Dear Church Family,

As I look to the future for our church, I get excited. Not because we are growing in numbers, though we are. Not because we won’t be able to fit in the theater much longer, though it’s coming soon. I get excited because this church knows that buildings, programs, and money don’t grow churches or fulfill the Great Commission; the God of the Gospel does. We know that the good news of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the ministry and prayers of the saints are the key to personal and community redemption.

And so, I regularly pray for us just like Paul did in Philippians 1:3-7: 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. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. (NIV)

What’s ahead:

An Evening Of Worship And Prayer: This Sunday night March 24 from 6:00-7:30PM at New Covenant Bible Church (3090 N. Center Point Rd) over 37 congregations and ministries will gather to worship before the LORD.

Holy Week Outreach: For one hour Monday night through Thursday night (approx. 6:30-7:30PM), small teams from our church will be going out into our community to invite people to our Holy Week services, as well as, offer to pray for them and share Christ with them. We are still looking for people willing to knock on doors and for people to come and pray from 6:30-7:30PM for the teams that are going out. Please consider bringing your families to participate. We will have a training for this event at 8:30AM this Sunday morning (3/24) at Collins Road Theater.

Good Friday Service, March 29th 6:30-7:45PM–Please join us for our combined worship service with Northbrook Baptist Church, 1700 Boyson Rd NE. Childcare will be provided. We’d like people to bring snacks and desserts to share for after the service.

Spring Spiritual Life Retreat: On Friday and Saturday April 26th and 27th, there will be another opportunity for you to participate in a spiritual life retreat.  We’ll be studying and practicing Sabbath – a time of resting before God and in community with each other.  Festivities will begin at 6 Friday evening at the Stuelke residence (Center Point, IA) for dinner and an opening session.  Then we’ll spend 8am to 5pm on Saturday at the new Faith Bible Church building.  Cost will be $35 for the weekend. Anyone who attended the Fall 2012 spiritual life retreat may attend the spring retreat at no cost.  Watch for registration forms and further details in the coming weeks.

**We also have an updated church directory. You can find it under the Members section in pdf form. If you can’t access that section, email me for login instructions. I highly highly encourage you to use this directory as a prayer guide. Maybe consider dividing the directory up into 5 or 7 groups and then pray for 1 group each day of the week so that you are praying for our entire church family each week. (Pray especially for your elders: David Gardner, Darrel Herschberger, Alex Steele, Tony Weber, and myself that we’d seek the LORD and lead wisely).