Grace Church Update

Yesterday we finished 2 months of meeting together as Grace Church. I wanted to share some ways the Lord has been at work among us in our early days as a Church.

Here are a few highlights:

1. People are growing in their knowledge and understanding of the Gospel and love for their Savior. We have begun the Gospel of John as a church and each week we are left with such a high view of Jesus. He is over all and all of creation points to Him. The opening chapters with John the Baptist, He must increase and I must decrease. That is the prayer of so many, Lord increase in our lives! Help us to see Jesus more!

2. People have embraced having community with one another and doing life together in deeper ways. One book we went together as a team was Total Church. Although we may not agree with "everything" in that book it has deeply influenced how we live together in community. Every Sunday I make extra for dinner looking for people to invite over and most weeks I'll start asking people only to find they've already been invited over by someone else in the church! You've gotta plan ahead in this church if you actually want to have company. I have loved getting to know the people in our church and it's brought Chris and I so much joy to see them loving one another!

3. People are growing in their love for the lost. Each week we set out lemonade and water in the lobby of the Rio Vista with a sign that says "compliments of Grace church". Let's just say we have no shortage of people coming through getting drinks! There's a skate park right outside and lots of the youth come inside to cool off. Young and old, many conversations about church and the Lord are had around this table. Also last week one of our Grace Church community groups set out a lemonade stand out by the Rio Vista Park on a Saturday and the reports were hundreds of people coming through getting drinks and invite cards. One of our guys had an hour long talk with a man about the Gospel and Christanity. The Lord has given us new names of lost people to pray for through these simple means!

Growth in personal evangelism has also been really encouraging. We hear reports in our community groups of the gospel being shared with co-workers, neighbors and unbeliving family. Chris has meet a young guy at the gym while working out and the two meet up a couple times a week to workout together. We've had him over for dinner a couple of times and Chris has developed a friendship with him. We've invited him to church and he hasn't said no but he also hasn't come :) Pray that the Lord would save him! In addition many doors have been opened to get to know our neighbors better. We've hosted dessert for our blocks progressive dinner party and a bi-monthly playgroup will be starting up tomorrow! Pray that God would only increase our ministry to the Lost!

Thank you all for the encouragement and prayers that have been sent our way. It means so much to us. Let it be known we are having a blast!