Pastor's Blog

• Wow, what an amazing Sunday at Hope Church!
• Today I made the HUGE announcement that our Hope Church offices & Ministry Center location is moving! After several weeks of being so cramped for space that we had to ask those who were on our team pre-launch to stay home just so we’d have enough space for new families on Wednesday nights, we’re now relocating our entire ministry center operation to 2 more larger suites in the same plaza — providing us almost 3Xs more space!!! Everyone was excited about the news!
• Each week we’re seeing church planters come and check out what we’re doing at Hope Church. Always a privilege to talk with them and answer their questions about our ministry environments and how we do what we do.
• Chris Brown, our children’s pastor, along with his wife Dori, had the week off from children’s ministry and were able to be a part of the adult worship experience in the auditorium. Everyone got to meet them today as they participated in the service by welcoming the congregation & leading us all in prayer. Great job Chris & Dori! I love and appreciate you both so much.
• Each week we continue to see more and more new people; today, adult attendance was up by nearly thirty people in the adult auditorium!
• Today’s message was the 4th and final installment in our LOVE STORY series — the climactic conclusion of our verse-by-verse journey through the book of Ruth. Preaching through Ruth has been an incredible joy, and I can really sense the transformative power of the Gospel taking root in the hearts of God’s people.
• We ended the service today with a powerful creative piece that really captured the theme that was woven through the entirety of today’s sermon from Ruth chapter 4. The creative piece itself was a variation of “cardboard testimonials” where different people would walk onto the stage holding a piece of cardboard, one side of the cardboard had their personal testimonial of how terrible their life used to be, and then the person would flip the cardboard over to show how God has redeemed them and transformed their life by the power of His gospel. One by one, 15 different people with 15 different stories walked across the stage, stopping briefly to share their cardboard testimonial, and then walking off, while the band & singers ministered “That’s What Faith Can Do” by Kutless…I literally wept as I read people’s stories of how God had radically changed their lives…absolutely powerful! Huge thanks to Trey Sheneman, our worship & arts pastor, for putting it together! Hope to have the video up later this week.
• This past week we had our first wave of new people complete our Growth Track process, and nearly all of them became official members of Hope Church! …Congratulations to all of our Growth Track graduates, and to all of you who just joined Hope Church — Welcome aboard!!!
• This upcoming Wednesday, March 3rd @ 7pm, everyone is invited to join us as we consecrate our new Ministry Center unto the Lord, and, as we kick-off a brand new Wednesday night series of teachings entitled “Ministry Madness: Finding Your FIT on Team Hope Church!” The address of Hope Church’s new ministry center location is: 2745 Mt Zion Road, Suites 106 & 107, Jonesboro GA 30236.
• Next Sunday we launch a brand new 4 part series of teachings, entitled “Wired to Connect.” As we continue growing as a church, this new series will drive us deeper into the Person & work of Jesus, and deeper into authentic Biblical community.
• I’m so excited about all that God is doing in our midst…hope you are too!

Click the comments button at the top and post your thoughts!

• Excited to get back into our Sunday groove after being snowed out the previous Sunday and not being able to have services at the Performing Arts Center.
• Yesterday we were thrown a curve ball…I received a call late Saturday evening from the PAC letting me know that because of scheduling conflicts with another organization, we weren’t going to be able to meet in our 350 seat theater. Instead, they were bumping us up the largest theater — which has over 1,200 seats! Now, although this gave us a free opportunity to ”test run” the largest theater, it also created some logistical challenges for our team (totally different stage set-up for our band, totally different set-up for our sound/tech/visual crew, deciding whether or not we would rope off certain sections of the theater, etc.)
• Huge thanks to all of my staff & leaders, and to all Hope Church “Dream Team” volunteers for all the extra work you put into making our worship environments flow smoothly!
• Still seeing tons of 1st time guests!!! It’s hard to believe this was just our 3rd Sunday service since our official public launch!
• Sunday’s set list: “I Am Free To Run” – (Newsboys version, but with a little different kick!), “How Great Thou Art” – (classic hymn), “God of This City” – (Chris Tomlin), “Revelation Song” – (Kari Jobe).
• The message I taught was part 3 of our LOVE STORY series. We walked through Ruth chapter 3, verse by verse. The chapter itself has very provocative content and is filled with sexual undertones…I was amazed and humbled by the rich response from God’s people to His word. (All sermons, including the one from yesterday, can be heard from the “media” page of our website by clicking HERE)
• One lady came up to me after service and introduced me to her husband. She’s been with us every Sunday since our launch but this was his first visit. The husband told me that he had given up on church, but because of his wife’s persistent requests for him to come he told her he’d visit Hope Church just to get her off his back…with tears in his eyes he looked at me and said, “pastor, God touched my heart today… I can’t wait to come back next Sunday!”
• This is why we do what we do!!!
• Next week is part 4 of LOVE STORY — you don’t want to miss it!!!
• Big announcements coming soon on the launching of our Grace Groups!
• Plans for Easter weekend at Hope Church are well under way…get ready to be a part of advancing God’s great Gospel across the Clayton Co. / Henry Co. area!!!
• Click the comments button above and share your thoughts.

I just received this email from Mary Held. Mary is my administrative assistant, and she’s also one of our ministry team leaders here at Hope Church.

“Hi pastor, I was keying in attendance from last night’s Membership class and I came across Doris N. who submitted a prayer request for her sister with stage 4 cancer. So I stopped and prayed, and then I gave her a call. When she answered the phone she told me that she had just arrived back home from visiting her sister in Carrollton. She said she couldn’t believe I called and was blown away because just this morning she was thinking to herself that she wished she had met someone well enough at church to go with her to visit her sister and pray…but she felt like she didn’t know anyone well enough yet. So I offered to go with her on next Monday…Pastor, she was so amazed and happy about my call and offer. She said she didn’t recognize the number and that she usually doesn’t answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, but “something told her to answer.” lol

Also, Doris is very excited about being a part of Hope Church. She came for LOVE STORY pt.2 and she’s been coming back every since, including the past 2 Wednesday nights for our Growth Track / Membership classes. She said she’s been in church for 50 years and she’s never been anywhere where God’s word is taught so plainly, and where the church actually explains what it means to be a Christian.

She said she can’t wait for Sunday!“

Doris, I’m so glad that God led you to be a part of this brand new movement of Hope and I’m honored that we’re able to be there for you and your sister. To God be the glory.

Click the comments button above and post your thoughts!

Welcome to Hope Church — a brand new, Spirit-filled, life-giving, “gospel centered” movement of HOPE, meeting every Sunday @ 10am at Clayton County Schools Performing Arts Center!

Here’s a video snippet of what took place at our grand opening launch service. Click the comments button and post your thoughts!

On yesterday morning (Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010) a brand new movement of hope was born.

At around 7:50am, 20 families from our launch team arrived for setup at the Clayton County Schools Performing Arts Center. It was a cold morning, we even saw a few light snow flurries around 8:30am. Everyone smiled with excitement as we all pitched in together to unload the trailer. One team was putting directional signs & parking signs at the PAC entrance. Another team was setting up the children’s ministry environments for HOPEville and Planet HOPE. The Connections teams were draping foyer tables, gathering bulletins, and setting up the coffee bar. While the band, praise team, and audio/visual crew were preparing the stage & sound in the auditorium.

At 9:50am, I went to find a quiet place to pray so I could thank God for His kindness and faithfulness to us, and to ask Him once again to draw people unto Himself by the power of His Spirit, and to glorify Himself through every aspect of our launch service.

At 10:00am sharp – the band was lighting it up with the sound of the first song from our worship set. I was still in my place of prayer, by this time in tears, reminding God — and myself, that we would be satisfied in Him regardless of the attendance and/or the perceived outcome.

As I was making my way to the auditorium at 10:06am, I noticed that the band & worship team were in the second song of the set. There were quite a few people in the foyer still making their way into the auditorium…I filed in behind them.

When I finally walked into the theater and looked around, my heart melted as I beheld the beauty of the Lord…a beautiful melting pot of people, young and old, of various races & colors, all over the theater…all worshiping Jesus Christ the true and living God.

On yesterday morning we had more than 253 people in attendance at Hope Church’s grand opening launch service at Clayton Co’s PAC.

Jesus was worshipped. His gospel was preached. Men, women & children responded. God was glorified. Heaven rejoices!

(post a comment and share your thoughts.)