Faith in Christ
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| Baptism on August 11 |
It was a very fruitful year as
people continued to come to faith in Jesus Christ through your ministries and
prayers. A number of parents had the wonderful privilege of leading their
kids to receive Jesus as their Lord. At least 8 of these children were
baptized. 15 young people came to faith in Jesus through the work of our
student ministries. At least four adults came to faith in the midst of a variety
of ministry settings. We are sure even more have come to faith as we continue
to be encouraged by stories of our members faithfully reaching out in their
families, neighborhoods, and places of business.
Growth
We can also rejoice that God has
provided growth in our congregation. This past year we saw a 6% increase in
overall attendance. The Children’s Ministry and Youth Ministry Sunday attendance
increased by 18% and 16% respectively. We also saw five new community
groups formed to bring the total to 33 groups and 305 participants, as well as
our women’s groups and men’s groups. We added 34 new members and had over 800
registered visitors!
Depth and strength
Our January sermon series on
marriage proved to be very inspiring and practical. One member said, “We should
do this every January!” The Lenten series on prayer was also very well received
and many expressed deep appreciation for how their connection with the Lord
through prayer had been enriched.
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| Jonathan Noël |
The Lord has blessed our worship
ministry as well with the addition of Jonathan Noel. His musical ability,
experience, and expertise have added a notable depth and richness to Sunday
morning worship. His leadership also displays a loving and humble character as
he leads us to more faithfully worship our Lord.
The addition of Lee Hilts to our
staff has provided a much needed element of organization and oversight to the
administration of the many tasks, strategies, and teams required to effectively
carry out ministry in a church our size.
Church Planting
We have made especially good
progress in our church planting initiative this year. Ford has been named as
our church planter and is working diligently with his advisory team for his
personal preparation, the identifying of his key team leaders, and the raising
up of a congregation out of our own who will join him and Lindsay on this new
venture.
I would love to keep writing, as so
much more has taken place, but our intent is to keep our blog posts short and
readable. Over the course of this coming year, many of your stories will be
told in this blog so that we can all be aware of and celebrate what God is
doing in our midst. I close this posting with one of my favorite quotes from
Paul:
I thank my God every time I remember
you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of
this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus. -Philippians 1:3-6
With you in Christ,
Patrick
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