I figured that I’d write an update on where we are as a church right now and where we’re heading.  (note: I hope this doesn’t sound too business-like… all of it depends on the hand of God and His faithfulness to us.  We are simply the instruments… He is the one that makes all things possible).

Current Status:

Official Liftoff: April 13th (switched to weekly services March 30^th). We’ve continued to meet on Sunday evenings at 7pm at Sunnycrest Church.  Hasn't the worship band at Embrace been great?

This church does not revolve around numbers!  Numbers are a way to see our growth, but they are in no way the driving force of this church.  The two numbers that we watch as a church is our attendance and our giving; these are also the two numbers that the conference looks at as well.

Attendance:

Attendance has averaged around 122.  Our highest attendance at this point has been 132 (April 27^th) and our lowest of 86 (May 4^th).  Can you say warm weather?  Going into summer, we know that our numbers will go down… people are on vacation, there are so many options on a Sunday evening, etc.

Giving:

It has been amazing to see this young church give!  I can’t believe it!  When I saw that our 2008 giving need was over $63,000 I thought it would be impossible!  That makes our weekly need $1,223.60.  Well, I’m excited to say that our average giving since going weekly is $1,765.50!!!!  Awesome!!!  We’re playing catch up from the beginning of the year and not having weekly services then, but we’re doing so well in this area!!  I praise God every week for this!  This is AWESOME!

--Children’s Church

Our Children’s Church has been going so well. Mary Jane Richardson has been filling in until we’re able to find a permanent person for the position and she’s been a huge blessing.  We’ve had anywhere from 16 kids to 3.  We’ll continue to provide Children’s Church during the summer and are so excited about finding a permanent Children’s Minister.  If you know of anyone that I (Adam) should speak with… please let me know.  Our hope is that the Children’s Ministry would be one of the main focuses of this church… Kids truly are important at Embrace! I'm so excited to see what will happen with our Children's ministry. 

--Youth Ministry 

Up until this point, Embrace hasn't had much to offer when it comes to kids in Middle or High School.  Cool news!  Nate Larson, the youth pastor at Sunnycrest, has welcomed any and all kids to be apart of their middle and high school youth programs.  I couldn't hand pick a better youth pastor to have and what a great thing to be able to offer current and future families at Embrace. 

Middle School meets on Sundays from 4-5:30pm @ Sunnycrest

High School meets on Wednesdays from 6-8pm @ Sunnycrest

--Small Groups:

We currently have 4 active small groups and they’ve been going so well!  I’ve received emails from people in 2 different groups this week… both saying how thankful they are for the people in their groups and the community they’re experiencing there.  During the summer months, we’ve encouraged the groups to go from gathering weekly to trying to meet once a month for fellowship.  We’ve got an Embrace Softball Team that starts up at the end of the month and are excited about the community that’ll be experienced there.  Beginning this week, Sara Wurgler (our small groups & teams coordinator) will be increasing her hours and be available on Tuesdays & Fridays (and other evenings).  We’re so excited about everything that she’ll bring to this church.  If you’d like to meet with her (especially any ladies), I know that she’d love to get to know you.  Look for more small groups to start in the fall!  If you are not in a small group, I can’t encourage you enough to check one out… it continues to be the best thing Becky and I have done in the last year.  This last Monday, our group sat around our fire pit and just had a great evening… going through questions, sharing our prayer requests, and just having fun.  I’m so thankful for our group.

What can you do?

If you've decided to make Embrace your home, I can’t encourage you enough to jump in, get your hands dirty, and do the following! This baby church truly needs and wants you!! 

#1 Invite

Anyone and everyone… There are so many people around us each day that are waiting for us to ask them.  Tell them about iamembrace.com, hand them an Embrace card, tell them about our next service, or drop them an email.  This continues to be the greatest need for our church.

#2 Attend

This is the simplest thing you can do and this church truly depends on it…especially during the summer!!  What’s so nice about having a Sunday evening service is that we’re able to get away for the weekend and still make it to worship (I’m the luckiest pastor ever!  On Sunday… we slept in, hit the bike trails all day, and still made it to worship!)  I challenge you to make a commitment to be at every service this summer unless you’re sick or out of the state! 

#3 Serve

If you wanna get your hands dirty, we’ll take you!  Each Sunday, we need 15 volunteers (4 setup, 4 teardown, 2 Children’s Church, 1 Nursery, 2 greeters, 2 ushers).  It’s been exciting to see people take one area and make it their own… there’s a couple of people who setup each Sunday.  There are moms who use the nursery each week and so they take a Sunday once a month where they can give back to it… Awesome!  At the next service, I’d encourage you to pick an area and take as many dates as possible.  Each week, we also send out the remaining volunteer needs in our E-Updates… if you know you’ll be there Sunday, and you think you can help… we’ll take ya!  My hope is that this church wouldn’t depend on 5 people, but that it would depend on all of us who have decided to call this place home.  I also know that if you'd be interested in helping out with the worship team (musically or with sound/video), Chris Heesch would love to talk with you.

Where do we go from here?

I wish I was able to send out all the emails and notes that I receive each week… about how people are finding their way to Embrace, about the things God’s doing in people lives, families, and kids, about the ways that God’s at work…. God is doing some big things through us!!!  If I haven’t said it before, I LOVE what I do!! 

I picture the singles… the couples… the families… that are yet to come.  I picture people finding community in small groups… I picture people encountering God for the first or 50^th time…  I picture God being well pleased with this new body of Christ called Embrace! 

It's also been amazing to see how the word has gotten out about Embrace... more than ever before, I truly believe the Lord is going to do something great in and through this church... I'm not sure what "great" looks like... but I know something great is happening...and I believe the Lord has something beyond our expectations in store for us...

We still have lots of questions… What are we going to look like in a year? When? How? Where? Why?  What is God going to do next?  I continue to rest in the fact that God’s got it all figured out… We just need to continue following Him… will you join me?

We hope to ENCOUNTER God,

be amazed by His COMPASSION,

transformed by His EMBRACE,

and then sent to RUN.