Memorial Day for me means summer is here and Amy allows me to wear white and Hawaiian shirts. Actually, she has removed all of my Hawaiian shirts from the closet. Guess that means only white.

Sunday we start our summer series called Dear Son: I have some things I want to say to you. This will be a verse-by-verse study of 1 Timothy. It would be great for all of us to work ahead in the book. Paul has some strong things he shares with young Timothy and we need to hear them as well.

This Sunday is the last day for collecting Nicaragua supplies. Thank you so much for the support for both Nicaragua and Haiti. We all need to pray for our team headed to Nicaragua on June 4th. On June 13th, the team will be back and part of the Sunday morning service.

“Moving on Up” is this Sunday. The kids are moving up to their next grade in school at Woodland Hills. The signs will be out to remind you as you walk in.

I love being your pastor and I so appreciate the elders who lead this church. As one of the family members, thank you for your heart for Jesus and this church.

See you Sunday!

Blessings,

Ted C

Movin’ On Up day is quickly approaching us (May 30). In order to prepare your family, we’re providing you a step-by-step guide to how the day will flow.

You can download it here:

http://bit.ly/cgbqMH

You won’t want to miss this event-filled day. It’s going to be a blast.

This has been a very sad week. Trigger is gone. They lifted him up with a crane and loaded him on the back of trailer and drover off. Someone from Woodland Hills spotted him headed West on HWY 44. That is fitting. He rode off into the sunset. No longer will we be able to say, “We are the street that meets across from the anatomically correct Trigger.” But we still meet in a purple castle. I hope that does not change anytime soon.

We have finished mapping out the teaching schedule for the rest of 2010. This month we launch Dear Son: I Have Some Things I Want to Say to You (our study of 1 Timothy). We’re going to follow that up with Dear Son II: I Have Some More things I Want to Say to You (2 Timothy). On Oct 17, we start The Greatest Words Ever Spoken (the teachings of Christ). 20 other churches will be launching this series alongside us.

This Sunday we start a special 3 part series called Men at the Cross. We will be dedicating babies, taking the Lord’s Supper and honoring moms. Whew…we got a lot going on. Sunday is “Bring Your Mom to Church” day. HONOR her in a big way! If you make her pay for lunch at all this week, you will spend a minimum of 2 years in purgatory.

See you Sunday!

Blessings,

Ted C

Our family ministry team just got back from the Orange Conference in Atlanta, GA. My wife, Amy, along with Stephanie Watson, Brenda Pannell, and Angela Jennings joined more than 4,000 church leaders at this year’s event. They came back on what I like to call a “conference high.” There is something contagious about being around 1,000′s of like-minded leaders who have the same passion and philosophy of ministry. You always walk away feeling that you are not insane for what you believe way down deep in your soul.

My wife will spend the next several weeks “downloading” to me about the conference. It started last night and continued into breakfast this morning. Let me give some of the details in bulleted form…

1. In the church, 90% of salvation decisions take place before the age of 18.

2. Therefore, children’s ministry needs the priority in budgets and staffing.

3. The home, not the church, is the single greatest influence in the life of a child.

4. We must parent beyond our capacity by having 5 key adults in the life of our child to help influence and guide.

5. We need only passionate influencers serving in our children’s ministry (no more warm bodies).

I could go on, but our church has been validated in our strong vision and emphasis on family. WHFC exists to inspire the family to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We exist to partner with families to influence mom, dad and children.

We have much to look forward to this May and summer. On Mother’s Day we launch a brand new series called “Men at the Cross.” This is a pre-launch of our summer series “Dear Son”, a verse-by-verse look at the book of 1 Timothy. These two series will help dads and moms disciple their children and help us raise up leaders in the church.

Thank you Woodland Hills for your continued support of Haiti! I am looking forward to being a part of rebuilding that country and helping the families and children in that part of God’s world. If you wouldn’t mind, head to our website’s online giving page and give a gift to Haiti right now. Let’s help these kids and give them a shot at life!!!

Give online!

Blessings,

Ted C

I am working today on my last message in our Dear Church series. Ephesians has been such a rich book for us this winter and spring. I now know why they call it the Cadilac of Paul’s New Testament letters. I have been inspired to read 1 Timothy (which is where we are headed this summer). With Ephesians as a backdrop, I now appreciate this letter to young Timothy even more.

Every church needs to be reminded of our spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians). We also need to grow and lead the church as well (1 Timothy). I can’t wait to dive into this book. I hope this summer is a time where leaders in our church can be discovered and rise up. If you’ve been on the sidelines, I really want to encourage you to come with an open heart the next few weeks and into the summer about where God is leading you in His church.

A few things…

1.Beth Moore simulcast at 9am this Saturday at the Purple Castle! Call 336-5452 to sign-up.

2. Please bring your Haiti commitment cards with you this Sunday. Or you can email hotline@woodhills.org your commitment and it will be kept confidential. We have received $14,000 in commitments towards our $100,000 goal.

3. I want to invite you and your family to the Kanakuk Family Kamp this summer. Our church has been offered a special local rate. And believe me, it is a very generous rate. Call 266-3000 and ask for Donna. Be sure to tell her that you go to Woodland Hills.

Love you all and we’ll see you Sunday,
Ted C

Between Congressional fighting and all the rain, I’m needing a little sun in my life. I have tasted spring earlier this week, and it was good. We baptized 15 new believers Sundays. I’m loving our new hottub on stage and the opportunity for the entire family to observe the decisions people have made for Christ. We’ll be posting the baptism video on Youtube soon so you can share it with your family and friends. I’ll let you know when it gets posted. You can check out our February baptism on Youtube right now. You’ll be inspired.

Also, the staff is regularly, if not daily, updating the frontpage of our website with events and news from around Woodland Hills. We are using Twitter to keep you updated. So go on and check it out.

You can also join us on facebook. Become a friend to each member of our staff and join the fan page of woodland hills family church.

We are planning a big weekend for Easter this year. A few special surprises are planned as we celebrate the power we have in our resurrected Savior. Ted Burden was sharing with us in staff meeting yesterday some of his plans and he took us all there, if you know what I mean! We were at the tomb!!!!!

Use facebook and emails to invite your family and friends to the Easter service at Woodland Hills on April 4th.

Love you guys. We’ll continue in our Dear Church series this Sunday with a good look at Ephesians 5:1-7. I’m actually going to dive back into studying that passage now.

Love you all,

Ted C.

This Sunday we pause in our series in Ephesians for a Twoignite Sunday. February’s igniter is 2Fight. I never do this, but I am want to give you in advance the message points for Sunday:

1. Watch your approach when giving your opinion.
2. Keep the relationship ahead of the issue.
3. Step onto the field of conflict as teammates, not opponents.

We have a lot of giveaways this week. We plan on helping a lot of men with their Valentines day. You do not want to miss Sunday. There will be some very appreciative husbands and some oh so grateful wives!!!

Hey guys, also, we are offering dance lessons at the church Sunday afternoon from 2:00 – 4:00pm. Led by Paul and Beth Ethridge (who I consider professional dance instructors), these lessons will score you major points!

See you Sunday lovebirds.

Love you all,
Ted C.

I watched the State of the Union last week and was inspired to share with you the WHFC state of the union. As you read through this email, feel free to stand and applaud the points you like or sit there disgruntled with your arms folded when your disagree.

1. New snow policy – Our website (www.woodhills.org) will give cancellation information. We will tweet info and it will appear on the right side of the homepage.

2. FourCore – Starting Wednesday night, February 17th, we will launch FourCore. The elders and pastors of Woodland Hills will be leading 4 core classes…101:Your Church, 201:Your Growth, 301:Your Calling, 401:Your Mission. The classes will run for 6 weeks on Wednesday nights from 6:30 – 8:00pm.

3. Loaves and Fishes – I am so proud of Woodland Hills youth and church family. 15 of our youth served 207 meals Sunday night. With over 1500 homeless in Branson, I love the justice and mercy that Angela Jennings is bringing to our youth ministry/culture. If you want to help serve at loaves and fishes on Feb 7, contact angela@woodhills.org.

4. Family Church – in 2008, the elders of Woodlands Hills changed our name from “Woodland Hills Community Church” to “Woodland Hills Family Church.” That name change reflected the passion and pursuit of marriage and family ministry at Woodland Hills. We believe faith starts at home. Parents spend on average 3000 hours with their kids. Church leaders spend on average 40 hours with those same kids. Two combined influences builds more into kids than two individual influences. Everything we do on Sunday mornings is to support what you are (or should be) doing at home. How can we serve your home better?

5. Twoignite – In the fall of 2009, we launched Twoignite, a brand new marriage ministry. We have partnered with Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ and now dedicate one Sunday a month to strengthening marriages. We are covering 12 igniters in 12 months. We have covered 2Play, 2Drink, 2Laugh, and 2Sweat. February is 2Fight month.

6. 134kids – This Spring we are launching 134kids, 134tweens, and 134teens. This is a brand new curriculum, written and developed by the Woodland Hills staff, focusing on Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept sacred.” Starting in kindergarten, we will be teaching the kids about marriage. Not only will we be preparing kids for their marriages one day, but we will be equipping them to take home great teaching to talk through as a family. Here again, we see two combined influences at work. But in this instance, we will be partnering with kids to help their mom and dad. The 134 curriuculum will run on the same Sundays as the Twoignite igniters.

7. Solutions and Boundaries – Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend are practically part of the teaching team at Woodland Hills. Every Wednesday night they teach a course at our church called Solutions, working on your most important relationships. This Saturday they will be hosting a Boundaries simulcast to help you learn when to say yes and how to say no. Contact hotline@woodhills.org for more info and to signup.

8. Stewardship – Woodland Hills currently has 699 family giving units. That means that there are almost 700 families who give to Woodland Hills on a regular basis. We want to thank each and every family for their generous giving and also challenge some of our families to begin to pray about their giving in 2010. We have so many great projects to give to this year (Haiti, Nicarugua, Loaves and Fishes, etc.) Your generous giving matters and we want to encourage you to pray hard about what your family can do.

Well, I think that is it for now, but there is so much more I want to share. I am so grateful for Woodland Hills and the heart behind this church. You are a huge blessing to many.

This Sunday we continue in our study of Ephesians, and I need to let you in on a little secret. Teddy B has 2 hymns prepared. I am actually very excited for them. I pulled the hymnal off of his shelf, blew the dust off and showed it to him

See you Sunday.

Love you all,
Ted C.

We’ll be posting the outrageous, funny, witty and insightful coming from the mouths of relationship experts Dr. Gary Smalley and pastor Ted Cunningham, as well as the comedy from Branson comedian, Paul Harris, all day on Saturday from 9a-3p CST.

If you wish to follow along, follow our church’s Twitter feed. We’ll be using the hashtag #LLG so you can quickly and easily access the highlights. If you’re planning on attending the conference, use the aforementioned hashtag to join in the conversation.