[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]
As we enter a new year, I imagine for all of us it is a chance to recalibrate. Whether we make any resolutions, or not, to at least think about how we desire for our life and relationship with God to proceed in the upcoming 12 months. Let me highlight three wonderful upcoming aspects of the life of our church, as we continue to Glorify God, By Inviting All, Into God’s Grace, through the pathways of Growing in Truth, Living in Community and Serving in the Kingdom: 1) Bible Reading Plan, 2) Missions Month, and 3) Our Building Campaign
Bible Reading
As we have mentioned in the Creek Week, in our worship services and on social media, we hope God will bring a wave of revival in all our lives this year, that would greatly impact our church and flow over into the surrounding community and even the world. By the same token, we know there is a daily journey to the Christian life, and except for special movements when God may catapult us forward, the regular use of the means of grace is the food and drink for the church. These means come through our congregational worship services, which is why we have made every reasonable effort to keep those in-person gatherings going the last two years. But growth also happens in truth for any serious believer through daily time with God in prayer and God’s Word.
The last several years we have encouraged various approaches, including daily one page reading from Paul David Tripp’s New Morning Mercies and last year the short readings with Scripture references formed around the Westminster Shorter Catechism in Starr Meade’s book. Each approach has its pluses and minuses but this year we will come back to taking in the broad scope of the Bible through direct reading of Scripture using the Five Day Bible Reading Program. We have paper copies available on Sunday mornings or you can print it out yourself. We are using this paper edition, even though many Bible apps offer something similar because it seems like it would be good to push ourselves to get away from our devices at least for a brief time each day and to get our eyes and hands reacquainted with the tried-and-true paper Bible. I certainly plan to also use an app to listen some while commuting or working out, if I get behind, but hopefully can read, and perhaps journal as well, most of the time.
Missions Month
We are also moving into a regular season, that is so special each year for our church – Missions Month. If you are new to our church you are in for a treat. Each Sunday morning we will focus on a different theme area of our missions efforts – Church Planting, College Ministry, Local Ministries, and International Missions. Please make plans to attend both worship service and our Sunday school time even if you normally forego the latter, and on Jan 23, we will hear from our keynote speaker, Ronnie Stevens, in the evening, after we enjoy a churchwide meal together.
Building Campaign
Beginning at the end of February and extending for 3 weeks into mid-March, we will be inviting our congregation to a journey of faith and stewardship. You will be hearing a lot more about this once Missions Month concludes, but for now we would ask all in the church to pray for our Building Campaign Committee. If you did not get a chance to watch this 1 min video with our pastor and a member of our committee, please do so.
In addition to those mentioned in the video who are joint chairs of the committee (Sherry Hartley, Bill Shine, Stephanie VanderNoot and Abe Zanayed) we are thankful for the following subcommittees who will help lead our church each step of the way, as we look to God to provide the resources for the building purchase, the renovations already completed, and potential future renovations and improvements we will share about soon.
Communication – Kayla Holsomback
Groups – Garrett Greer and Mason Ellenberger
Prayer – Chris and Patience Peters, Angie Daspit, Denson and Jackie Hardgrove
Children’s – Shawndee Lovoy and Whitney Halbrooks
Special Events – Paige Smith and Ruth Zanayed
