The Story is a condensed chronological BIBLE that we will read together during this next season, discovering how our story fits into HIS STORY.

As an abridged, chronological Bible, The Story reads like a novel. There are no verse references, and Scripture segments are seamlessly woven together with a transition text into a single narrative.

For people new to the Bible, this way of reading reduces the intimidation one can feel when approaching the full length bible and it gives them a holistic sequential picture of the storyline of Scripture.  For seasoned bible veterans the chronological arrangement of the essential texts reveals the way the whole bible fits together in a single grand narrative.

A Children’s worker said “The job of THE STORY is not to replace the BIBLE but to direct you to the BIBLE.”

This is a really important thing for you to hear: This won’t be replacing all of our bibles here at Lifestreams.

So how is it going to work in the life of the church and how can you get INVOLVED?  Here are some things that you need to know

• During this next season we encourage you to make church a priority each Sunday. There will be shorter mini-series throughout the campaign.  This will help maintain interest because the campaign will go for 31 weeks.  In fact it will be longer because we will be doing Old Testament for the rest of this year with short breaks and we will finish the year off with the birth of Christ at Christmas time and then we will pick up the life of Jesus just before Easter 2016, then celebrate Easter and then a few weeks after that we will finish with revelation.
   
• The book and resources will be available for you to buy in the foyer over the first few weeks and also available online.  The Hardcopy is $25, the Teen copy is $17 and they are basically the same. There are also ebooks versions with the adult version costing $14.99 and the teen version at $7.99. 
  
  There are also Children’s resources available at various prices.  Feel free to have a look in the foyer on a Sunday, or contact the church office for more details. 
  
  Please hear this: you don’t have to buy them! We can’t make you anyway, but we thought that you might like a copy so that we can move together in unity throughout this church wide campaign.  If you don’t buy a copy you will obviously still be able to follow along with your bible. 
  
  REMEMBER: The Job of THE STORY is not to replace the BIBLE but to direct you to the BIBLE
   
• There will be Small group questions each week and if you would like to join a small group this is a great opportunity to do so.  Please indicate on a care card and Matt will assist you in finding one or we will start some new ones.
   
• For Families and Children we would encourage you to read the STORY together.  The children’s ministry will continue with their orange curriculum but will use the story throughout the year
   
• Lastly THE STORY is going to be great and our Journey together has the potential to further grow us into mature Kingdom Life disciples.  We don’t want you to miss a week so if you can’t make a morning we encourage you to be here at night or to n dedownload it from our Messages Online so that you don’t miss out.

Reading and understanding God’s Word is such an important part of our Kingdom Lives and we look forward to seeing how God will grow us and help us become well developed disciples not deficient in any way, fully alive like Jesus, through this church wide campaign. We believe this is an exciting opportunity for our church at this time. Can we encourage you, please adjust whatever is necessary to go for it, jump in and be involved. Others can benefit from your presence in the group. Please pray with us that God will use this for His kingdom purposes in ways that go beyond our expectations.