I love celebrating Easter; it’s usually a big day at most churches. It was a huge weekend for us this year; the biggest in Grace Fellowship history! We got to talk with 3544 people about Jesus this Easter weekend!

We invited people to engage with us in conversations about their spiritual journey and we’ll be following up with them for quite some time!

In addition to this, we started and wrapped up Easter Sunday services with baptism; baptizing 14 people. I was stoked!!!

Our vision hasn’t changed: “We exist to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” We have a four-fold strategy: INVITE CONNECT GROW GO.

Thank you for taking the core value of “INVITE” to heart! You made the difference and we had more first time guests and families than we’ve ever had.  Lives are being changed; please pray with us now that many of the guests we met at Easter will “CONNECT” at Grace or a church near them!  You guys rock.

On Saturday night, we had the biggest single service crowd in the history of our church family with 1508 people in attendance. Our volunteers and staff were stretched to the max in just about every area.  Every seat in the auditorium was filled, people were standing around the walls and there were nearly 200 people in overflow in the atrium.

Small World and PZ were overrun with kids which was amazing! It also stretched us to the max which showed us the potential we have in light of the many families with young children who are attending Grace. We had over 100 first time families registering their children on Saturday night. We are praying about solutions to provide more space.

When we did the helicopter egg drop, the scene reminded me of one of the battle scenes from Braveheart (without the blood & gore of course)! We learned some valuable lessons this year and will improve our egg hunts next year, but it was an amazing sight!

The Petting Zoo had a constant line and was another big hit. We just need a bigger petting zoo, or more of them, the next time we have petting zoos.

So, I want to thank our volunteers and staff. Thank you – Thank you – Thank you! I also want to thank all of you who jumped in to help on Saturday night even if you weren’t scheduled to serve.

It was an amazing weekend where we got to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and share His truth with 1000’s of people.  I’m humbled by all that happened over the weekend and look forward to the conversations we will have with folks in the weeks to come.

Here Are 3 Things You Can Do NOW To Help Make An Even Greater Impact:

1. PRAY for us as we try to follow up on many people who are open to talking further about their spiritual journey, and as we follow up with the many first time guests who attended. Thank you!
2. CONNECT – get involved and serve in a ministry; especially in our Small World, Children’s, and Student areas.  If you want to GROW, you need to SERVE and we need your help if we’re to fulfill God’s mission and vision for our church.
3. INVITE people to join us this Sunday, April 23, at 8:30am, 10:00am or 11:30am to hear NAVY SEAL Chad Williams. I think it’s going to be “off the charts!”

Grateful to serve with you,
Pastor BJ