We are now entering the fall months here at Grace Church and I have never in my ministry seen the explosion of growth and excitement like we are seeing. From a Sunday morning attendance standpoint, it is amazing what God is doing. The first Sunday of September we had 728 packed into the auditorium for our first morning worship service. I wondered if anybody would be left for the second service, but to our thrill another 548 were in attendance for a total auditorium attendance of 1,276. When you add the 336 kids in our nursery through 4th grade programs that morning, our total Sunday morning attendance for the first week of September was 1,612.
Now I realize that some will immediately cry out that I am only about numbers. Yes, I am about numbers because I am all about Grace Church being used by God to meet as many people as possible right where they are at and then being used by Him to move them to where He wants them to be. Each of these numbers represents a real person…a person created in the image of God…a person who without Christ is dead in their sin and can do nothing on their own to rectify that fact…a person for whom Christ died as a substitute, paying the penalty for their sin…a person who, unless they hear the truth of the Gospel and change their mind about Jesus and place their faith in what He did for them through His death and resurrection alone, will spend an eternity apart from God…a person that God has given His church the marching orders to reach out to with the Love of Jesus. Or to put it in simple terms…“we count people because people count.”
The excitement around this place continues to grow and we are riding this wave right into October when we will add a third Sunday morning worship service and will participate in our “Stuff the Sunroom” project to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus as we practically reach out to and make a difference in the lives of hurting women and children right here in Lancaster County. Plus, in early October our Youth Ministry will be reaching out to hundreds of area teenagers through a big fifth quarter event following a Warwick High School football game and our children’s ministry will be putting on a very special Fall Harvest Party early in November.
We are also nearly ready to launch our first wave of small groups. God answered our prayer in sending us Steve Burghart from Saddleback Community Church (Rick Warren, pastor) in Southern California to spearhead our endeavor to see everyone that God brings to us connected to a small group where they can share life together and grow in their knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ.
I could go on and on about all that God is doing, not just on the church side of Grace Ministries, but also on our educational side through Morningstar Daycare and Lititz Christian School. We entered this school year with several faculty needs and we have literally been blown away with the caliber of men and women God has brought to us.
I love the fall season…especially at Grace!
Now I realize that some will immediately cry out that I am only about numbers. Yes, I am about numbers because I am all about Grace Church being used by God to meet as many people as possible right where they are at and then being used by Him to move them to where He wants them to be. Each of these numbers represents a real person…a person created in the image of God…a person who without Christ is dead in their sin and can do nothing on their own to rectify that fact…a person for whom Christ died as a substitute, paying the penalty for their sin…a person who, unless they hear the truth of the Gospel and change their mind about Jesus and place their faith in what He did for them through His death and resurrection alone, will spend an eternity apart from God…a person that God has given His church the marching orders to reach out to with the Love of Jesus. Or to put it in simple terms…“we count people because people count.”
The excitement around this place continues to grow and we are riding this wave right into October when we will add a third Sunday morning worship service and will participate in our “Stuff the Sunroom” project to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus as we practically reach out to and make a difference in the lives of hurting women and children right here in Lancaster County. Plus, in early October our Youth Ministry will be reaching out to hundreds of area teenagers through a big fifth quarter event following a Warwick High School football game and our children’s ministry will be putting on a very special Fall Harvest Party early in November.
We are also nearly ready to launch our first wave of small groups. God answered our prayer in sending us Steve Burghart from Saddleback Community Church (Rick Warren, pastor) in Southern California to spearhead our endeavor to see everyone that God brings to us connected to a small group where they can share life together and grow in their knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ.
I could go on and on about all that God is doing, not just on the church side of Grace Ministries, but also on our educational side through Morningstar Daycare and Lititz Christian School. We entered this school year with several faculty needs and we have literally been blown away with the caliber of men and women God has brought to us.
I love the fall season…especially at Grace!
I am going to be experimenting by allowing comments over the next few weeks. So feel free to go ahead and give some feedback. I will give more information on the comments on Thursday's blog of this week!
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