New Series
I am so excited and burning to begin a brand-new series on the fullness of God. The idea of fullness may mean different things for different people, but it essentially means the full spiritual life of God that can work in and through us.
Specifically, I'll be talking about the greater measures of God available to us, the principles of seeking and finding, the lies that rob us, the practical insights for developing a deeper walk, the importance of hunger and thirst, the obvious and not-so-obvious obstacles that block the life flow of God's presence, the unsung secret of attaining more, and the primary motivations that fuel the sacrifice needed to go deep.
I believe we are at a critical moment in the story of Ren. Soon we will be relocating to the front lines, in a sense, at our new 184 Broad Street address. The Lord is placing us in the center of the action and making us very accessible to all kinds of people who need God's love. This is a time for us to pray like never before. It's time to shake off lethargy, overeating and excessive media intake. It's time to narrow our interests and lay ahold of more of God's love so that we are ready and well-equipped for this next season.
Our dream is that Ren would be a house of prayer for all nations, marked by the tangible presence of God. We dream of people streaming in who have never even been to a church and being transformed by the presence of Christ. Our nice building, skilled music, animated sermons, and awesome coffee will not be enough to raise people from spiritual death into brand-newness of life. We need a fresh infilling and greater measure of God upon our church. I need it as the lead pastor and I'm praying it would trickle down to every one of us at Ren. Let's set our hearts to pursue God like never before in this new year!
New Building 2015
The race is on. Our lease in our present building is up at the end of February and we are aiming to move into 184 Broad on March 1st. That puts considerable pressure on us on many levels. I am asking with all my heart that each of you would help to see this to completion. Please pray for me and the small team managing the renovation that we'd have sufficient energy and wisdom.
The first way you can help is by volunteering to paint, clean, move stuff, and do other tasks. Most of the skilled tasks are finished or will soon be finished by professionals. What is needed is "man hours" (or woman hours). The remaining tasks are very, very time consuming. Starting this week, the doors will be open Friday nights 7-10pm and Saturdays 10-4pm. I am away this Saturday but, for the most part, both Nate and I plan to be there every Friday and Saturday to manage volunteers. We will direct you, feed you, set you up with supplies, and cheer you on. Please make every effort to carve out some time to volunteer.
The second way you can help is financially. Many of you have already given generously and I'm so grateful for the $155,000 raised. Because this building is so old we have run into several complicated and expensive things that have pushed our renovation total to about $200,000. This is strictly interior work - we are going to have to wait until later to tackle exterior improvements. Again, I want to ask from the heart that each of us would consider an extra gift. Hopefully all of us are giving at least a tithe (10%) of our income to Ren, if Ren is our church. But I'm asking us to stretch and consider giving maybe 12% or 20% or whatever for a couple months until we can get this done. Let's harness the power of our collective generosity. We can do this!!
The good news is that we can be in this new building for a solid decade with no lease increase. The hardest part financially is right now just getting the renovation completed. Once we are in, we will have very low rent and a beautiful functional spacious building in the heart of the city. Let's not grow weary. This would be a good time to read the short book of Haggai (selah).
New Helpers
Several of our kids ministries have urgently requested more helpers. Some of our workers are working up to 3 and 4 Sundays a month in our growing kids ministry. We can't let this go on. There's not a need so much for skilled teachers, but just classroom assistants. We have strong leaders for these ministries but we just need some helpers to come alongside. If you are a regular at Ren would you be willing to consider serving once a month? Thanks!
–Pastor Scott A.