Wow! What a Weekend!
It would be hard to pack much more good news into two days than we experienced over the weekend at Chapel Hill. If you missed it—you really missed it!
First, we gathered as a congregation to vote to call Ellis White to be our Associate Pastor for Weekend Services. It’s hard to believe that Ellis and Rachel have been with us for seven-and-a-half years, starting as missionaries and then with Ellis as an intern and then Assistant Pastor for the past two years. But this decision to invite Ellis to become an Associate is a declaration that we love him, believe in him, and want him to continue as our pastor for many, many years to come. And really, it’s a two-fer! Rachel has incredible ministry gifts of her own which she is sharing with us. What good news this is!
Then there was our incredible baptism celebration. For the first time ever, we had a baptism tank in the sanctuary for those who wanted to be dunked. Twenty-five people presented themselves for baptism as they professed their faith in Christ. On Saturday night, for example, I walked in from the parking lot to discover four men waiting for me, men who came on Christmas Eve, heard our invitation to faith, and came, wanting to be baptized. People receiving Jesus and being baptized! What good news this is!
And if that weren’t enough, there’s this: we are in the midst of our Beyond These Walls initiative to eliminate $5.5 million of debt so as to give ourselves away as never before. This weekend I announced that to date, we have paid off $3,092,699. Amazing generosity! What good news this is!
This weekend we welcome Craig Springer to our pulpit. Craig is the Executive Director of Alpha USA and has served at the largest church in our denomination—Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The last time he preached at Chapel Hill he was fantastic, and if you want to remind yourself, you can listen to it here. Saturday at 6:30 pm and Sunday at 9:00 and 10:45 am, he will preach an exciting message about how we can experience joy in our lives.
And Craig is coming right on the heels of our latest launch of Alpha, which saw 96 people show up to explore life, faith, and meaning together! Please invite someone to join you next Wednesday at 6:00 pm—food and childcare included. You can register here so we can be sure to have enough food and materials!
2019 already appears to be shaping up to be a barn-burner. Thanks for being a part of it. I’ll see you in church…and don’t forget to bring a friend.