Hendersonville Church of the Nazarene

Dear HCN Family,

GREETINGS
It’s been a very interesting past 48 hours. As many of you know, our church bus was vandalized late Wednesday night along with another church in Hendersonville. Our new video surveillance cameras caught them on video and we were able to provide the footage to the police. The police texted me late last night and said our video was what helped them catch those responsible. They were arrested late last night and charged with both vandalism incidents that took place a month ago on our church building and this past Wednesday night on our bus. We are thankful for the police work and their dedication to finding those responsible. We took the bus into the shop this morning and it is being repaired, cleaned, and having our new church name, logos, and lettering put on.

We are thankful that the threat of vandalism has been drastically reduced because they have been caught. We are thankful for Keith Roberts who donated and installed our surveillance camera system, which was key in finding them. We also pray for those who did this. It is their damaged hearts and souls we should care most about being repaired and redeemed by God through any way possible. They hate God, but God doesn’t hate them. Let us reflect God’s heart towards them whether they hate us or not. I’ve already reached out to the police and started looking into how we can reach out to them and show them the grace and love of God during this time. I want them to know that even though they haven’t asked for our forgiveness, they are forgiven. 

Our Vision is Making Disciples by the Water 
We make Disciples By the Water in three ways.

Worship – Connect – Serve
I will share updates and announcements that relate to all three.

WORSHIP
We look forward to our worship service this Sunday. We also look ahead towards Family Sunday which is our next Fifth Sunday coming up onOctober 30th. Our kids and teens will be actively involved in the service. We will get a chance to see a video of our kids as well as hear more about children’s ministry from Pastor Michelle. 

Parent Luncheon for Children Ministry – with Pastor Michelle
Following the worship service on Family Sunday October 30th, we will be providing a lunch for all of the parents and families who have children in our children’s ministry. Pastor Michelle will spend time talking with the parents about what’s happening in Children’s Ministry now and moving forward as well as have a Q & A time for the parents. Lunch will be provided by the church after morning worship. Please contact Pastor Michelle or respond to the invitation from the Cove that will be sent out soon so that we know how much food to provide. 

Fifth Sunday Evening Service – Pot Luck Fellowship Dinner
Our Fifth Sunday Classic Worship Service will take place on October 30th at 5:30 pm followed by a potluck fellowship dinner. 

CONNECT

Life Groups 
As I wrote in last week’s Friday Focus, we are re-setting our life groups to be opened back up to any night or day at any time. We are also encouraging life groups to remain longer than 12 weeks. We are going back to the original format we started last year. I will be training and resourcing our group leaders. I’ve already been working with a couple of life groups that will be forming. As we move forward, please let me know if you are interested in hosting or leading a life group. I also have many different life group resources in my office library available for anyone to borrow. 

Women’s Sunday Evening Life Group
The women’s Sunday evening life group is starting on October 23rd. It will meet at 5:30 pm. The focus will be to strengthen each other through prayer, fellowship, and God’s Word. All women of all ages are welcome to come. It will meet at the church. 

Men’s Breakfast This Saturday – Oct. 15th at 8:30 am
All men are invited to come and join us tomorrow morning at the church for a men’s breakfast. We will be enjoying food, fellowship, and will be sharing with everyone about Men’s Ministries. We hope you can join us. 

SERVE

Spiritual Gifts Training – Wednesdays Starting November 9th
Just a reminder we will be going through a 12 week Spiritual Gifts training together on Wednesday evenings starting on November 9th. I will be leading both our men’s and women’s Bible Study groups through this course. It will be fun and interactive discovery process for all of us. We hope you can make plans to be a part of it. 

Bus Ministry at HCN
We are working on forming a bus ministry where we will be picking up and taking home children and teens on Wednesday evenings andSunday mornings. This will also potentially include others in the community. If you are interested in becoming involved as either a driver or adult chaperone, please contact myself or Chris Spann. This is an exciting new ministry opportunity we have to bring in many others from our community who otherwise would not be able to come to church. 

Fresh Start Resources in Hendersonville 
We have an established partnership with Fresh Start Resources which is a non-profit ministry in our community who works to reach and help recovering addicts and recovering convicts re-establish their lives and families back into the community. There are several ways and opportunies we have to be involved in making a difference in the lives of single parents and so many others. If you feel like this is an opportunity for you to be involved, we wanted to let you know about it and then we can talk more about the ministry opportunities there are. 

Prayer Team 
We are always looking to improve our prayer ministry and ways in which we can become more intentional with our prayer lives. 

Other Serving Opportunities