The Last 2 Sundays of 2006

I do not believe that I have ever been part of a ministry that has ended a calendar year on such a high and with such momentum entering another year of ministry as we have together here at Grace Church in Lititz, PA. Lord willing, these last 2 Sundays of 2006 are a strong indication of the successful ministry that we will experience together in 2007.

Two Sundays ago was Christmas Eve. We talked a lot, months before Christmas was on most people’s minds, about how we would handle our Christmas services on that day. Would we have our regular morning services and then a separate Christmas Eve service that evening that was different from our morning worship? With so many of our staff and key people in our music and media ministries planning to be out of town for the Holiday (including myself), we knew that it would be very difficult to have the “manpower” to pull off two completely different services in one day. As a result we made the decision to do our morning worship service that Sunday three different times…two in the morning and one in the evening…all 3 identical in content and structure.

Without question, it was an experiment but the Lord truly did bless our efforts and our decision. I have been told by many that Pastor Andy did a wonderful job of preaching all 3 services and presenting the Gospel very clearly. Over the 3 services we had just short of 1500 people (1481 to be exact) in the auditorium. This figure does not account for any of our kids and workers in our children’s ministry that day. Once they are added in than our December 24th Sunday attendance will be somewhere near the 1700 mark.

Then, on the last Sunday of the year, December 31st (New Year’s Eve) we used our two morning services to kick off our brand new series on the rapture that we are calling, “Back in the Future.” To help celebrate the kick-off of this exciting series, we had a replica time-car machine from the Back to the Future movie trilogy sitting just outside our main entrance for everyone to get a glimpse of and take pictures of. I was able to get my pic taken sitting inside of this fabulous DeLorean. I’m sure actual photos will be showing up on our website any day now.

Again, God truly blessed our efforts with an auditorium attendance of 1160 that morning. At the time of this posting I have not yet heard what our kid’s count was but once it is added into the count our total attendance for December 31st will be anywhere between 1350-1400. This would not include any of the many people who heard that the time-car was here and came to see it but did not stay for the service. Even these were contacts that God can use to help stair-step people to Himself.

And now we prepare to take this momentum and excitement into the New Year with a desire to meet as many people as we possibly can right where they are both spiritually and geographically and then be used by God, through His Spirit and through His Word, to help move each of these precious people to where God wants them to be. I can’t wait!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!