Dear Church Family,
GREETINGS
Happy New Year!!! I hope and pray that you have had a safe and enjoyable holiday season! I hope that Christmas and New Years has been about fun, food, friends, and family! My prayer for you is that the Lord may richly bless you, keep you, guide you, and prosper you in 2016. As we all look back on 2015, we see highs and lows in our personal lives, our family lives, and even our church life. Some of us have experienced loss. Some have experienced gain. We have seen success and we have seen failure, but we are reminded through it all, that God is still God and that He will never leave us nor forsake us. I read in one of my personal devotional times this past week a piece from Oswald Chambers who wrote these words. “God is the God of our yesterdays and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future.”
We can’t change yesterday. But we can allow yesterday to change us fortomorrow.
The prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 52:12 – “You shall not go out with haste, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”
I pray that we as a congregation will allow God to teach us from our past, will allow God to walk with us in the present, and will allow God to guide and go before us in the future. May we never get ahead of God!!! May HE lead us into 2016!
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Prayer Needs
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please read over the weekly prayer list that I sent out on Wednesday. There are several prayer needs within our church family.
New Sermon Series in January – “Fearless Faith”
I’m excited to announce our new four part sermon series that will begin thisSunday Jan. 3rd, entitled Fearless Faith. As we head into 2016 with so many questions, challenges, fears, or even worries, we will focus each week over the next 4 Sundays on a story in the Bible where God helped someone overcome their fears to be used in amazing ways. I truly hope that these next four Sundays will be a season of encouragement, inspiration, and hope for us through the timeless truth of God’s Word as we head into the new year.
State of the Church Address – Sunday January 31st
I want to share with everyone that I will be sharing our Annual State of the Church Address on Sunday morning January 31st. This will be a time where I will share with our entire congregation a look back on 2015 and a look ahead to 2016. I will share with you information about our finances, resources, staff, vision and ministry plans moving forward. I hope you don’t miss it!
Life Group Focus in 2016
One of our major focuses of 2016 will be the continued growth and formation of Life Groups ministries at HCN. I ask that you begin praying now about how God would want you to be involved in a life group. We will be sharing more in the next several weeks.
This Weekend – Sunday January 3rd
We will resume our normal Sunday Schedule with Sunday School at 9:00 amand Worship at 10:15 am. We look forward to a great opportunity to come together for worship for the first time in 2016. May the Lord bless you and keep you and may He shine His face upon you!!! See you all on Sundaymorning!!!
In Christ’s Love,