The first 6 weeks

This is a bit overdue of an update, but I know a decent number of folks have been wondering about how things have been going at church.  One of the areas that we put a good bit of time and effort into was sending out a mass mailing of flyers.  The flyers were put together by a friend in Alabama (to whom we owe a great deal of thanks!!) and they turned out great.  We sent nearly 12,000 to the immediate area surrounding the church (and didn't touch anywhere near as much as we wanted to due to cost restrictions).  The reply to these has been great.

 We've received good feedback and the vast majority of our visitors have come via the mailings.  Even for those who haven't come, there is now a good amount of name recognition.  Folks in our core group share stories about how they meet people, talk about church, and when they tell the name the reply is:  "Oh, I've heard of that...I saw their flyer."

However, more importantly the first 6 weeks of worship at Living Hope have been highly encouraging.  The core group of people who started this with us labor weekly to get things set up and torn down; they are some of the friendliest people - always welcoming visitors.  I have been greatly encouraged by our worship services.  I am enjoying preaching through 1 Peter and even leading the music (though I would gladly give that up if the Lord were to bring someone else who could lead).

We have had some families join with us beyond the original group.  Each one has their own story and perhaps I'll ask one to share sometime.  My big prayer now is to continue to see new people come.  In that it is to see my heart grow stronger for people to hear the gospel and experience the true and living hope that comes by grace through Jesus Christ.

One exciting perk of worshiping at a local elementary school is we get to be a part of the community.  We don't want to simply use the school on Sunday and have no impact there.  We want the community we are in to flourish.  More than that we want our deeds to point people to the gospel of grace.  As I have been preaching through 1 Peter I think about part of the text I am on for this very week:  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.  (1 Pet 2:12)  I want the school, the community, to see the good deeds of our church so that it would glorify God - mostly in that they would ask about the hope we have and why we do what we do and we can give the reason - the grace of God!  This Saturday we have 4 people helping out at a Santa Breakfast that very possibly would have been cancelled without these volunteers.  We look forward to more of these small ways we can serve, but make a difference and in that point people to God's great grace.