Christmas has come and gone. I hope you had a wonderful one. 2017 is on the horizon and, like many of you, I’m getting very excited about the possibilities this year may hnew. 2016 was such a great year for our church. We launched the 2020 Vision, we paid off a huge chunk of our church’s debt, we sent our first long term missionary and saw hundreds of people engaged in local missions through our bless the city projects.
When we launched the 2020 Vision I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve been blown away by how so many of you have bought in and contributed towards what God has called us to do. By the way, this is just year one. Imagine what could happen 3 to 4 years from now!
I wanted to thank all of you for inviting your friends and family to our Christmas Eve service. It was one of the largest Christmas Eve services we’ve ever had. I only looked back 5 or so years but it certainly exceeded all of those. We had a total turnout of 562 people (not to mention an additional 160 or so who showed up Christmas Day.) So many of those folks were first time visitors to our church.
On Wednesday nights we had been praying that the Lord would use the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services to create faith in the hearts of unbelieving people. I’m convinced the Lord did that in a special way this year. Thanks for helping make it a success. I believe that the successes of the Date Night and Christmas Eve services will provide us with some needed momentum as we enter into 2017.
This Sunday we will have only TWO services: 9:40 and 11:00. The 9:40 service will be contemporary and the 11:00 will be traditional. There will be no small groups or Sunday School except for Preschool (1-5yrs). Please plan accordingly.
We will start a new series this Sunday in the book of Colossians. I’m hopeful that preaching through this book will help us start 2017 in the right way. The Lord has shown me several things in Colossians that I believe are particularly relevant for our church. I’m excited to share them with you.
Continue praying for the music search team. The search has been narrowed down to a handful of remaining candidates. Some of them may be popping in from time to time to get a better feel for the church and us a better feel for them. Please pray that both sides will have wisdom and discernment from the Lord about what’s best.
Also, be praying for Alan Jones and his family as he will be stepping in to lead the 8:25 worship choir and 8:25 traditional service until we hire our full time music minister. I’m really excited to see what God does through Alan’s return to ministry here at Broadview. He will rehearse the worship choir on Wednesday nights and oversee all aspects related the 8:25 worship service.
Taylor Miller, our new youth pastor, will be stepping in to lead the music in our 9:40 and 11:00 worship services. This too will only be until we hire a full-time music pastor. Be praying for Taylor as he navigates both of those ministries along with all of the other newness he’s acclimating to with this transition. So far, he’s done a tremendous job.
Before signing off, let me encourage you to consider ending 2016 with a spirit of thanksgiving. The other day I was out deer hunting and I began going over in my mind all of the good things that happened this year. Sometimes, we have a tendency to let the negatives outweigh the positives. After spending some time just thanking God for his great grace in my life, I found myself less occupied with the past negatives and very encouraged about the present positives. Let’s start 2017 with spirit of gratitude and contentment.
As usual, if there’s something you’d like me to know or pray about, just reply to this email and let me know. I hope you have a great rest of your week!
Blessings,
Pastor Wes