Is Community worth giving your life?

I am seriously loving this season of my life! I LOVE the church I get to pastor, KV East Saint John in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  By the grace of God, I want to give the rest of my life in building the church in my city. The biggest reason in my heart is that the people here need to have their confidence restored in authentic kingdom community.

Kingdom Community? 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done in earth,

As it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen

Lord, we pray let your kingdom come & your will be done on earth as in heaven.

We pray let the government of heaven have it’s way here in Saint John

We pray let the culture of heaven flood our lives & relationships. 

The kingdom of heaven involves a “culture” reflecting life on earth as it is in heaven. Don’t make the mistake of pushing heaven to somewhere we go when we die. It is true that we do have the promise of being there after we die by faith in Jesus. But the good news that Jesus announced was that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near… here on earth. And so the prayer he taught his followers reflects that same good news.

Kingdom Community is unique in that it is community that is flooded by the culture of heaven.

I preached the following sermon on March 1, 2015 based on a letter written from prison by the Apostle Paul. In it, he stokes a fire in the hearts of the Church (community of Jesus) in the port city of Ephesus. Hope it stokes a fire in YOU! Click on the title to listen: “Living in Kingdom Community

Does Jesus know you?

Anyone who takes the time to read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John will see Jesus calling people out to authenticity. Realness, legitimacy, being genuine… these are often way undervalued in our lives.

Jesus was and is controversial! He is revolutionary and life altering. Dealing with him will change you at the deepest levels. The good news is that the transformation is actually a metamorphosis. The real you will emerge.

What happens when you encounter Jesus? You may not want to be aware of it, but the Holy Spirit is constantly drawing you to meet up with Jesus in a million different ways in your everyday life. He is where you least expect him to be.

When I encounter Jesus I can’t pretend. All of my “Imposter” ways are exposed and I am struck by the fact that He only wants the real me. In fact Jesus sees all of my pretending as evil and dangerous. He invites me to grow up into full maturity as the man I was created to be by putting my trust in Him.

There is a key teaching from Jesus recorded in Matt 7:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

When I encounter Jesus today I want Him to be able to say, “I know you”. He does in fact complete know me. But I have learned that he isn’t going to allow me to fake it. The “Imposter” me won’t survive in the glory of who Jesus is. He is going to draw authenticity to the surface of my life every time! And I know that He will use whatever means needed to shape my identity through His knowledge of me.

May you be blessed today by Jesus full awareness and knowledge of you and may you have the courage by His grace to surrender to it!

Happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY KV East!!

OCTOBER 2014 is our One Year Anniversary month!

God has done huge things for us in only our first year of existence. God is good all the time and ALL the time God is good!!

3 quick things that I would LOVE for you to plug into this month:

ONE:

Please provide your name & best contact info (phone & email) as part our growing church community. My personal goal for October is to gather at least 100 names & solid contact info for my own use in getting to know & serve you better. I am at 32 right now! You can email me at danclamos@gmail.com, text or call me at 506-650-2600 or fill out a contact card at church on Sunday. We will be entering all of the contact cards completed on the Sundays in October in a weekly draw for a cool prize!

TWO:

INVITE ALL (our as many as you can) of your friends to join us for church on Sunday, October 12, 10:30 am Cineplex SJ for our One year Celebration Sunday (click here for event details) . I will be preaching live about “LOVE”, Jeremy Lamos will be painting, we will worship with live band Pastor Josiah & KV Worship, & we will have CAKE!

THREE:

Join us for a POTLUCK Lunch right after church on Sunday, October 26 @ Glen Falls Elementary School on Rothesay Ave (click here to confirm). Bring your friends & a dish to share! It’s gonna be a blast!! & We will take our FIRST ANNUAL group picture! We DON’T want you to miss being in that shot!

SEE YOU THERE!! 

What happens when God looks at East Saint John?

SJ Baptism in Kings Square

What do you believe happens when God looks at East Saint John? What does He see? KV East Saint John is a church community bringing glory to God and making disciples of Jesus. We know that we can’t do either of those things without God being with us through the Holy Spirit. In all of our relationships, strategic planning, teaching, initiatives, all of it, we know it is about His vision not ours.

God has called us into being as a church community. I am in awe of the way The Father has blessed us in our first year of existence! But it’s not just for us to enjoy. He has called us to partner with Him in blessing the Saint John region for the glory of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that God’s burning passion is for us to make Jesus Name bigger than anything else in the life of our city. What does that mean for us? Here is the link to my message from Vision Sunday : click on this title to listen to:

Letting God’s Vision Shape KV East .

In this teaching time, I share what I believe God wants to  do through us.

As we grow as a family partnering with God in East Saint John our hearts will burn to see:

directionless families & individuals become followers of Jesus 

people running free from darkness into the light of God’s kingdom family

a growing church family receiving and living a fresh expression of God’s kingdom here where we live

Stoked for the future! Visit kingsvalley.ca/east to discover more about us.

 

Stoked about our growing KV Church Community!

On October 20, 2013 KV Church launched our first multi-site campus. On that day, KV East was born! The vision for KV East is to be part of one church meeting in more than one location. So, every Sunday morning @ 10:30 we host a worship gathering for all ages. We meet at Cineplex in East Saint John.

I love serving as the overseeing pastor of this growing community of Jesus followers committed to worshiping.serving.multiplying.connecting! On Sunday we join for coffee, friendship, worship with a young & alive worship band & hear from our lead pastor Brent Ingersoll on the theatre screen. We are discovering that our worship incense is the smell of buttered popcorn!!

Last week we launched into our summer sermon series: “JOSHUA:The Occupy Movement”! Through it God challenged me that “This is the moment when KV East takes possession of what God has promised”!

I am stoked about two things:

– seeing WHO God brings together to accomplish the mission we are designed to accomplish

–  discovering together in community HOW God is going to accomplish that mission

with us!

Update: Getting activated as KV Family Pastor

The past few weeks have been on fire with excitement and energy as we have welcomed our new youth pastor, Del Heiney to  the Kings Valley pastor team! He is such a great fit and God has already been blessing all of us as Pastor Del has engaged with the students and families of KV Church.

The biggest blessing for me is that I am able to fully embrace my ministry assignment as Family Pastor. Pastor Brent Ingersoll and the LBA created this position in the Fall of 2012 and I am honored and excited  that Brent asked me to serve in this capacity! I gladly accepted the temporary role of leading KV Youth Middle & High School ministries from Nov 2012 – present during the youth pastor search process. During that time period it was necessary for me to put my Family Pastor responsibilities on hold.  With Del arriving as youth pastor I was able to immediately reconnect with my role.

I love pastoring and there is absolutely no doubt in me that God has called me to partner with Pastor Brent and the pastor team to serve our KV Church family in this way.

As Family Pastor, here is a general description of my core responsibilities: Pastoral Care (hospital visits, counselling, home visits), Prayer Ministry (FUEL, prayer teams), Family Ministry (equipping parents & families as disciple makers) as well as helping families by conducting milestone events (child dedications, weddings, funerals).  In the spirit of building a disciple making community, I will be intentionally seeking out and building teams to serve in each of these areas. I would love to hear from you if you are curious and/or have a burn in your heart to get involved!

We are in an amazing season in the life of Kings Valley! There are very fulfilling days of life and expansion for the kingdom ahead of us. We have all witnessed the grace of God on Pastor Brent and every member of the pastor team. It is our desire to help every person associated with Kings Valley to get activated in worship, loving others, making disciples and living together in kingdom community. By God’s grace I am hitting the ground running in helping you get activated as a child of God serving His kingdom in your everyday life!

I am blessed beyond words and stoked to have this opportunity to serve you as Family Pastor! Feel free to contact me: email: dan.lamos@kingsvalley.ca, text or phone: 506-650-2600.

Grace & Peace,

Dan