How to get the most out of your Home Team!

Home Teams are kicking off this week! If you've not yet signed up, we've got a great line up. Whether you've been coming to Church at the Bay for 3 years or for 3 weeks, joining a Home Team is the best way to get involved and to connect with other Christians. Check out the catalog if you haven't yet chosen a Home Team.

Once you've committed to a Home Team, here are some ways to get the most out of yours: 

1) Commit to attending regularly. Weeknights can be rough, especially for those of us who are working full-time or are mommies with dinner, homework and schedules to keep up with. Resolve in your heart that this commitment will be worth it and that you're modeling to your kids the priority God has in your life. And then, just do it!

2) Push yourself out of your Comfort Zone. It's easy to show up, sit back and let the real "talkers" in the group dominate conversation. Go ahead and take some risks! Allow yourself to try answering the more vulnerable or difficult questions, even if it means you preface your answer with, "I'm not sure this answers the question, but..." Your authenticity could change the dynamic of the conversation that night, leading everyone else to a more meaningful dialogue.

3) Grab coffee or lunch with another Home Team member once a month. You already have a lot in common with the other people in your Home Team--you go to Church at the Bay, you're interested in your Home Team's curriculum, and you're probably in a similar life stage. Take your friendships to the next level by investing in time outside of Home Team and Church to get to know them better. 

4) Reflect on the Home Team challenges during the week. If there's homework--do it! Whether it's a relational challenge or a chapter to read, make a realistic plan to complete your homework before the next Home Team's meeting. If there's not assigned homework, make sure you're taking the time each day to reflect on the content discussed in Home Team. When God moves you, whether it's a challenge to change, or a promise that comforts, let it "marinate" that week by taking time to reflect and pray. 

With these four commitments, and a heart open to new friendships and God's challenges, you're sure to have a meaningful Home Team semester! 

Women's Home Teams start this Week!

Hello CATB ladies,

I'm excited to be leading a 'ladies only' Home Team in my home starting this Thursday night @ 7pm.

For the next 4 weeks, we will be exploring some basic truths in taking the next steps to becoming a woman of greater faith.  If you are a new believer, new to Bible study, new to CATB, or just want to connect with other woman for support and encouragement, please join us. Please bring a Bible and notepad.

Email me to sign up and receive directions to my house! 

Michele Laccabue

mlaccabue@tampabay.rr.com

Hi Ladies, 

I'm leading a women's home team for the next 4 weeks, using a video curriculum by Andy Stanley called Judgment Call. We'll talk about how to discern when to speak up in our friends' lives and how we can help those in difficult or tempting situations. We'll be challenged to greater accountability and support in our Christian friendships. 

We're meeting on Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m. Please email me for directions and to sign up.

Sandy Mayer

sandy@churchatthebay.com 

No More Excuses, by Sandy Mayer

Have you ever read the Bible and thought, “Didn’t this happen earlier?” Well, I have started reading the Bible in chronological order and I’m excited about how it will come together. Each time I read and study the Bible, God speaks to me differently. It’s been at least 15 years since I have read it from Genesis to Revelation.

I started reading Exodus this week and was convicted by the continual excuses Moses gives God. God asks Moses to be His voice to ask Pharaoh to release the suffering Israelites. Moses gives God a few excuses: “Who am I; What if they ask me who sent me; What if they don’t listen to me; Oh, Lord, please send someone else to do it.” Do these excuses sound familiar?

My heart had a sinking feeling and I had to ask for forgiveness for thinking Moses was a wimp. I remember thinking, how could Moses not do what God wanted? God spoke DIRECTLY to Moses.

But then I have realized these are the same excuses I have used with God for CATB. I am not an eloquent speaker or writer. What if they don’t listen to what I try to teach? What if I embarrass myself and my husband? I don’t have the ‘pastor’s wife look.’ God can’t you use someone else…please…please…please?

It has been easy to hide and stay in the background for so many years. Don’t get me wrong, I have served in places where I wasn’t noticed, like being the director of Preschool, and teaching in the children’s area. But I haven’t been the ‘mother of a church,’ as some may call the pastor’s wife. Those are shoes God is slowing filling. So why am I sharing this side of me? Because I think all of us have a ministry and God is asking you to go beyond what you are doing now. Whether becoming a new mother, starting a new job, leading a hometeam, or raising and teaching your children in your every day routine…God is over all our real and silly excuses.

Throughout Exodus God continues to speak to Moses and was always with him. He didn’t give up on Moses and hasn’t given up on me. Praise God!!!

God is always with you, and remember His thoughts are higher than ours are.

He said, “Sandy quit stressing over all those excuses, just do what you know to do and I will take care of your inadequacies. Love the women at CATB and know that your mission is to lead them to Jesus.”

God, please guide me to do whatever it takes to help CATB bring people to Christ. Help me to lead. I don’t want my excuses using me. Keep my focus on You and who You are, and not on my circumstances.

When My Faith Feels Cold, by Dawn Camp

When My Faith Feels Cold

I lead a fairly insulated life. Many of life's bigger temptations don't come into my path on a regular basis.

Money is always a struggle with our large family, but no major calamities have befallen us recently.


Although I count my blessings for this calm state of affairs, sometimes my faith feels cold.

Trials and temptations draw me closer to God when faced with the limits of my understanding and ability to deal with problems on my own. In the absence of larger struggles, however, I tend to rely on myself too much and Him too little.

Unfortunately, it's sometimes difficult to break that pattern of self-reliance.

I don't know about you, but when things are going well I don't have the courage to ask for adversity to deepen my relationship and dependence on Him.

James 4:8 tells us, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." What an amazing thing to know that the God of the universe is there for me: for fellowship, confession, comfort.

When I recognize a coldness creeping into my relationship with Him, I pray this simple prayer, "Lord, my faith is cold and weak. Please draw me nigh unto you and draw nigh unto me."

And He does.

by Dawn Camp, My Home Sweet Home

4 Days Left to RSVP!

Hey Ladies! 

We've got 4 days left to RSVP for the last Dinner and Devo's of the summer. 

The deadline is Sunday, August 8. 

On August 14, from 5:00-8:00 p.m., we'll get together for a fabulous Italian dinner, fun games and conversation around the week's theme of Community. The cost is $10 to cover dinner.

Sign up by emailing catbladies@churchatthebay.com to reserve your spot, sign up for the devotions and receive directions.

We already have 18 RSVP's and we'd love for you to join us and bring a friend!

Refuting Satan's Lies, by Chrissy Mayer

Satan would love for us to believe the lie "not good enough." It's the oldest trick in the book and yet it takes such a devastating toll on women of all ages. When we are distracted by insecurities, our confidence takes an immediate nose dive into the pit of self consciousness. This simple yet perfected trick of Satan has deceived our sisters since God's first daughter walked the earth.

2 Corinthians 11:3
"I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion of Christ."

Just because we have been told of our security in Christ since we became believers, it doesn't mean that we have really accepted and believed His affirmations of us. Furthermore, we are bombarded everyday and from every direction with messages telling us the exact contrary to what God has told us about each and every one of us...that WE are special, unique, and created in His image to do GREAT THINGS. It is an almost daily and sometimes hourly task to GET OVER OURSELVES and be reminded of our royal heritage.

The point here, Satan told Eve a life-altering lie, and she fell for it. YOU fall for it...WE have all fallen for it. Her consciousness changed immediately and she was thrown into the sinking sands of constant 'self-reflection'. And not the healthy self-reflection! The type of self-reflection in which we compare ourselves to anyone and ask subconsciously "how do we measure up?”. Man is this tiring! I had to take a deep breath even as I typed that last bit. Eve became ashamed of her body and ashamed of who she was: facing a life of continuous stress and disappointment. Believing this lie was the death of sister Eve ladies!

Life-altering lies that Satan wants you to believe:
You're not smart enough
You're boring
You're too old
You're too young
You're not pretty
You're not talented
You're not worth pursuing
You're useless for the Kingdom of God

How many of these lies have you believed at one point in time?

Something that God spoke to me about recently dealt with this very subject but from a very different angle...

Upon reading Ephesians 4:21-24 and Ephesians 4:1-4 (this is a very good book) I heard God say,

Why are you still wasting your time with these things? Aren't you tired? You don't have to live like this you know!
Wait just a second...I don't have to live like this? I thought this was just something that all women deal with and that we just have to learn to cope?!

Then I came to the realization that these things, these insecurities, these little rulers that I put in front of myself in any given situation are in fact sending a horrible message to the world that I too, though claiming to be a child of God, am living a life in bondage! But as I read these verses and heard the quiet steadfast spirit of God tell me, “LET IT GO,” I also began to see how some of my insecurities have even held me back from serving Him...and that was the hardest bit to swallow! As these verses state, the world’s illusions have already been revealed to us. As children of God we are to no longer act, think, speak like we don't know any better, and each one of us has been SPECIFICALLY CALLED TO NOW WALK WORTHY OF OUR PURPOSE! With our heads held high, because we have ALREADY been deemed worthy, we are to live a life of example of what freedom in His truth looks like, especially to other women that He has purposed to be within our spheres of influence!

So would you like more productive thoughts to occupy your mind? I know I do! Write down these verses and stick them somewhere where you will see them (I have them in my car). When Satan tries to distract you, confront the lie with scripture, combat his deceit with prayer.

Colossians 3:2 says that we are to set our minds on things above and concentrate on such things.

So, sisters, be purposeful on what you allow to enter your mind! Repeat His truth and walk in the freedom of knowing YOU are highly favored!

What lies have you let yourself believe?
What insecurities have kept you from serving God in any way?

Ask God's forgiveness for believing lies over His truth.
Tell Him the insecurities you struggle with.
Share one of your insecurities with a good friend and talk with one another about a specific way to replace that lie with Truth.