Hello Church Family!
I hope you’re having a great week! In this update I wanted to give you a heads up on some upcoming changes and new opportunities happening at Broadview. We’ve got fresh paint going up on the walls in the Gathering Place as I speak. We have a new Marriage Bible Study starting only a few Wednesday’s from now and we’ve got an exciting new spiritual growth campaign launching after Easter.
Fresh Paint
We’ll start with the fresh paint in the Gathering Place. Last year, our Buildings & Grounds Ministry Team recommended an increase in our General Maintenance budget so that we could freshen up the paint and decor in our Gathering Place.
The Gathering Place has quickly become one of the most popular and favorite buildings in our church. It’s the place where people gather between services. It’s a one stop shop for finding out what’s going on in the church. It’s hospitality central with coffee, tea and refreshments being served every Sunday. Lastly, it’s the hot spot for every wedding shower, baby shower, or any other similar type of gathering.
I think building the Gathering Place was one of the most strategically wise building initiatives we’ve ever done. But we built the Gathering Place in 2007. That was almost twelve years ago! Since that time, much has changed in terms of fashion trends and best practices as it relates to interior design (especially for churches.)
The paint colors that we chose over a decade ago cannot be perfectly matched with paints made today. Therefore, the many touch ups that need to be done cannot be addressed. We don’t have any of that new paint left over. Because so much has changed in terms of best practices for church interiors and since we aren’t able to maintenance our existing colors, we’ve decided to update our color scheme as we repaint the room.
We had an outside professional come in and give his expert opinion. He recommended a two tone gray approach to replace the tan and green. The gray will tie in well with the brown interior elements and also not clash with the green border around the carpeted areas. If you want an idea of what this looks like you can take a look at the updates in the kids wing.
So, as you can see, the Gathering Place will be getting a face lift this week and it’s going to look really great. If you were at service this past Sunday you heard me mention this and also that it wouldn’t be finished in one week or even two weeks time. So please be patient as we try and evaluate the best decor so that the Gathering Place can accomplish it’s purpose in offering hospitality, creating community and facilitating conversation about a person’s next steps at Broadview.
While things may look different than they used to look, the room will still provide what it has always provided. I’m really excited about the changes. I think it will help freshen up the room, bring new energy to our facilities and communicate to our guests that we are serious about providing a compelling environment for them to experience God and engage with God’s people.
If you have input you’d like to offer you can reply to this email. I will forward it to the Buildings & Grounds team. For those worried that that a “male preacher” is making decisions about interior design, FEAR NOT! The Buildings & Grounds team consists of both males AND females, Boomers AND Millennials (and everything in between.) Being a congregation that feels like home for ALL generations is important to us. So we will do our best to strike a balance between traditional and modern when it comes to the new furniture and decor.
New Bible Study For Married Couples
Speaking of all generations, there’s a new Bible study on marriage that kicks off March 20th at 6:30pm. We’re calling the study “Marriage: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.” It’s a journey through Scripture that will highlight twelve different couples and how they navigated the God-ordained institution of marriage.
Some cases will present a positive vision of what a person should do in marriage. Other couples will present a test case of what NOT to do. The Bible also presents the ideal marriage between Christ & his Bride the Church. It should prove to be a really great study for anybody who’s interested in learning what Scripture has to say about marriage.
Jayce Barbee will be teaching the class. He did a quick Facebook Live the other day to talk about it.
If you’ve been married for any length of time you know it’s full of ups, downs, and the unexpected. The Bible addresses marriage honestly and realistically. It presents people in their brokenness and sin but also points forward some something better.
As Jayce said in his video, this is NOT just a young marrieds Bible study. We’re actually hoping several newer married couples will join the group as well. Discipleship is the name of the game around here and there’s no better arena for growing in grace than the covenant of marriage.
So no matter how long you’ve been married, no matter how good or bad your marriage is, please consider joining this group! It’s 10 weeks long and it’ll be worth the investment! You can register for the class here or just show up on Wednesday March 20th in Annex B at 6:30pm. Childcare IS provided.
Even though this group is focused on married couples, Broadview also helps sponsor a city-wide ministry to singles that’s led by church member Tina Diaz. The ministry is called Here + Now and they have a worship experience every third Thursday at 201 Mesquite. This month it will be March 21st at 6:00pm. Contact Tina for more details.
Lost & Found Spiritual Growth Campaign
The last thing I want to mention is a new spiritual growth campaign that we are launching on April 28th, the first Sunday after Easter.
This campaign will include all adult, student & children ministries. It will be a church-wide focus on Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son and the spiritual awakenings that happen in a person who is finding their way back to God.
There will be Sunday morning messages that correspond to the campaign theme. In addition, we will have small group resources available for every age. It’s going to be a special time for our entire church family. Please be praying for the campaign starting now.
It’s always a good time to invite a friend to Broadview but Easter Sunday will be an especially good day to invite them because they’ll have an opportunity to join a “Lost & Found” small group. These groups will meet for the duration of the Spiritual Growth Campaign.
We are requesting that all of our adult small groups also participate in the campaign. If you’d like to lead one of the small groups created just for this campaign, please let us know. You can fill out this form.
Each group will have video teaching resources made available to facilitate the group time. There will also be a discussion guide that promotes conversation around the video teaching. (groups are not required to play the video but it’s available for those who find it beneficial) It will be very easy to lead a Lost & Found group. Please consider signing up and see what God might do!
I personally believe the Lord wants to use this time to do something special in our church family. I hope you’ll join me in praying that we are all open and personally surrendered to whatever it is He wants to do.
The focus theme for our staff in 2019 is “Life Together.” We are trying to find strategic ways to promote and energize the small group ministry in our church. We’re praying the Lord will use this campaign to take us one step further in that direction. Thanks for considering how you can play a part!
As usual, this update is getting long in the tooth! Time to sign off for now.
Have a great rest of your week!
Blessings,
Pastor Wes