Yesterday at Grace Fellowship was another phenomenal day.  I continue to be humbled and filled with joy over the ways God is working in and through our church family.  Here are some highlights and the BIG ANNOUNCMENTS MADE YESTERDAY!

*  We baptized 39 new follwers of Christ yesterday after the 12:0o noon service.  It was awesome as one entire family was baptized together – one man was baptized who was saved during our services on Sunday – a mother & daughter were baptized together – a husband and wife were baptized together –  several were baptized as a result of the influence of their life groups.   It was awesome to see so many adults being baptized and the joy in the celebration we had together!

*  Because of your generosity as we continue to LOVE LOUD – we are able to feed 160 families a full thanksgiving meal this year.  In addition we’ve been able to provide another 150+families with much needed groceries durin this holiday season and take more food to Wise Area Relief Ministries.   I’m so thankful that we continue to learn as a church that we cannot outgive God.

*  ANNOUNCEMENT:  The Balcony is moving along well and will be ready for us to use on Sunday – December 13th.  In light of this space being provided, we’ll be abe to go back to 2 services at the original times:  9:30am and 11:00am on Sunday, Dec. 13.  Thanks so much to all of you who moved to 12:00 noon to help us provide additional space in the earlier services during this transition.   As we move back to two services and open the balcony let’s PACK THIS PLACE on Dec. 13th.   I’ll also start a very interesting Christmas Series of Messages that day called:  Backstage Pass.   By the way – the 2nd service yesterday was packed to the hilt – we had to add chairs everywhere we could find places to put them!

* BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:  In light of your faithfulness in giving , a financial blessing from on of our members, and the wise handling of the funds entrusted to our care – we are able to move to Phase 3 of our building plans  (we’ll hold off on phase 2 for a while).  With MLT approval we are moving forward to build a new Student Center Building which will also have space for adult events; this is another multi-purpose building.   IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME !!!!    In addition, we’ll transfrom the existing student space in our building to additional Childrens & Preschool space.   I think we’ll all be blown away.   The other part of the great news is that we’ll not have to borrow a cent from the bank to complete these projects.   The student building, the renovation of the student area for children and preschool, and the balcony will all be paid for when we move in! 

* LOVING GOD – LOVING PEOPLE – LOVING LIFE – is more than just a catchy slogan.    It’s a definition of our purpose and mission; and we’re committed to this because we know that heaven and hell are real places and every person will spend eternity in one of them.  We want to do everything we can to introduce boys and girls, students, and adults to the grace of God through Jesus Christ so they’ll impact their world in this life and spend eternity with God in the next.

* HELL – YES?  HELL – NO?   I heard so many of you share positive comments about this message yesterday.  You can point others to the message by directing them to our podcast on our website.

* JIM & TIM     As always JIM (Jerry Burnett) did a fantastic job with the JIM BUILDING UPDATE and his introduction of Tim Hawkins.   The clips we saw were hilarious.  Remember to invite everyone you meet to our Grace Christmas Celebration with TIM HAWKINS on Dec. 19 & 20th this year.  It’s going to be hilarious and the gospel of Jesus Christ will be shared in a creative manner.  If you and I will do our parts, we ought to be able to pack the auditorium during all four productions (4pm & 7pm on Sat and on Sun).