Reflecting on the PAST
One year ago, Engage Church was mostly just a dream lodged in the hearts of a handful of people. We really don’t know how good our Creator is. Even long time Church people don’t always live our lives with the confidence that God is more giving, more gracious, more compassionate, and loving towards us than we can imagine. We believe God isn’t stuck in time on some rigid rail distantly overseeing his creation; watching us flail about trying to figure out life on our own. Instead, God works dynamically to meet us where we are and fill in the needs of our thirsty hearts. When we planted Engage, we saw a need in this community. Who was going to be a church for all of the people who are maybe looking for God but are skeptical of church as they’ve known it? We believe with all of our hearts that God raised up a group of people with a desire from God to meet that need. We launched our first worship gathering on Jan. 11th, 09. Ninety-four people came to see what this was all about. Over the rest of the year many people came to Engage and many (like yourselves) stayed at Engage because they’ve said, I’ve never met people like this before who are so open to friendship and who care about the things in life that matter most. Most importantly we’ve heard people say, “I come to Engage because it seems like God is there.” We’ve also heard people express the feeling of being pursued by a relational God when they recall, “Engage has helped us find something that we didn’t even know we were looking for.”
Fully engaging the PRESENT
On January 10th Engage Church will celebrate our one year anniversary by having our first baptism service. Baptism is admittedly a weird act of faith. But there is a megaton of symbolism packed into this out-of-the- ordinary act of faith. If you consider Engage to be your community of faith, please be at Engage on January 10th to help us celebrate God’s goodness and lives deeply changed by Christ. No party is complete without food. So plan on sticking around on Jan. 10th as we will be having a meal to follow our celebration. How can you help? Good question, thanks for asking. If your last name starts with an A-M please bring a side dish and a drink to share and if your last name begins with a N-Z please bring a main dish to share.
New Sunday Morning Series:
For the next five weeks starting Jan. 3rd we are doing a series called, “Cover Bands Don’t Change the World: Living Creatively in Mundane Life”. Most people don’t associate “God” with creativity. In fact, most people have come to see religion as more dull and drab than compelling and innovative. In Jesus we find a creative and innovative God who gives us new eyes and a deep motivation to live everyday life creatively. Ever been to a wedding and danced it up to the old familiar cover band tunes? Cover bands just recycle what everyone else is doing. They simply follow the crowd. It’s easy for us to just live life taking it as it comes and follow what everyone else is doing. That doesn’t take much creativity. Over the next month we will explore together the intersection of creativity, imagination, and the life and teachings of Jesus. The more you encounter Jesus the more your imagination grows. You begin to see everyday situations, people, work, and family in God-infused creative ways. The call of Jesus is a call to create life around you with God. Join us at Engage as we seek to live creatively.
Shaping the FUTURE
Well, ‘09 is now a thing of the past. I don’t know how ‘09 was for you, but for me ‘09 was exciting and hard at times. We had a dream to start a church for people who aren’t connecting with God at church as they’ve known it. God did that this year through us! That is no small feat. Only one in 7 church plants like Engage grow to a numerical size of 100 or more in the first 3-4 years of their existence. That means God has greatly blessed our efforts at Engage. People are coming, lives are changing, relationships are being forged, and we are engaging our community.
Now we look ahead into 2010. What does God have for Engage in 2010? When we started Engage a group of us asked God to show us what He wanted to do, who He wanted Engage to reach, what He wanted Engage to look like? We built Engage on the answers to those questions. As we look ahead, we realize Engage is not the same church as it was one year ago. Leading up to the start of Engage we believed that God was speaking His vision for Engage to “us”, not just “me”. So we want to hear your visions and dreams for Engage in 2010. Over the month of January the Leadership Team at Engage (Harold Travis, Kelly Chripczuk, Jon Hand, Matt Tuckey, and Jeremy Owen) will be listening, praying, seeking, and planning ways we can live out God’s dream for Engage in 2010. Please help us by leaving your dreams, vision, and what God is speaking to you by leaving a comment. We need your input as we seek God’s direction for Engage in 2010. All of your comments will be read and considered by the leadership team. Please leave your comments from now until January 15th. SCROLL UP AND CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST TO LEAVE A COMMENT. Thanks for contributing to the future of Engage.
