Four Samples of Monthly Emails for Guests that point them to your One Program
Subject Line: How's your energy level these days?
In Step 2 of Next Steps at Eastside, we do a science experiment at every table. Don't worry, no spoilers here. Let me just say it addresses a possible cause for any lack of energy you may be experiencing lately.
Let me explain...
God made our bodies so that they function as conduits of electricity and energy. We demonstrate this in a real and fun way in Next Steps during the 2nd session that always livens things up. One of the many points made is this: literal power transfers from one person to another when we are connected to one another.
Isolated, like an unplugged appliance, we cannot receive or pass on energy. We lack power to perform our function.
For some of us (not all), our lack of community is the reason we lack the energy necessary to be human. That's why "God placed the lonely in families" (Psalm 86:6), even spiritual families for those who need a surrogate or just extended family to complete the kind of community we need.
Ask yourself these 2 questions:
1. Do I lack energy?
2. If so, do I have adequate people resources in my life to share the burden and encourage me with their support?
That's one of many reasons to tap deeper into the community at Eastside. The purpose of Next Steps is to help make that happen at your pace.
Step 1 (of 4) begins this weekend. Click here to find a time at a campus near you and jump in.
Life is too short to lack the energy needed to live it fully. Connect with us through Next Steps this weekend.
Hope to see you there!
Subject Line: Your life’s GPS...is it working?
Recently I was driving home from a getaway with my wife and my GPS rerouted me off the highway
...in downtown LA.
...on a Friday afternoon.
When the GPS reroutes you, do you trust it and take the new path? Or, do you ignore it and just push ahead? Do you take the change?
For me ... I take the advice of the GPS most times.
I do hesitate and think to myself ... "is this the time that the GPS will be wrong?!"
SIDEBAR: I was talking for my lovely wife at the time and despite her hesitancy, I took the advice of the GPS and despite the detour, it actually saved us quite a bit of time.
Why do I trust the GPS?
They can "see" the road ahead. They've looked at the mistakes others have made and suggest a way around that problem.
The same is true regarding Next Steps at Eastside.
Next Steps is a fun, relational environment that trains you in 4 essential steps in following Jesus with us at Eastside. After years of helping people around the obstacles of connecting with God and with others in our church family, we have gotten pretty good at anticipating the roadblocks and helping people over them successfully.
So, would this be the weekend to assess a "reroute" on your personal journey with God and others at Eastside? If so, let us help identify your Next Step since Step 1 of four starts this weekend and every campus and online. Click here for times and details.
And yes: trust the GPS!
A January subject line: An easier way to reach your long term goals (it’s not what you think…)
As someone in charge of helping people take their next steps at Eastside, I think 2020 & 2021 did a number on our confidence in the future.
We live in a culture of long range planning. We are taught to pick a fixed point in the future by when we will have achieved something, and calendarize the steps to insure we get there. These include things like:
Having X amount of dollars to retire in ____ years.
Getting married by _____.
Having kids by _____.
Having a career in ______ by _____.
Purchasing a home by _______.
You get the picture.
If the last 2 years have taught us anything, it's that we don't have that kind of control over our futures.
So if you and I don't have ultimate control of where we'll end up in X amount of years, what is the alternative to long range planning?
Here it is: take the next step God is asking you to take and trust that it will bring you one step closer to the life he has planned for you.
One song writer in the Bible put it this way: "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105). Notice he doesn't say it's a light to your destination. It's a lamp to your feet and path. His words illuminate only what our next step should be.
Let me put it another way. Your next step will get you closer to your best life if it is God's next step for you.
This puts what we were taught on its end. Rather than pursuing a fixed point in the future, use God's next step for you as a guide to your best future.
Each step counts. Each one is taking you somewhere. If you are taking the next step God has for you, then that step is taking you toward what he created you for.
That's why jumping into Step 1 of Next Steps this weekend at one of our campuses (or even online) could be your best bet to ensure your progress toward something good in the wake of 2020-21.
Next Steps will help you identify what that step is and then help you take it.
Begin this weekend. Click here to find out how.
Hope to see you there,
A November subject line: How to enjoy your family this Thanksgiving (whether you like them or not).
Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving or is there just a piece of you that is just a little apprehensive?
We've all been there. Most every family has one or two "special people" that require some kind of preparation on your part to be ready for their unique brand of relationship.
Here are 3 tips and one opportunity to get through Thanksgiving 2021:
Tip #1 Distract
When bull riders at a rodeo are thrown from their bull, a rodeo clown distracts the bull so that the rider and run to safety. You need some rodeo clowns when you get thrown by the actions or conversation of certain people at your thanksgiving table.
They can be a person (a friend or ally that you can invite or bring with you to sit by so you have a buffer from troublesome comments). They can be an activity (like playing a football game that your challenging relative would love to watch and be amused by). They can be a pet, even if you have to bring one in to grant cuteness, levity or to become a conversational rodeo clown when the conversational ride gets bumpy.
Tip #2 Foregive
No, that is not a misspelling.
"Fore" means in advance. So literally, to forgive means "to give in advance"-in advance of their act of restitution or any realization on their part. It's accepting ahead of time that person's shortcomings and factoring them into the experience so that your expectations are adjusted to reality.
Asking God to help you see this person from his vantage point (their personal stories and the causes for their habits and hangups) can help you give that person the right to be who they are in advance of sharing a meal with them.
It's taking a cue from Jesus when he said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" when he was suffering at the hands of people who didn't get it. Taking care of this "in advance" can give you some buffer in your soul for someone. Having that inner buffer can go a long way.
Tip #3 Bless
When I was angry with someone in my life that had hurt my family, I asked a pastor at Eastside how I could get past it. He said, "Pray for a blessing to come to them, one they desperately want right now".
I was both astonished and annoyed by his counsel until he told me this: It is impossible to pray blessings on someone and be angry with them at the same time.
I tried it. He was right. You try it. You'll be surprised.
Plus, it makes you like Jesus who said, "If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?" (Matthew 5:46-47)
Praying blessings for a person under your breath on Thanksgiving, or doing something for them that they particularly love may change their demeanor. But even if it doesn't, it'll change yours.
An opportunity:
You've heard it said that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. So during this Thanksgiving season, how about choosing to find some additional relationships to fortify what God is doing in you these days? This can offset the challenging people and situations in your life in a very felt way for you.
That's why I am inviting you to join (or finish) Next Steps this November. Step 1 begins this weekend. In 4 steps, you will connect with concepts and people that will strengthen you against more than just a difficult relative over a meal. They will influence you toward better things as you head into 2022.
And that's something to be thankful about. Click here to find the times at your Eastside campus.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!