This past Sunday morning we announced the launch of a 3rd Sunday Morning Worship Experience to a packed house! This past Sunday’s attendance was the biggest to date, with 518 people coming together to worship. Beginning in just five weeks, on Easter Sunday, we will begin offering 3 identical Sunday morning worship experiences … 9:00am / 10:45am / 12:30pm. And we anticipate hundreds of brand new people walking through our doors on Easter and in the weeks following.
Because of our continued growth, our leadership team has been praying for months for God to expand our capacity as a church to reach more people. Slowly and steadily the walls of the AMC Theatre have been closing in on us. Though we’ve had many people looking for new venues and opportunities, the prospects so far have been few. A few weeks ago the idea of adding a third Sunday morning service was dead in the water. When we put in our formal request for an extension the exact words we received in reply were, “No” and “Impossible.”
A few weeks ago, we got a call from the same office telling us that they were closing down their business. No longer would we be working with a national office in regards to our worship times and theatre contracts. Rather, we were directed to our local theatre management. I hung up the phone and couldn’t help but let out the biggest HOORAY … but since I was alone at the office, no one was there to hear me. When a tree falls and there is no one to hear it, does it still make a noise? Haha …
This past week we were given the green light on an opportunity that was dead in the water. God turned the impossible into reality over night.
This past Sunday, more than 200 people answered the call to step up and help us reach the lost … each person offering to serve in whatever capacity needed to get this service successfully off the ground and to be ready for the hundreds of new people that we are expecting to walk through our doors in just a few weeks.
Thank you for your prayer and support. Thank you for believing in a church that reaches the spiritually restless and unchurched. Thank you for getting behind something that ISN’T normal. It’s because of you that we are reaching the people we are reaching. It’s because of you that we are able to make a difference in this city and beyond.
In my heart, I believe we are ON THE VERGE of a move of God like we have never seen. I believe it for Columbus. I believe it for Rock City. I believe it for churches all across America. I believe the heart of His Church is beginning to turn back to the things God cares about … reaching the lost, bringing hope and healing to the sick, the needy, the desperate, the weak. I believe the focus of the church is shifting and people are engaging like never before. I can see God’s heart being lived out through the most unlikely of people, in the most unlikely of ways. And all the glory belongs to HIM alone.
To HIM Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine! To HIM be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout ALL generations! Forever and ever. Amen.
ON YOUR MARK …