LifePoint Church of Ruston: LifePoint Believes In Fellowship

LifePoint Values:
Prayer that connects us with God
Bible Truths as the guide for life
Fellowship that connects us as a family

The following paragraph is the voice over from the 1956 trailer of The Lone Ranger.

The Lonely Ranger
(The Lone Ranger theme,“El Cine del Oeste”, playing in the background)

The west, in the lusty days when the surge of civilization pushed onward to broader horizons and a mighty breed of man followed a new light from the wilderness. But close on the pioneer trail came the renegade hoards, land sharks, highwaymen, cattle thieves terrorizing settler and tribesman alike. Until one man rose to challenge their lawlessness, his face masked, his true identity unknown. Accompanied always by a faithful Indian companion he thundered across the frontier, appearing out of nowhere to strike down injustice, his sign, a silver bullet, his name, “The Lone Ranger.”

The Lone Ranger concept that says, we don’t need any help when facing adversity and can overcome whatever comes our way solo. This concept makes for great 1950’s entertainment, but is actually a much flawed philosophy for life. Life can, at times, fling so many dodge-balls at our head that eventually one is going to catch us right in the kisser. To quote a famous bumper sticker, “Stuff Happens.” Divorce happens, loss of loved ones happens, financial peril happens, four dollar gasoline happens, health problems happens. Life happens. When life happens on this scale, the Lone Ranger becomes nothing more than a lame poser in a weird outfit.

This adversity of which I speak happens to everyone, but not everyone handles it the same. It, to some, is their undoing. Trying times has driven more than its fair share to alcoholism, prescription drug addiction, or an extramarital affair. At the same time, others handle trials and tribulation with grace, soldier on, and become better human beings because of it. Usually, the variable that decides which statistic will be is whether or not they handle the circumstance alone or rely on the strength of others. People that have a support system usually come out on top.
We can go all the way back to the story of creation for evidence that humans were not designed to bear the weight of life alone.

The Creation Story On Fellowship
The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.(Genesis 2:20)

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. (Genesis 2:21)

The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:22)

Sure, Adam needed God, but God was of the opinion that he also needed Eve. You and I are much the same way. First and foremost we need God, but we also need one another. As Eve was the earthly help mate for Adam, I believe the church functions in much the same way for us. With that in mind, we at LifePoint Church desire to be a group of people that bear one another’s burdens.

Jathan Seeing Things
Don’t stop reading, God showed me a vision about 10 years ago that sums up the spirit of this article. While I was praying during an altar service at a student camp, suddenly I got a very clear picture in my mind of a huge caravan of people on foot. Judging by their generally haggard appearance, these people had been on a journey for quite some time. The unique thing about the situation is that some of the people were on stretchers, in wheelchairs, bandaged up, and obviously not healthy enough to make the journey without assistance. The remainder of the group, the healthy people, were pushing the wheelchairs, carrying the stretchers, and putting an arm under the shoulders of the lame to help them walk. After a few moments of this scene, suddenly, Jesus descended from the heavens and sat down on a throne in front of the caravan. At the very moment that Jesus appeared the sick were instantly healed and the whole group ran to the throne and fell prostrate in worship. It was quite an emotionally moving scene and an experience that I'll never forget. You may think I’m weird, but in the words of Collin Raye “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.”

The moral of the vision is that if we, as followers of Christ, are going to reach the glorious end of our journey, we will only do so with the help of others. If we live long enough, we will find ourselves on the stretcher. If we live even longer, we will look down to see our strengthened hands wrapped around the handles of the same stretcher, bearing the weight of someone else. God's purpose of that vision a decade ago was to give me a lasting metaphor for the spirit of fellowship that should be present among His followers, one that I believe was present in the early church.

The Early Church

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together or, assuredly we shall all hang separately.” The early church was a group of people that hung together. They ate together, they prayed together, and they bore one another’s burdens. When Peter was put into prison, they gathered together in one of their houses and prayed successfully for his deliverance. When a mob had plotted to murder Paul, they successfully countered with a plot to actually hide Paul in a basket and smuggle him out of town. They pooled their money and divvied it out to those who were in need. Present in the original church the DNA of the early church was a spirit of fellowship that connected them as a family.

Even though the times and our culture are much different than the book of Acts saints, the manner in which we relate to and rely on one another should not be. From its inception, inherent in the church was a spirit of fellowship that served as a beautiful and much needed support system for life. At LifePoint Church, it is our desire to follow suite and be a safe haven located right smack in the middle of a world that can sometimes be a house of horrors.

God Bless,

Jathan Maricelli

This was a week of coaching for LifePoint church. This is my mom "conferencing" into the meeting.

Paul Trentacoste speaking in our midweek service.

The gang back together again. Paul, Jathan, Sarah, and Maurisha

Sarah and the kids in our breakfast room

We had church in my house this Sunday! It rocked! The air conditioner worked and we didn't have to have church at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The acoustics were also great which made worship really fun.

Maurisha acting like she's working during the coaching session