Sunday Night Rewind
What a great way to bring in the new year… with a nice little Buffalo dusting… for you southerners out there that would be about 12-16 inches we got last night and mainly this morning… it probably snowed a 9-10″s just during our 2 gatherings!
Yet we still had 350 people brave the weather to make it to our 1 yr Celebration!
I love Buffalo!
I love Buffalonians!
Yes we had a great day today as we looked back on what God did in us and through us in 09.
We focused on the 6 main series that we did this year highlighting what we learned or discovered about ourselves and about God.
Here is a quick look
Wild Goose Chase
We discovered that life with Christ should be a little more like a wild goose chase . . . mysterious, unpredictable, and even dangerous.
Breaking out of the cages that keeps us from ‘Chasing the Wild Goose’
The Cage of Responsibility …of Routine… of Assumptions… of Guilt… of Failure… of Fear
It’s Personal
This series helped those of us who had genuine questions, doubts, and concerns about becoming followers of Christ. We realized that not all of those questions will get answered. In most instances, something happens that shrinks those questions. And that something is always personal.
For many of us our relationship with God went from being a category to being very personal!
Best Question Ever
We said we never planned to mess up our lives… but unfortunately, we never plan not to. When making decisions, we learned to always ask ourselves, ‘In light of my past experiences, my current circumstances, and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?’
Simply Irresistible
This was our longest series of the year. We took the time to discover our core values that will help us in our spiritual development as individuals and as a collective Community of Faith to be all that God intends us to be!
taking steps… in our growing relationship with Jesus Christ…. in understanding and telling our Grace Story… in knowing/understanding our Spiritual Gifts and then using them in the World we are called to serve… in our interpersonal relationships that reflect the One who indwells us… in stewarding all of our assets for the expansion of the Kingdom of God… in seeing and experiencing the reduction of ‘lost-ness’ in our community.
Love Revolution
Year two for us at Renovation… we launched into year two with a look back at all that God did in us and through us. We recommitted collectively to not only serve each other but to serve and resource what God is doing in other churches and ministries in our city, region, state and world.
We had close to $30,000 of new commitments from those who wanted to experience first hand what happens when we trust God with all of ‘our stuff.’
Love Revolution income paid for the renovations in the basement of the RC Center for our Students… it will be opening soon! THANK YOU!
Leaving Lust Vegas
This was our most controversial series and most difficult to deal with because of the nature of the content and the effect it is having on us. We decided to drag what is usually kept in the dark into the light… for many of us we found freedom in the light of God’s Word, in talking about it, in exposing what had been a secret for so long!
Leaving Lust Vegas… BEHIND was what we desired and what we asked God to help each of us to do!
One lady came up and talked with Gloria telling her that she had been coming all year and had been putting off crossing over the line of Faith… but not today! She decided the first major decision of the year would be to make It Personal! What a great way to kick of the year! I pray we will see hundreds of people both young and old do the same in 2010!
I was blown away this week when MS emailed me the stats for the year…
Since we opened our doors for our Grand Opening January 4 – 09
We had 1164 (who filled out cards) people walk through the Renovation doors for the first time to hang out with us!
That’s 23 first time guest ea week
We averaged 451 each Sunday counting kids!
We had dozens of people come into a personal relationship with Christ in 09!
My prayer is that we will see many of those people take their next step by being baptized on 2010!
A lot to be THANKFUL for!
Not to us… but to Your Name be the GLORY!
