We're entering an exciting season in the life of the church. Resurrection Sunday is rapidly approaching! We have a tradition in our Sunday gathering that whenever the resurrection is mentioned we scream and cheer (well... maybe I'm trying to make it a tradition by telling everyone to yell and scream when I mention the resurrection)!
Either way, as followers of Jesus, the resurrection should evoke in us emotions of awe, joy and gratitude. It was literally the BEST DAY in history and when we put our faith in Jesus, the one who died and rose again, we will experience the BEST DAY of our lives. We also know that all of us who have trusted Jesus will one day experience the most ultimate BEST DAY when we see Jesus face to face.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we launched what we're calling the BEST DAY challenge a little over a week ago. Our goal is to give our people the opportunity to love their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers extravagantly. We're trying to give them a chance to provide multiple "great days" for those they love with the hope and prayer of doors opening for gospel conversations.
We're challenging, encouraging, and praying that through these "great days" our people would have multiple opportunities to share about the BEST DAY in history... to share the good news that Jesus died and rose again to provide forgiveness of sins and restored relationship to God. Ultimately, we're praying that on our next baptism Sunday we would see more people than we ever have before celebrating new life in Christ!
How can you pray?
1) We challenged everyone in our church to pray for 2 people that they want to pursue with the gospel and to pray for the Holy Spirit to draw them to salvation. Please pray that our folks would accept this challenge and that God would be working in the hearts of all the "two's" that are being pursued.
2) The first "great day" we want to provide is dinner at a nice restaurant in Central Tacoma called Engine House 9 (E9). Each of our Intentional Communities have been given a night to take over the party room of E9 and fill it (up to 40 people) for the purpose of showing love and sparking gospel conversations. Please pray that our people would invite. Please pray that their 2 would come to dinner. Pray for gospel conversations.
3) The second "great day" is Easter Sunday. We're challenging people to invite their 2 to our Easter gathering April 5th. We have several photographers in our church and one of them will be taking FREE family portraits and we'll be providing one free print per family. Just another way to show God's love. Pray that people would come on Easter, that they would hear the gospel, feel the gospel and trust the gospel. Pray that they would connect to one of our Intentional Communities or to one of 3 new groups (pray that these all materialize) that should be launching after Easter. Most of all, pray that our people would use our Easter gathering as a catalyst for sharing their faith and inviting their 2 to follow Jesus.
4) The third "great day" is the week following Easter. All of our Intentional Communities will be throwing parties so that people can come and connect on a relational level with the community of believers. Some will be having dinners, others might have game nights or go do something fun in the community. Please pray for people to find themselves immersed in the body of Christ and that they would be radically changed by the gospel.
5) The fourth "great day" will hopefully come after the BEST DAY... the day many of these people put their trust in Jesus. We will be celebrating baptism April 19th and are praying that more people will be baptized than we could ever imagine!
Thank you for your prayers. We'll keep you posted!
Either way, as followers of Jesus, the resurrection should evoke in us emotions of awe, joy and gratitude. It was literally the BEST DAY in history and when we put our faith in Jesus, the one who died and rose again, we will experience the BEST DAY of our lives. We also know that all of us who have trusted Jesus will one day experience the most ultimate BEST DAY when we see Jesus face to face.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we launched what we're calling the BEST DAY challenge a little over a week ago. Our goal is to give our people the opportunity to love their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers extravagantly. We're trying to give them a chance to provide multiple "great days" for those they love with the hope and prayer of doors opening for gospel conversations.
We're challenging, encouraging, and praying that through these "great days" our people would have multiple opportunities to share about the BEST DAY in history... to share the good news that Jesus died and rose again to provide forgiveness of sins and restored relationship to God. Ultimately, we're praying that on our next baptism Sunday we would see more people than we ever have before celebrating new life in Christ!
How can you pray?
1) We challenged everyone in our church to pray for 2 people that they want to pursue with the gospel and to pray for the Holy Spirit to draw them to salvation. Please pray that our folks would accept this challenge and that God would be working in the hearts of all the "two's" that are being pursued.
2) The first "great day" we want to provide is dinner at a nice restaurant in Central Tacoma called Engine House 9 (E9). Each of our Intentional Communities have been given a night to take over the party room of E9 and fill it (up to 40 people) for the purpose of showing love and sparking gospel conversations. Please pray that our people would invite. Please pray that their 2 would come to dinner. Pray for gospel conversations.
3) The second "great day" is Easter Sunday. We're challenging people to invite their 2 to our Easter gathering April 5th. We have several photographers in our church and one of them will be taking FREE family portraits and we'll be providing one free print per family. Just another way to show God's love. Pray that people would come on Easter, that they would hear the gospel, feel the gospel and trust the gospel. Pray that they would connect to one of our Intentional Communities or to one of 3 new groups (pray that these all materialize) that should be launching after Easter. Most of all, pray that our people would use our Easter gathering as a catalyst for sharing their faith and inviting their 2 to follow Jesus.
4) The third "great day" is the week following Easter. All of our Intentional Communities will be throwing parties so that people can come and connect on a relational level with the community of believers. Some will be having dinners, others might have game nights or go do something fun in the community. Please pray for people to find themselves immersed in the body of Christ and that they would be radically changed by the gospel.
5) The fourth "great day" will hopefully come after the BEST DAY... the day many of these people put their trust in Jesus. We will be celebrating baptism April 19th and are praying that more people will be baptized than we could ever imagine!
Thank you for your prayers. We'll keep you posted!
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