Dear Church Family,
BUILDING NEWS: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us,” is one of my favorite lines in the Acts of the Apostles. It’s also how I felt after Monday night’s congregational gathering. We voted unanimously to purchase the new facility and we even received the minimum dollar amounts of required pledges to move forward. We still have until this Sunday November 3 to turn in any and all pledges. Every dollar raised above the minimum for the down payment will be split 50-50. Half will go toward making a larger down payment and the other half will allow us to do some needed physical improvements.
Now the hard work begins…moving, building improvements, setup, etc. We hope to be worshiping in the building by early December, and then after a series of big updates in late December and January, we hope to have full access to the facility. Keep praying. In a week or two, there will be sign up sheets to help with repairs, painting, construction, moving help, and general cleaning.
In other news…
City-Wide Prayer Event: This Sunday night from 6-7:45PM there will be a city-wide prayer event at New Covenant Bible Church. Over 40 churches are planning to participate.
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD – This year marks the 20th anniversary of Operation Christmas Child shoebox distributions. Each box brings joy and creates a platform for a worldwide network of volunteers to share the greatest gift of all – the coming of Jesus Christ to rescue us from sin and death. The work does not stop there though. In most countries, we are able to follow up shoebox distributions with The Greatest Journey, our 12-lesson, Bible-based discipleship program, which again presents the Gospel and helps children grow in faithful witness.
One final note…nearly 500 years ago, a catholic priest named Martin Luther nailed 95 reflections on a church’s door in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther saw that the church had lost the truth of the Gospel. People no longer understood that forgiveness, salvation, and righteousness came from faith alone in Christ alone. This nailing of the 95 Theses was the beginning of a change in history known as the Protestant Reformation. We remember October 31 not as a day for witches and ghouls, but as a day in history when the saving truths of Jesus could be known and heard again. Let us never forget these truths. We have salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, understood through the Scriptures alone, and all this is by God’s grace alone. Together these truths remind us that God alone deserves the glory, the honor, and the praise. Amen.
I love being your pastor!
In Christ,
Pastor Matt
