Church of the Heartland – Logansport

Today we’re celebrating the birthday of  Church of the Heartland’s awesome president, Pastor Heath Hiatt!  Pastor Heath, we at the Logansport campus just want to thank you for everything you do to bless Church of the Heartland.  We love seeing your face every Sunday on the video announcements   Without your leadership, your vision, and your input, Heartland wouldn’t be the same.  We appreciate you!

So, quick everybody, visit Pastor Heath’s blog or his facebook page and tell him happy birthday!

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas.  I would like to invite everyone to our New Years Eve Service on Wednesday, December 31st from 9:00-12:00.  We will join together to take communion and reflect on this past year and pray for 2009.  You are free to come and stay the entire time or you can just stop by for a few minutes.

Youth:  If you would like to go to Plymouth for the New Years party meet at the church at 7:15.  JR is willing to take you.  The party is over at 12:30.  Bring three dollars for all you can eat pizza.

I know that I don’t say much to people before service because of everything that I do before service, but I truly enjoy doing life with everyone of you.  I really appreciate all of you.  You are not just my church family, you are my family.

Save some green bean casserole for me!

Brenda

I’ll bet you would like to know what all the excitement is about. Well this Saturday is the start of the second semester of North Central Indiana Bible College.The first half has been very powerful and life changing for many of the students and their instructors.

The students are gaining a lot more than just a bunch of head knowledge. Now I am not saying that knowledge is bad but our students are finding new ways of applying the living Word of God to their everyday lives.

Now if that isn’t exciting enough here is the kicker. There will be three new students starting the second semester with the possibility of one more. That’s right four new student willing to lay down their lives and dreams to find out what God’s purposes and plans are for their lives.

This is the first time in history that NCIBC has had a second semester class larger than the first. This just goes to show you that God is preparing His people to become the glorious church that He is coming back for.

If there is anyone else out there that has been thinking about starting bible college don’t be afraid to jump into the river and get your feet wet. It is never to late . Just talk to your pastor’s and they will put you in contact with the people you need to get you started. What better way to start your new year in finding out the will of God for your lives.

Jim

At one time one or another I have visited all five of the Heartland campuses. Several things stand out from these experiences.

· Welcome received – It was as great as any church I’ve ever been in

· Worship was exciting and sincere

· Preaching is bible based with application to everyday life

These experiences have been a blessing to my Christian life.

Larry Ferguson, Director of Church Encouragement Services

Last Friday we had a combined youth group activity at the Howard’s house. It was a breezy chilly night with a great big bon fire. During the evening we had a cell phone scavenger hunt. This was so much fun that I have to tell you about it. What you do is have a list of things to look for (examples; road kill, animal in a pasture, picture of a Wal Mart greeter, license plate with a Z on it, and so on). Then as you are going around in your car  looking for these things you stop when you find one and get out and take a picture on your cell phone for proof.

We had a great time getting to know the youth in our cars and building great relationship with them. While around the camp fire there was lots hot dogs being roasted and a whole lot of marsh mellows. We played some games around the camp fire and had some awesome conversation going on. This is one way of knowing if the youth is having a good time or not, just ask them if they are ready to go home and they say no they are definitely having a good time. They didn’t leave till after 11:00pm.

Dude don’t try to make it harder than it is trying to reach the youth. Just keep it simple and become a kid yourself  while having a lot of fun with them.  What they really want is some who will care for them and who will lend a listing ear to them while being there for them when they need someone.

Jim

My mother is 80 years old and she is truly a prayer warrior. While the elections have been going on she has been praying everyday, sometimes 3 to 10 times though out the day. The day of the election came and while she was watching the election she decided to turn the TV off because it wasn’t going the way she hoped  and prayed for. Later that evening she turn it back on to find out that Obama had won. While she was watching in dismay a breeze entered into the her room and a warm heat started running through her body from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. While this was going on she experienced the joy of the Lord and his peace fill her room. While sitting in the presence of the Lord she felt His arms wrap around her as if to tell her everything was going to be alright and that He  was going to take care of her.

Don’t think that when you pray and things don’t go the way you planned that our God doesn’t care. That is the furthest from the truth. You see it matters to our God what we pray and He is not one to leave you feeling helpless and out in the cold. So if you desire to experience a move of the Holy Spirit in your life just spend some quality time with Him because His desire is for you to experience the truth of the Gospel. And that is that Jesus is alive and well, and that He is hungering to spend time with His church on a daily bases.

Jim

Hey Heartlanders, I just what to give a great big huge praise report. Last weekend I had a major job come up on my house. We needed to tear off 45 square of roofing off my house and garage and then re roof it. This was all to be accomplished in one weekend.  That is really a lot of work people. Well I contacted my son and some of my friends to see if we could get the job done. On Sat. morn. my son shows up at 8:00am with 2 of his friends and his brother. They started tearing of the roof then Jr my brother in law stated helping to. By 10:00 o’clock there were fifteen people from the body of Christ working together on our roof. To make a long story short by Sun. evening the roof on the house had been completed and all the rubbish had been put into the dumpster. I can not thank everyone enough for all the help and hard work they did for Michele and myself. The love of Christ had been poured out upon my family.  It also showed my son and his friends what the body of Christ can do when they set their minds to something. When I was walking in the world I use to say that you could count you best friends on one hand. I truly cannot say that anymore. Because the love of God reaches much father that I could have ever imagined. I just would like to thank God and His people for the wonderful blessing that was shown to my son and my family. May God bless each and everyone who put their hand to the plow in service of a mighty God for one of his servants. I will never forget this blessing. Thank you everyone again.

With Much Love

Jim

I was in Aldi today when a chance came to be able to bless someone. If you have ever been in Aldi you know that those lines can be very long. But you truly have to give credit to those cashiers because they can really move those groceries. Well, anyway, I was next in line to pay when the little old lady didn’t have enough money for her potatoes.  She was going to have them taken back, so I stopped the cashier and said that I would take care of them for her. You should have seen the look on the cashier’s face. I believe it blessed her as much as it did the little old lady, who was very appreciative.  I just love being God’s blessing to someone.

I found it very interesting that our main agenda at our ministerial meeting today was changing the way we think about our city. We have been for last 6 weeks talking about transforming our minds, elevating our thoughts, obtaining God’s thoughts and being more Christ like in our thinking. Do think that it could be possible that God could be talking to the church and our city leaders at the same time. We as the church need to take the leadership role in our communities and let people see what it is truly like to think with a God’s kingdom mindset. If it is true what the bible says and that My people parish for lack of vision then maybe we should break new ground with a positive way of thinking as spiritual leaders of our cities. God has a much larger agenda than just being present in our churches. I believe that He wants to pour out His Spirit upon our cities as well, so people can truly see what it is like to prosper when everything else around them seems to be falling apart. If God is for us who then can stand against us. Nothing is impossible for God if His people are williing to lay down their own agenda’s and pick up His.

Jim

The most awesome thing is happening involving Church of the Heartland and that is we are now gelling. The creative juices have started to flow. The team has become a team. The process has taken a couple of years but it has all been worth it. I am so proud to be called a heartlander. We now have heartlanders in other states sharing in our vision and blessing us with their own creativity. Now how cool is that. When we stated Church of the Heartland we had to be patient while building our churches and teams. Well that time has come to and end. It is now time to run as hard as we can with the vision and take our cities for the kingdom of God. I would like to thank all those who have sown seeds of prayer for this ministry and those who have labor along side of us. It is because of you and God’s grace that we are moving on to the next level of ministry in Church of the Heartland. Get ready heartlanders and buckle up it is going to be a fantastic fast pace ride from here on out.

Jim