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Weekend Recap – January 28/29, 2012

In Kettering, Rob Turner preached from John 11:1-16 about how God works through hard things and how suffering can lead to His glory. It was a timely message for our church family and many were prayed for this past weekend.

Our songs in Kettering were:

  1. It’s So Sweet to Trust in Jesus – arrangement by the Apex Band (AGES album)
  2. Love is Here – arrangement by the Apex Band (LIVE album)
  3. Absent from Flesh – by Sojourn Music
  4. None but Jesus – by Hillsong United
  5. One Thing Remains – by Jesus Culture

In Xenia, one of our elders, Rennes Bowers, spoke about “zoe life” which is the abundant, eternal, Spirit-led life that God gives His children.

Our songs in Xenia were:

  1. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus – just the verse & chorus of this classic hymn
  2. Hosanna – by Hillsong United
  3. Your Great Name – by Natalie Grant
  4. How He Loves – by John Mark McMillan
  5. None but Jesus – by Hillsong United
  6. From the Inside out – by Hillsong United

Weekend recap – January 21/22, 2012

Our gatherings this past weekend were powerful…at both campuses.

In Kettering, we started out with our new announcement video called “the Lowdown” and then heard from one of our missions team leaders, Rita, about upcoming mission opportunities within Apex and how we can be praying with a more missional mindset.
After that, our band took us into a time of slowing down, thinking about the goodness of God, and responding to Him in song. Our songs were:

  • Only You – by David Crowder Band
  • Majesty – by Delirious
  • Before the Throne – by Sovereign Grace Music
  • Revelation Song – by Kari Jobe & Gateway
    *During this song, we read Psalm 145 together

Then Jason Wing delivered the message on John 10:31-42, reminding us that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

After the sermon, we sang:

  • From the Inside Out – by Hillsong United

In Xenia, our gathering flow was very similar. We started out with “the Lowdown” as well and then heard from one of our other missions team leaders, Jesse Bowers, about how we can pray for the persecuted church. Then, we dove into singing. Our songs were:

  • Solid Rock – arrangement by the Apex Band
  • To Know Your Name – by Hillsong
    *Between these 2 songs, we read John 10:11-15 together.
  • A Mighty Fortress – by Christy Nockels
  • There is a Redeemer – arrangement by Zac Dixon

Rob Turner preached on John 10:11-21 – seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. After the sermon, we responded by singing:

  • Hallelujah, What a Savior – by Ascend the Hill

In both Kettering and Xenia, we were once again reminded of God’s faithfulness to His children. We’re so thankful that we get to gather and reflect on that together!

Weekend Recap – Jan. 14/15, 2012

This past weekend was our 10 year anniversary as a church…well, technically speaking, January 6th would be our 10 year anniversary, but we chose to celebrate it this past weekend.

God has been incredibly faithful to this community and we wanted our gatherings to reflect that well.  We did NOT want it to be a “look how cool Apex is” kind of day. We wanted it to be a “Wow, God is really REALLY faithful!” kind of day.

We started out the gatherings talking about the story of “Ebenezer” from I Samuel 7.  It’s a strong reminder to us all that we are only here by God’s grace.  All odds pointed to this “Apex-thing” flopping in a major way.  But God moved…and protected…and provided…and loved…and sustained…and so on and so on. That is the story in I Samual 7 and that is our story too.
After discussing Ebenezer, we introduced our new announcement video called The Lowdown. This video will be updated each week and will help you know what is coming up in the life of Apex.
This was a fun weekend as far as songs go. We did a couple that we were doing our very first year as a church as well as some newer ones.  Here’s our setlist…

Kettering:

  1. My Glorious – by Delirious
  2. Alive – by Sovereign Grace Music
  3. The Greatness of Our God – by One Sonic Society
  4. You Said – by Hillsong
  5. You’ve Stayed – by the Apex Band

Xenia:

  1. My Glorious – by Delirious
  2. One Thing Remains – by Jesus Culture
  3. God of Wonders – by City on a Hill
  4. Before the Throne of God Above – by Sovereign Grace Music
  5. You’ve Stayed – by the Apex Band

Throughout the gathering, we heard from various Apexers via video about how they saw God’s faithfulness to Apex since they’d joined the community. It was great to hear stories of our very first day, family members saved, relationships built, and the church being deepened throughout these past 10 years.

Both Rob Turner & Jason Wing preached on Psalm 36 which, again, just brings us back to the extreme faithfulness of God. The sermons reminded us to keep our attention on what God has done, be humble about where He has brought us, and never forget our great need for Him.

To close, we had elders & key leaders from Apex’s history come and pray over the church in each gathering. We thanked God for 10 great years and prayed for His wisdom as we approach the next 10.

So, Apex is 10 years old. My hope is that 10 years is only a drop in the bucket compared to the plans God has for our future.  No matter what, when the name “Apex” fades away, the name of Jesus will still be standing strong and that is why we worship HIM!

weekend recap – January 7/8, 2012

In Kettering, our gatherings were formed around John 10:22-30.  Rob Turner preached from that text and our band aimed our songs at that text as well.
Our songs were:

  1. Your Love Never Fails – based on the arrangement by Jesus Culture
  2. Hosanna – by Brooke Fraser
  3. To Know Your Name – by Matt Crocker
  4. Everlasting God – by Glenn Packiam
  5. Be Thou My Vision – based on the arrangement by Ascend the Hill

In Xenia, our gatherings were formed around John 10:1-10. Jason Wing preached on that text and our band did an acoustic set with songs that fit that passage as well.
Our songs were:

  1. Your Love Never Fails – based on the arrangement by Jesus Culture
  2. It’s So Sweet to Trust in Jesus – based on the Apex Band’s arrangement from the new “AGES” cd.
  3. Rock of Ages – also based on the Apex Band’s arrangement from the new “AGES” cd.
  4. None but Jesus – by Brooke Fraser
  5. Your Great Name – based on the arrangement by Natalie Grant

Year in Review :: Rob Turner

Hi Everyone,

The Preaching and Teaching ministry of Apex has experienced significant changes within this past year. As I get older it seems like the scope of year goes by faster and faster and I do not realize all that has taken place until I do an activity like this blog entry to force me to observe what God has done. At the risk of sounding trite, I can only think time and again of God’s faithfulness so I type the following words with a heart that has been warmed and enlarged over God’s goodness to His children.

As many of you know, 2011 began our journey within our gatherings to preach through the Gospel of John in its entirety. This is not the first time that we have preached through a whole book of the Bible, but nothing to this magnitude. It is December 9th as I write this and we are going to finish John 9 at this weekend’s gatherings. That means it has taken us a whole year to preach through less than half of the Gospel of John! I will not speak to anybody’s heart except my own, but I have greatly needed this sermon series to anchor me deeper into the joy of the deity of Jesus. By His grace, I look forward to the next year and a half of walking through this important Gospel.

In 2011, we also saw the beginnings of what will be known in 2012 as the Apex Preaching Collective (APC). Over a period of a few months I met weekly with eight men who were exploring at varying levels the ministry of preaching. These were wonderful, challenging times as we explored together the character and competence of proclaiming God’s Word. The outflow of that experience contributed to the first “official” round of the APC, which begins in mid-January. Please be in prayer for the thirteen men who have been selected for this five-month weekly endeavor.

More personally, this past year has altered my personal preaching ministry to Apex Community. In October, Apex launched another venue of worship gatherings in Xenia, OH. As of this writing I can safely say that this launch has been highly encouraging and challenging at the same time. The participation in these two new gatherings has been numerous, which creates leadership challenges that we are entrusting to the Lord for wisdom, dependence, and perseverance. Practically this new venue has contoured my Apex preaching schedule that is now divided between Apex Xenia and Apex Kettering. Within that rotation is a veteran Apexer in Jason Wing. The preaching gifting in this brother has been growing exponentially within the last three years and I am enjoying how God is using him as he preaches at both Apex sites. It is a good thing if you are reading this to pause and pray for Jason and his precious wife, Rachel, as they experience the weight that can accompany a preaching responsibility.

One of the convictions of the Apex elders has been the continual emphasis on leadership development throughout the Apex network of house churches. To aid that end, Jason Zastrow was brought on staff this past Fall to help with network solidarity and to teach head (knowledge), heart (affections), and hand (practical) principles to our wonderful house church leaders in order that they may lead more effectively. I have known Jason for three years and am confident that God will use him to infuse further health into the house church network. He has a daunting task but God is faithful and I again exhort you to pray for Jason Zastrow.

I want to conclude by saying that our family has been lavished with grace to be a part of the Apex Community. There are countless moments, seasons, and years where the Lord used this body to draw me time and time again to the well of Christ. It is always an honor and grace to serve you, and my family is reaping the benefit of your collective pursuit of our precious Christ. Merry Christmas and let us pray that this year would be the year where we can see our Jesus face to face!

Needing Him, Rob

Year in Review :: Phil Wing

When I think about this past year, I can’t help but thank God for his faithfulness to Apex.

God has brought us to and through a lot in 2011. Even just in the Gathering “G” we experienced quite a bit. (Go here if you don’t know what the G’s are).

Here are some of the highlights of Gathering:

•We saw many people come to know Jesus! This is such an honor. It’s a front row seat to the best show on earth…God saving people!

•We celebrated with around 40 people who were baptized in our gatherings and countless others who were baptized in their house churches.

•We moved from primarily using a single preacher to starting a preaching team. This fit our overall Apex vision much better as it utilized shared leadership, not relying too heavily on one personality, raising up others to do the work of the church, etc.

•Our elders and preaching team decided to change from a topical type of preaching (themed sermon series’) to an expository type (going verse by verse through books of the Bible). We dove into the Gospel of John in January 2011 and it has been awesome! We will likely still be in the Gospel of John for most of 2012 as well.

•Our bands hosted two great Nights of Worship where the Apex body came together to sing, pray, and just respond to God.

•Our bands wrote more songs than we ever have before in order to give our church family an opportunity to sing songs that come from our family and speak on behalf of our family.

•Our bands also committed to a renewed emphasis on re-arranging older hymns for use in our gatherings. See this video for more explanation.

•Following our passion to write new songs and to rearrange older hymns, we recorded the music from our September Night of Worship and were able to make the Apex Band’s 3rd album, “AGES”, which released in December.

•Almost every ministry area of Apex was able to take some time in our gatherings this year and cast vision for why they do what they do. Many ministries did this multiple times. We call this “Big Picture” because it helps keep the vision in front of us at all times.

•We were able to pray over and “send out” many missionaries and short-term mission teams. We call this “Dispatch Prayer” because it is simply Apex dispatching it’s missionaries to other parts of the city, country, and world.

•For the 2nd year in a row, we took part in Orphan Weekend. All of our gatherings that weekend were aimed at helping the church see God’s heart for the lonely, broken, and needy. It was not meant to increase pity, but to equip us for “religion that is pure and undefiled”. Go here for more info on why and how to get involved in caring for orphans.

•One of the biggest undertakings of this past year was launching a brand new gathering in Xenia! This was a HUGE venture for Apex but God has been working in big ways. Having gatherings in 2 parts of the Dayton area (Kettering and Xenia) increases our ability to carry forth our mission of really reaching people with the Gospel, right where they are.

•Between Kettering and Xenia, we have seen a lot of new leaders rise to the surface. From new band members & band leaders, to new setup & tear down crews, new Frontline team members (parking, greeting, help desk, safety, etc), new Family Ministry leaders, and many others. Seeing people jump in and serve or lead is one of the most energizing things to see!

There are many other things worth mentioning…like our Easter gatherings, or having the Target Dayton Choir join us for a couple weekends, or our collection weekend for Operation Christmas Child (which I’m assuming will be talked about in another blog post), or…or…or…you get the idea. There are a lot of highlights. More than I can even mention here.

Plain and simple, God has been so faithful to us this past year! Thinking back on it makes me extremely excited for what God may have in store for 2012.

“oh for grace to trust Him more!”

Year in Review

As we come to the end of another year, we want to take a few days here on the blog to look back at all God has done and the blessings He has so graciously poured out on Apex.

Monday through Friday of this week, you will hear from leaders of the various areas of ministry here at Apex. We hope that these summaries of the past year are not only an encouragement as we move into 2012, but they are a continual reminder of our desperate need for God as we seek to do the things He has called us all to.

We are excited to see what His plan is for us as part of His church, His bride in 2012. We hope you are as well.

orphan care resources 2011

…we care for orphans because God cares for orphans…

YouTube Preview Image    YouTube Preview Image

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-orphan care resources-

10 Ways That You Can Support the Orphan, Fatherless, and Lonely

1. Pray for them!

  • Make them a regular part of your prayer life and the prayer times of your House Church family.
  • Fast and ask God to deepen your understanding of His call to seek out the lost, lonely, & needy.

2. Speak up for them.

  • Use your various social media outlets to raise awareness for their needs.
  • Become a court appointed special advocate for a child in foster care – www.nationalcasa.org

3. Provide for their needs.

  • Sponsor a child. (see info below)
  • Send supplies or financial gifts to a reputable orphanage, especially those internationally in highly impoverished areas.
  • Organize a food/supply drive.

4. Support those who support them.

  • Pray for the families around you that are adopting or providing foster care.
  • Contribute financially to a family in an expensive adoption process.
  • Offer to babysit, mow lawns, provide meals, etc. for adoptive/foster families.

5. Protect them from harm.

  • Become a foster parent or emergency foster parent for children in transition. (see info below)
  • Start or join an effort to build orphanages, children’s homes, etc to keep them off the streets.

6. Visit them where they are.

  • Find a local orphanage or children’s home and spend time getting to know the people there.
  • Go on a mission trip to serve orphans nationally & internationally. (see info below)
  • Take a meal, Christmas gifts, etc to a local foster group-home.
  • Become a mentor. (see info below)

7. Give sacrificially to them.

  • Support reputable orphan care organizations on a regular basis.
  • Contribute generously to an adoptive family to help them off-set their costs.

8. Encourage them.

  • Sponsor a child, support them financially, & encourage them through your letters.
    (see info below)
  • Join in efforts like Operation Christmas Child or Shoes for the Shoeless.
  • Become a mentor or tutor for those needing help. (see info below)

9. Mobilize your church for them.

  • Help your house church figure out ways you can regularly be involved with the lost, lonely, and needy.
  • Help them stick with it and continue!

10. Adopt them.

  • Give a child a home through international, domestic, or foster care adoption. (see info below)
  • Adopt a young adult who has aged out of the system.

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Apex’s Local & International Orphan Care Partners:

A Few Local Foster Care & Adoption Agencies:

A Few International Adoption Agencies:

Local Child Mentoring Programs:

International Child Sponsorship:

General Orphan Care Resources:

If you have further questions or would like to talk to someone regarding orphan care, email us at gathering@apexcommunity.org

Apex Band Auditions for Kettering & Xenia Gatherings

The next round of auditions for the Apex Band are Oct 30th & 31st. We will be auditioning for both the Kettering Campus and the Xenia Campus bands.
If you have a decent musical ability and a strong desire to communicate the Gospel, please consider auditioning!
Download an Audition Info Packet here or pick one up at an Apex gathering.  This packet contains all necessary info as well as a band application.
Applications are due by Oct. 23rd.

We are currently auditioning for:
Kettering

  • vocals
  • electric guitar
  • bass
  • keyboard
  • stringed instruments

Xenia

  • vocals
  • drums
  • bass
  • electric guitar
  • keyboard
  • stringed instruments

2011 Passion Weekend (Easter) at Apex

Here are the plans for this year’s Passion Weekend! Our house churches are encouraged to get together and pray on Thursday the 21st focusing on “Jesus as the Servant.” (Staff hopes to provide some suggested prayer plans for this). We’ll then be having a 6:30-8:00pm Good Friday gathering at Apex focusing on “Jesus as the Sacrifice” (see Apex Kids note below). Lastly, our normal weekend gatherings (at their normal times) will be the culmination and celebration of “Jesus as our Savior!”

 Apex Kids & Students
Apex Kids will have normal classes on Easter Saturday and Sunday; however, there will only be limited kids ministry for Good Friday. If you want your child to participate in Apex Kids during the Good Friday service, limited spots are available… please register online ASAP by clicking the link below:

 Click Here for Good Friday Kids Classes Registration

Apex Students will have no activities all day on Saturday or Sunday. This includes 56 Crew, 78 Ignition, and High School.

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