April 7, 2009

Dear Friends,

Well this past Sunday had it’s share of intense spiritual energy to the glory of God!  The choir and praise team lifted our hearts and encouraged our soul as they sang with passion and spirit.  And yes they were filled with the Holy Spirit as God moved among us in each service.  In recent weeks, I have felt the Spirit of God moving in our church like never before leading up to the resurrection.  I believe this year, we have made a big deal out of Jesus defeating death and God is honoring our commitments.  I have never been more excited to be on a team than I am now.  Our ministry teams are reaching more people than ever, we have seen more people commit their lives to Jesus than ever and now we have the awesome responsibility to disciple believers on their walk with God.  In fact, if I am not mistaken, we did break an attendance record last week with 155 at our 8:30 service and 312 at our 11 am service.  We have never had that many people walk through our doors on any given Sunday.  Please be reminded that numbers aren’t always a spiritual indicator of how a church is doing but they can be.  On a lighter note, our leadership team came to the conclusion that the reason for such a high attendance was our friend who showed up on Sunday.  Meet Hosanna.  And many of you may recognize the other folks.  Palm Sunday this week was incredible and to God be the glory.  This is just  a foretaste of what will happen on Good Friday and resurrection morning.  I am not allowed to release any more details so you will just have to come and see for yourself.

 
     
 
     
 


Ok now, for the future.  This Friday night will be worth you inviting everyone you know.  Our team has rehearsed and placed many long hours in bringing you a night that you won’t forget.  In fact, this Sunday we ran out of invite cards to the event so I am attaching an invite that you can print off and invite at least one friend to this event.  You won’t regret coming and hanging out with us this Friday night for Sunday morning.  By the way, here is the schedule for this weekend:  On Good Friday, April 10th, beginning at 7 pm, you will experience “Voices from the Cross”-A Good Friday Drama.  You will want to invite all of your friends and neighbors to this event.  Our drama team has spent many hours rehearsing to bring you an amazing night of presentations.  And then on Easter Sunday, we will begin our Sunrise Service beginning at 6:30 am, Fellowship Breakfast at 8:30 and then the Grand Finale Celebration Service beginning at 9:30 am.  No discipleship classes this Sunday.  We are pumped about what is going to happen here.

Our goal is to Connect people with God, Grow them in their faith, and see them Serving in the local church.  Which reminds me of our Ascend Discipleship designed to take you on a deeper level with God. 

I want to encourage you to stay for ASCEND after the 8:30 service at 9:45 or come a little earlier to get plugged in to a small group atmosphere where you can grow and make lasting friends.  You won’t regret it and all of our classes have different flavors so be sure to find the one that suits your taste.  The one thing that they all will have in common is the Word of God. 

I want to thank everyone for contributing to Relay for Life and several of you helped me raise a portion of my goal.  Thank you so much.  I think maybe my goal was too low and God is really going to open the gates to help us fight this disease.  Please continue to contribute via my website at http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09SA?px=9954110&pg=personal&fr_id=13129

In addition, the yard sale on Saturday was a huge success with the team raising over $1500.00.  Our next yard sale will be on Saturday May 9th.  Thanks for contributing.

Thanks again! 

I also want to thank many of you who have sponsored me in my goal to help raise money for The Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia.  My goal is $1000.00 and so far I have raised $350.00.  If you are interested in helping us reach this goal, please respond with your name, address, and how much you would like to pledge.  The Center will follow up with you through mail correspondence.  Consider what your donation can do:  $25 – Services for 1 Pregnancy Test Client, $40 – 24 Hour Helpline for 1 Month, $100.00 – Purchase Crib for a Newborn Baby, $150 – Ultrasound for 1 Client, $300 – Pregnancy Support for 1 throughout the Pregnancy.  You can also find out more info online at http://www.virginiapregnancy.org/

Maybe you can’t help financially but you can donate some items that you have laying around.  For instance, here are some needs that mothers have when expecting a baby and the center can use:  Diapers, wipes, baby clothes, small  toys, maternity clothes(gently used)etc.  These items can be brought to church and dropped off in the box at our reception desk.

Well I hope to see you this weekend and I cannot wait to meet the friends that you will invite.  Remember to pray for those who will be impacted by this event.  God is up to something.

Check us out at www.newlifeinlouisa.com

Pastor Josh