past Sunday to Cumberland, you missed out on a very exciting and special day in the unfolding story of our young church.

First, we celebrated our 2-year anniversary with our largest service to date. It was an awesome service! And secondly....there is a rumor circulating that Andy made a "special" appearance. (smile) You can check out the picture above to see for yourself. Was he there, or wasn't he?? Hmmm.

We hope to see you this Sunday to see what the buzz is all about. Have a great weekend everybody!

Eddie Johnson
Lead Pastor

Five Things God Uses To Grow Your Faith - Part 5 (Personal Ministry)

Here is last weekend's message at Cumberland...

I'm enjoying Cumberland Church but I have a question about...

Question: "What is the deal with the video sermon? Will you ever have a live local preacher on Sundays?" 

_{(The photo above is not Andy teaching live but actually 3 video screens in North Point's West Auditorium at it's Alpharetta campus. The 28'x16' High-Definition center screen displays Andy, or the teacher for that morning, in a full life-size image. Currently, all 3 North Point campuses are using this technology. This is an exciting tool we hope to be adding here in the near future at Cumberland.)}

Cumberland Church will often use video as a means to bring relevant messages to our congregation.  As long as the video technique is meaningful and helpful in our mission to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, we will continue to use video messages for preaching and a local ministry staff for ministry. If we determine another technique is more relevant and helpful in accomplishing our mission, we will adopt it.    North Point has been using the combination of video sermons and local ministry staff since the summer of 2001 and so far have found them to be quite effective. As a strategic partner with North Point Ministries, Cumberland Church will use the sermon portion of the North Point worship service, via video, a large percentage of the time.  At other times our Lead Pastor, Eddie Johnson, will present the sermons.    

      

5 Things To Grow Your Faith - #1 Practical Teaching

In case you missed last week, here's a highlight of Andy's message.

New teaching series from Andy starts this weekend!

How Do People Grow?

We throw the "grow" word around a good bit. Specifically, we talk about a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. But what exactly does that mean? What exactly is growing?

We believe there are five primary things God uses to grow our faith. These five things are not listed anywhere in the Bible. We discovered them by observing how God works in the lives of believers - and even unbelievers. We are not proposing that these are the only leverage points God uses. But every time we hear someone recount his or her faith journey, at least one of these five dynamics is part of the story.

Why A Teaching Series On "Spiritual Growth"?

Because your faith in God matters to God. In fact, God is most honored through your living, active, death-defying, out-of-the-box faith. That being the case, He's committed to growing it - BIG.

Invite a friend and join us for the New Year at Cumberland Church for this insightful and practical teaching series from Andy Stanley.  Service Times are at 9:30 and 11 a.m.

To watch a 1-minute video promo of this series, click here.

Could you live like Jesus for a year? This pastor tried.

GREAT article in the USA TODAY about Ed Dobson in Grand Rapids, MI.  Wow, I'm totally impressed and challenged by this.  Check it out.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Rev. Ed Dobson has spent most of his life following Jesus. But only now does he realize how hard it is to live like him.  The retired megachurch pastor and one-time architect of the religious right has spent the last year trying to eat, pray, talk and even vote as Jesus would. His revelation: Being Jesus is tough.

"I've concluded that I am a follower, but I'm not a very good one," Dobson said. "If you get serious about the Bible, it will really mess you up."

You can read the rest of the article here.

Cumberland Christmas Celebration - This Sunday Night @ 6 p.m.

Please join us this Sunday night, December 21st, at 6 p.m. for one awesome Christmas Celebration service!

We would like to invite you to bring the whole family for a special night of fun as we celebrate the holidays. It will be an evening filled with great Christmas music, jolly friends and enough joy in one room to make even the toughest Grinch smile! Danny Dukes will be here to help ring in the holiday season with an awesome list of holiday favorites and our Lead Pastor, Eddie Johnson, will be sharing The Christmas Story.

Christmas Celebration is designed to be a "family friendly" service but Upstreet and Waumba Land will be providing movies and supervision during the service as well if needed or desired. Also, after the service, we will have a time of desserts, coffee and conversation in the auditorium, so please plan to stick around for awhile. There are some new people at Cumberland that would LOVE to meet you and get to know you a little bit better.

So come one, come all and join us for what promises to be a night you will never forget!

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Cumberland Staff

**Special Note to our Parents: During this service we will be taking Communion together as a church family. With the assistance of our Host Team, the elements will be passed on trays down each row. Since children will be allowed into the service, we would highly encourage you to have a time of family conversation about this topic and answer your children's questions before coming to the service. As many of you may recall from previous church experiences (or maybe even your own childhood), it is very difficult to have that conversation once you reach the service. (smile)

If our church staff can be of any help or assistance in that conversation, please feel free to contact us directly. We would love to do that. Thank you!

Today @ Cumberland - December 14th

Sunday Highlights:

• Wrapped up Louie Giglio's "Hope" series.  What an impactful time this has been for our church.  Maybe our best series yet. 
• Cyndi (Thomson) and DJ Goodman led worship today.  Hard to believe this was Cyndi's first time ever leading worship.  What a natural....and what a voice!  Her closer of "Mighty to Save" was killer.
• Waumba Land threw a "Birthday Party for Jesus" upstairs. The messiest fun I've ever seen.
• Got to meet and hear some amazing stories about Ross' 7 students who made a decision to be a follower of Jesus last weekend and invited Him to reign in their lives.  Wow!  Love the stories coming out of Student Ministry right now!  Hard to believe we just kicked off Students in August.
• Excited for next Sunday night's Christmas Celebration here at Cumberland (6 p.m in case you hadn't heard yet).  Danny Dukes, Cyndi and DJ will singing some great Christmas carols and yours truly will be sharing the Christmas Story.  Should be a lot fun.  We'll also be taking communion as a church family and having a time of coffee and desserts after-wards, so please make your plans to join us.