AWANA
AWANA is an acronym which stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed as taken from 2 Timothy 2:15.
The AWANA Club at Heart of the Springs Church is very active, with leaders and youth helpers ministering to the clubbers every week. AWANA at our church reaches kids ages 3yrs through 8th grade. We meet on Wednesday nights from 6:15 to 8:00pm. Many of our clubbers are friends and neighbors of our kids, making AWANA a valuable outreach ministry. A number of our youth helpers and leaders have grown up in AWANA, some in our Club, and now they are ministering to children and returning the blessing that they once received.
Our AWANA meetings are filled with energy, fellowship and spiritual growth. Each of our children’s clubs has its own unique meeting format, but in general AWANA meetings feature three main segments: Game Time, Handbook Time and Council Time.
Game Time is comprised of exciting circle games exclusive to AWANA that are a popular draw for all children. Council Time is a large-group setting consisting of praise and worship, Bible teaching, awards, announcements, and presentation of the gospel. Handbook Time provides small-group interaction, recitation of Scripture that kids learned during the week, friendship building and opportunities for leaders to mentor children and help them understand the Bible verses they memorize.
Children/Nursery
Mark 10:14-16 “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”
This ministry exists to share the Love of Jesus with the children. As they mature the lessons and teaching grow in complexity, giving them a deeper understanding of Jesus, and how he wants to be their Lord and King. Each child in the Nursery gets loved and cared for, learning that Church is a safe place to make friends and express themselves. As they grow the sharing time increases and they are taught Bible stories and how God loves and provides for His people.
College
The vision for HOTS on Fire College Ministry is completely in line with the church's vision statement:
"HOTS on Fire's purpose is to know, love, and glorify God and in dependence upon Him raise up disciple makers to help reach our campuses, cities, states, and the Nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We exist to serve Heart of the Springs Church and our community. Whether on campus or in the workplace, we are striving to impact our world with the love of Christ, embracing His examples, and striving for excellence in our lives.
Galatians 5:6...'Neither circumcision not uncircumcision really matters; what matters most is faith expressing itself in love.'
Edison
The ministry to Edison Elementary School began in the fall of 2002 when the church leadership expressed a desire to provide opportunities for members of Heart of the Springs Church to reach out with Christ's love to the community. A teacher who attended our church and had worked with a low socio-economic population of students, many of whom were English as second language learners, suggested that the church 'adopt' a local elementary school and Edison Elementary was selected. After meeting with the principal and agreeing to follow all protocols, Heart of the Springs Church volunteered to support the school with no strings attached.
What our support looks like:
1. Working through the school's psychologist, our members provide Christmas packages to children whose parents requested support from the school but were on a waiting list with no alternative in sight
2. During annual State testing our congregation supplied sharpened pencils and new pink erasers for the students, as well as food for the teachers' lounge
3. Some workers cleaned the student’s desks one Saturday morning
4. We printed a newsletter of 'special events to do this summer' that included everything from local museums and library events to Vacation Bible School programs
5. Loving members volunteered to help teachers pack up their classrooms at the conclusion of the school year
The ministry at Edison Elementary is truly a ministry of service. Heart of the Springs Church serves the children by supplying little things that make them smile, the families by supplying material items that can ease their financial burdens, and the staff by supplying moral support that enables them to give back to the children all over again. We believe that these acts of service can enable the hearts of the children, the families, and the staff at Edison to truly feel God's love and His desire to meet their needs, and can serve as a counterbalance to any negative views of Christians that may otherwise serve as stumbling blocks in their paths to find Jesus. We believe that a new winter coat, a new pencil for a test, or a brownie in the teachers' lounge can sometimes say more about the love of Christ than words can express.
Manor
This ministry serves elderly at the Pikes Peak Care Center directly across the street from our church. The Manor Ministry, as we have come to call it, has been a part of this church for many years.
We provide a loving church service, which usually includes a gospel message, every Sunday morning at 10:00 am. We utilize volunteers each Sunday morning at 9:30 to help bring residents to church services. We have an average of 40-50 residents attending every Sunday. As their pastor, I have seen a number of these dear people in their 80's and 90's come to Christ, sometimes just weeks, or days before they died. It is so important that they hear the gospel and have opportunity to respond before they die. God gives them that opportunity through this ministry. The Holy Spirit has really been working at the Manor. Please, pray for us.
Men
We offer a time for the men of Heart of the Springs to gather and fellowship. The focus of the ministry is a non-threatening, fun environment where men can bring their friends for a good time and the sharing of God’s Word. We have recently been working through the series “The Quest for Authentic Manhood!” as a Sunday school class. This season we will be looking at how we can use the talents God has given each of us to help others in our church Family, our Community, and on Mission Trips. Common events are the Men’s Saturday breakfasts, summer outings, and a Fall retreat.
Middle School
Heart of the Springs Church Middle School ministry, Gravity JV, is a thriving group of 6th-8th grade students and their fearless leaders. Our Sunday time together is for Bible study while our Wednesday AWANA Trek night incorporates games and small group interaction along with a time spent in the Word. To build community, a once a month time of fellowship is planned throughout the year (skating, tubing, swimming, scavenger hunts, etc.). To serve our community we also plan a quarterly service project to encourage the kids to look beyond themselves, and not only see the needs of others, but create a willingness to meet those needs as well. We are blessed to have a great group of committed students and adult leadership that seek to reflect Jesus to each other and show Jesus to those around us.
Missions
The Missions Team exists to assist each ministry within Heart of the Springs Church. We get together once a month to share prayers and praises with one another, and we exchange ideas and gather feedback from each other regarding mission opportunities.
We are currently helping with the Children’s church program that is presenting a missional message to students. We are working to get the Oasis to be used more effectively to highlight Heart of the Springs Church missions mindedness, as well as taking full advantage of being the “first face seen” on Sunday mornings. We are working on a presentation to the Pikes Peak Baptist Association, and the State Convention, regarding local church involvement in missions. Our team seeks members who would like to, first hand, experience the blessing of missions through prayer or participation. Finally, we actively communicate through e-mail or phone calls; sharing prayer requests and celebrating praises, within our body of believers, and with missionaries overseas.
Oasis
The Oasis is a ministry that primarily raises money for missionaries in China. We make espresso drinks, tea, smoothies (seasonal), and sell soda and water. All profits are used to help the people in an area of China, which we refer to as Jubilee. A secondary function of the Oasis is to greet people that come to our church. We are some of the first faces that people see as they com in the doors of the building. We also tend to be a welcome desk where people come to ask questions. We are open on Sunday mornings and during special events.
Sunday School
Heart of the Springs Church wants to equip you to live a victorious Christian life. To that end, we offer Sunday morning classes to help develop Disciples of Christ. Classes begin for those in the Nursery and continue through Adults.
Women
We minister to women at Heart of the Springs Church in their various walks of life. We provide fellowship opportunities to build and nurture relationships through Fall Retreat, Monthly Chick Flicks gathering nights, and Spring Refresh-Her (an enrichment event designed to build community around new skills or hobbies). We encourage women to grow spiritually through Bible study and mentoring relationships. We encourage women to seek out mentoring relationships. We will soon have a charter MOPS group (Mother's Of Pre-Schoolers) that will meet off-site. We are working with the HOTS on Fire College Ministry to discover a way to forge mentoring relationships with college aged women. We also support/serve other ministries such as the Manor residents and Edison. Together, we work to minister to the church body as needs present themselves.
Worship Team
Our hearts and knees are bent toward worship. At Heart of the Springs Church we engage the heart of God, we look for the heart of God, He looks for us as we gather on Sunday mornings. John Piper said, "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth." We desperately want to have grateful hearts for who God is, not just for what He has done. We generally take about 20-30 minutes each Sunday and reflect back to God our gratefulness through music. We utilize a modern worship format; songs and prayers that are sung by churches all over America and the world. We praise and worship. Our desire is for God to be glorified and for we, His people, to gather as a reflection of our hearts and lives that have been worshiping in the big and small all week long. We desire to live lives of worship each moment, and then gather on Sunday to give back.
William Temple, Former Archbishop of Cantebury says this of worship, "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." Our team is made up of people with worshippers hearts. It is our sincerest privilege to be part of a group that worships hard and invites others to journey into something that we call worship.
David Crowder, singer songwriter, likens how we "do" worship today as attempting to describe how an atom looks. We truly do not actually know how an atom looks, but we have a symbol for the atom and we try....we hope that our form of worship is pleasing to God, in all honesty we don't know if the way we "do" worship is His complete design for us. We are open, He is dynamic. We want to please him.
Youth
The Gravity Youth Ministry is Heart of the Springs church ministry to students in grades six through 12. We operate two distinctly different Ministries under the name Gravity. Gravity JV is our ministry to Middle School students (grades 6 – 8), and Gravity High School is, of course, for High School students (grades 9 – 12). Because of the strong differences between sixth grade boys and twelfth grade girls, we believe that two separate ministries work best to meet the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of our students. Our Middle School Ministry, Gravity JV, meets on Sunday mornings at 9:00 for Sunday School, and on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for AWANA Trek. Our Gravity High School Ministry meets on Sunday mornings at 9:00 for Sunday School, and we offer guys and girls Home Bible Studies scheduled throughout the week.
The goals of the Gravity Youth Ministry are to:
Care for others within God’s family.
Reach unbelieving students for Christ.
Offer our lives to God in authentic worship.
Share in God’s Word through actively participating in Bible Study.
Serve God by serving others.
