Dear church,
I have been mentioning for a few weeks now that a new ministry calendar is coming as we move into the fall and beyond. The elders have spent this summer talking through how and when we meet. Our desire is to keep what has been good, make things more consistent, grow where we can, and make sure whatever that looks like is sustainable given our numbers but also doesn’t have to change dramatically when there is growth.
The last few years we have focused our time outside of Sunday around Wednesday nights with a fall and spring semester that accounted for about 16-20 weeks of meals, bible study, and discipleship over the course of the year. This has been a blessing, I know it firsthand for my family, but had some challenges given the number of teachers we had for the kids. This caused us to rethink how we can make this sustainable, keep the good, and make it more consistent throughout the year. This has led us to choose to make some changes starting this September.
Instead of meeting Wednesday nights with everyone, we are moving to Sunday night Bible study time with men meeting on the 1st Sunday night of the month, youth meeting on the 2nd Sunday night of the month, and ladies meeting on the 3rd Sunday night of the month. This means we will not have breaks in the winter and summer for our men’s and women’s bible studies and gives us something consistent, sustainable, and ready for growth when the time comes. This will start in September.
To maintain the joyous time of discipleship we shared on Wednesday nights, we are going to keep this on our calendar as a monthly gathering. These “Faith, Family, and Fellowship” nights will operate like before with dinner at 6:00pm but with something unique to our teaching time each month to give us something a little different to look forward to. We were going to keep these on Wednesday, but we moved to Thursday to take advantage of an offer from an old friend to help with our kids/family teaching. Pastor Andy Doane has graciously offered to come and join us on Thursday nights to help us with this time! I really hope this is a time to bring yourself, your extended families, your neighbors, and anyone God puts on your heart for a blessed time together. These nights will start in October.
One other thing that I think has been a huge blessing to Faith has been our time of prayer on Wednesday nights this past summer. This is something I really don’t want us to lose either. This is why we will keep this on the calendar once a month on the first Wednesday.
Community Groups will continue to meet as they regularly do. One change is that we will be ending (for now) the teen meeting time on Sunday morning. Teens will join in with their families during the Community Groups and are also highly encouraged to serve with the younger kids from time to time. Teens will instead have a once-a-month Bible study on Sunday nights which hopefully gives others who desire to teach and serve the teens an opportunity to do so.
On other thing you may notice on the calendar is an early morning Bible study on Thursdays starting in September. This once-a-week meeting time is meant to be a time to invest in men with the hope that out of this time we have men who have been prepared to be equipped to be leaders in the church and in their homes. This is a critical need for the future of Faith. Hopefully soon we will have what is needed to have an equivalent time to invest in women in the church to help them grow in the scripture and help equip the ladies for their service to the body of Christ.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I know this is a big change from how we have done things the last two years, but I believe we have crafted a calendar that fits the vision of keeping what is good, making things more consistent, grow what we are doing (and leaves room for growth) and is laid out in a sustainable way.
I am looking forward to joining in with you all as we pursue Christ together. May he grow our passion for Him and his kingdom and out of that may he build his church here at Faith!
Pastor Matt
Monthly Gathering Schedule
Sunday Mornings
- 9:30 AM – Preservice Prayer in the Upper Room
- 10:00 AM –Sunday Morning Worship
- 11:45 AM – Community Groups and Faith Kids
Sunday Evenings
- 1st Sunday 6:15 PM – Men’s Bible Study
- 2nd Sunday 6:15 PM – Youth Bible Study
- 3rd Sunday 6:15 PM – Women’s Bible Study
First Wednesday of the month
- 6:30 PM – Prayer Night
Thursday Mornings – Starting on 9/18
- 6:30 AM – 7:30 AM – Fellowship in the Word
Morning group for men to meet around God’s word and to grow specifically in their ability to study, understand, and teach.
Third Thursday of the month
- Faith, Family, & Fellowship
- 6:00 PM Potluck dinner
- 6:30 PM Bible Studies
Special Events Coming Up
10/3 – Fall Fellowship Around the Fire 5:30 PM
10/4 – Local Ministry and Missions Fair presented by AHG Troop 1313
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