Hope to see you there!  Life is really better connected.

Check out the details at the link below!

http://buckheadchurch.org/grouplink

Since it’s almost the New Year (and time for resolutions, fresh starts, and/or recommitments to disciplines that have faded), we wanted to give you some tools that will help you “resolve” to do a better job of reading the Bible in 2012. As a church, this is assuredly one of the most vital practices we can do together. Psalm 119:105 reminds us that “[God's] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Simply said, if we’re not reading our Bibles this year, we’ll be walking in the dark.

The Bible is a collection of ancient manuscripts—66 to be exact—not a book. Several dozen authors wrote these manuscripts. Readers who approach it like a book—beginning with page one and proceeding to the end—can find themselves lost in a bewildering maze of ancient history and lists. Not to mention, busy schedules and limited confidence can end up discouraging us from spending time in these amazing words from God. A good Bible-reading plan will help overcome obstacles like these.

We’d love for you to adopt one of the plans below and use it to structure some of your reading this year. Each approach offers an effective strategy for pushing beyond a limited understanding of the Bible—including how to read the Bible topically (to get a concentrated view of a certain theme or subject), to see a “bird’s eye view” of the high points of the biblical story, or to read through all the manuscripts. See the links below for reading plans we have found to be especially helpful.

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Two-Week Topical Study Plan: Use this link to download a reading plan that contains two-week sections that each concentrate on a different topic. Content includes: the life of Jesus, the life and teachings of Paul, the Old Testament, on becoming a Christian, and many more.

• Two-Week Topical Studies (PDF)

30-Day Plans featuring important biblical topics and stories:

• 30 Days with Jesus (PDF): Thirty days of readings about the life and ministry of Christ.
• 30 Days for New Christians (PDF): Thirty days of passages for those new to the faith.
• 30 Days in the Psalms and Proverbs (PDF): Thirty days of Psalms and Proverbs for worship and wisdom.

“Bird’s Eye Overview” Plans: The following plans offer a bird’s eye view of the biblical story at three different levels—60, 90, and 180 days. The daily readings consist of selected passages that make up a “guided tour” of the Bible’s high points. This arrangement will convey the Bible’s “plot” without reading all of it.

• 60-Day Plan: Read an overview of the Bible in 60 days (PDF).
• 90-Day Plan: Read an overview of the Bible in 90 days (PDF).
• 180-Day Plan: Read an overview of the Bible in 180 days (PDF).

New Testament Study Plans: These plans help you study the New Testament.

• New Testament in a Year: Get the PDF here.
• New Testament (five minutes a day/five days a week): Get the PDF here.

Read Through the Bible in a Year: The link below will give you a PDF that will help you navigate the Bible in a year.

• Straight through the Bible in a year from Genesis to Revelation. Get the PDF here.
• Old and New Testaments together to read the whole Bible, with something from each Testament every day. Get the PDF here.
• Read from four places each day, with passages from two books, Psalms, and Proverbs. Get the PDF here.

Read Online: Lastly, if you haven’t already discovered www.youversion.com, you need to. This is an online Bible (in many translations) with a ton of online reading plans (http://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/all). What’s great about this approach is that you check off your reading each day online. Also, it syncs with many different mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android). So, whether you read online or on your phone, it keeps them in sync as to where you are in the plan.

Again, Happy New Year! We are excited about walking together this year using God’s Word as a “lamp to our feet.”

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(Note that the links above are all presented as downloadable PDFs, so you might need to save them in a way that works for your computer. Some of you may be able to download with a simple click of the link and others might need to “right click” and “save as.”)

A few weeks ago, our Buckhead Church Staff took a few hours away from the office to make a big impact in our community.  Over the course of five hours at four of our Intersect partners, 60 staff members took to heart what we often say around here, “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”  The outcome provided much hope to organizations on the front lines of serving the poor and needy in Atlanta.  At the same time, it gave our staff an opportunity to experience firsthand the work and service so many of our attendees perform week after week in our city.

Here are a few pictures and highlights from each of our projects:

Open Hand Atlanta received an “extreme office makeover” of sorts for their secondary office space. Our staff implemented a fun design scheme to boost morale among employees who work tirelessly to raise money to fund over two million meals a year for the critically ill and homebound in our city.

Buckhead staff took part in two different projects at Atlanta Mission. One team painted a break room and study in the Mission’s Fuqua Hall, which provides affordable housing for men who have completed the Mission’s recovery program. The other team participated in a morning of classes with the men in the recovery program and prepared lunch for them.

A team of staff spruced up the outside of Buckhead Christian Ministries. BCM offers a myriad of programs designed to assist the working poor in our community. Our team rolled up their sleeves and performed everything from sidewalk and fence repairs to landscaping.

Another group spent the day at Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta. Furniture Bank provides furniture for those moving out of homelessness, battling HIV/AIDS, or fleeing domestic violence. After spending their morning interacting with clients, our team got out their power tools and built ten kitchen tables.

To learn more about how you can help these organizations, please visit www.theintersectproject.org.

https://docs.google.com/a/northpointministries.net/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGMyVjVXeFhERHZrUjEyX2pFNkJkQnc6MQ

The spaces are filling up and some have closed already!

http://howtoberich.org/serve

Following are three stories about the impact our volunteers make every Sunday:

A gentleman from out of town was lost and driving along the rear alley of Buckhead Church. He stopped to ask Dee, one of our parking volunteers, directions to the movie theater, a pretty typical request. Dee told him how to get to there, and she and I invited him to church. Uninterested, he drove into the TP100 deck. I then walked over to that deck to check on the parking team and, sure enough, the visitor was still lost. Giving him further directions, I again invited him to church and told him when the service would start and end. He drove on, but a few minutes later, I saw him walking toward the bridge. I said, “This is not the way to the theater,” but he said that he was going to go to church instead! We may never know what he thought of the service, but it was a good feeling to know that as a team, we made a difference for at least one person that day.
–Travis Cowie

My mother and uncle decided to attend the 6:00 p.m. service this past Sunday. My uncle has a bad heart and is handicapped because of it. Normally, he has a handicap sign for the car, but forgot to bring it. As my mother was pulling into the TP100 parking deck, she told one of the volunteers that my uncle was handicapped and needed to park as close as possible to the door. He told her to turn on her flashers and to pull around to the Buckhead Church deck where another volunteer waived her into a coned-off parking spot very close to the door. She and my uncle were very impressed with how well the team treated them. It was a big wow for both of them!
–Rick Howard

Two women visited Buckhead Church for the first time to see their friend baptized at the 11:00 a.m. service. They rode MARTA and when they arrived, were greeted by parking volunteers who directed them into the building. The volunteers radioed our inside Guest Services team, who greeted them at the door and escorted them to the Auditorium. Afterwards, they visited our Information Center, and I overheard them tell the volunteer there how friendly everyone was and how they felt at home. One of them even replied, “THIS is my new church home.” It was incredible to see that the extra time each volunteer spent, from the parking lot to the lobby, made such a huge impact.
–Dianne Merritt

Thank you to all of our volunteers who serve each Sunday. We are blessed with an extraordinary team of people.

Rachael Terry ::: Director of Guest Services ::: Buckhead Church

Serve with a friend or make this a Small Group service project! (If you are inviting friends please forward the link to them so they can sign up and receive email updates.)

Dinner will be served for all volunteers!

Sign up at the link below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGdSanlfLWhTdUluQ3VsOXllWW4tblE6MQ