Easter was indeed for EVERYONE.
Easter was indeed for EVERYONE.
Whether a person like Peter, Mary Magdelene, John, Thomas, or a guy named Cleopas – Easter and Resurrection was for everyone. From the songs to the spoken word artist, last weekend's worship service was for everyone. By the way, the spoken word artist's name is Lynn Woods and he is the youth pastor at Parkside Christian Church here in Cincy. The videos were shot out at Spring Grove Cemetery and created just for our Easter weekend worship service. Lynn has some other videos on YouTube ("Colorful Creation" and "Is This What It Takes?") if you want more.
We had a total Easter Weekend Service attendance of 3,348 which is a new record for us. And that’s with a ton of people gone for Spring Break who will catch the service online later. Every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God!
This attendance number was made possible by many of you passionately and creatively inviting family and friends to come. 9 year old Kaitlyn Johnston made this to give to her grandparents.
Love so much the relationship Kaitlyn continues to develop with Jesus through our Harbortown volunteers’ encouragement. How proud her mom and dad must be!
One buddy told me that he was traveling here from Ross for the 9:30am service and a whole caravan of cars traveled with him here and turned into our entrance! Also got an email from an amazing gal who has spent some time in the Big House before Jesus got her in HIS house. She wrote – ‘I thought the Easter service was phenomenal, definitely could feel the Holy Spirit moving throughout the service!!! Haven’t felt that since prison, lol.’ Can’t make this stuff up!
Hundreds of you invited friends who came and I am so proud! You took step 1 and that was the hardest. Now that they attended, take the next critical step andsend them a text or give them a phone call within the next three days and let them know how excited you were about their decision to check us out. Ask them how they felt about attending. (We built this place exactly for them!) Ask them to join you in serving and helping us tackle the biggest problems in our community, country, and world through Solve 7. Perhaps even buy/give them aBible and encourage them to spend 10 minutes a day reading God’s Word. If they do not have a Bible they can download a free one for their smart phone. I recommend the New International Version (NIV). Lastly - make sure they return to Whitewater Crossing ASAP. Going to a church is not simply a good idea – it’s God’s idea! This Sunday would be the perfect one as we introduce the next chapter of our Like Jesus journey we are all traveling on. We will transition from Thinking Like Jesus to Acting Like Jesus.
By the way, we now have an interpreter at the 11:15am service for anyone who is hearing impaired. Look for them down front on the left side of the stage. Jesus and church truly are for EVERYONE!
We also had 65 Haiti students sponsored at the Solve 7 Table! The table will not be up this week, but you can still go online anytime to sponsor a student. Man, what a generous church we have here! I also got word from our Finance Team that we are making great progress paying off our mortgage debt. $800,000 has been paid down so far this year in additional principal payments! (This reduction will shave more than two years off the loan!!)
May Jesus continue to do His work here and may we celebrate God raising the dead every day for everyone.