Family and friends,
Going through this holiday season makes us all the more thankful for the many blessings provided by our church family in North Carolina, the friends that have become family here in Boston, and all the gifts that are ultimately given by Jesus Christ.
Read below for updates from last month’s prayer requests:
1. Collegiate Conference
With Boston College and Boston University only a mile from our own home in each direction, we have almost 50,000 students in our area. Each of these students are at a pivotal time in their lives to hear and understand the words of Jesus. Last month Emily and I and one of our college leaders, Aryn, went to Lowell, MA for a short collegiate conference hosted by the North American Mission Board. This conference was meant to equip college leaders to better reach college campuses in our nation with the good news of Jesus through the local church. We came away with a lot of vision, best practices, and some helpful resources. We pray that the tools we gathered at the conference will enable us to better minister to, love, and serve the college students here in Boston.
2. Friendsgiving
What a great night we had together! We had 26 people join us for a Friendsgiving in our home this year where we prayed over our meal thanking God for His provision and spent time building relationships with one another. The most special thing about this Friendsgiving was the variety of people there from different connections to us and our friends. We had neighbors from our complex, college students from our weekly Community Group, roommates of our Community Group members, and athletes from a ministry on Boston College’s campus. One student even said, “I’ve never seen anything like this”. What a good representation of God’s family and how He draws all different people to Himself. Please pray that each meal, each conversation, and each prayer will see the good news of Jesus be known to those we know and love here in Boston.
3. Thanksgiving in NC
Although our time back in NC for the holiday was brief, it was great to see both sides of our families to celebrate Thanksgiving! K met her Gigi (great grandmother on Emily’s side), her Aunt Jenn, Uncle Dave, and cousin Jackson (on my side) for the first time. K was showered with gifts from friends and family throughout the week and through the generosity of Hickory Grove and its members. Emily and I are extremely grateful to know that, while Boston is home, we have such a good church family to come back to each time we visit. This is a special thank you for your personal kindness to us as a family, your dedication to regularly pray for and provide for us, and how you continue to encourage us in our ministry here in Boston.
Read below for prayer requests for the month of December:
1. Community Group Multiplication
Emily and I lead a Community Group of our church planting core team every Sunday night (as well as a second Community Group of college students every Thursday night). Part of our strategy of church planting is through the growth of our Community Groups. We desire to not just be a church with Community Groups; instead, we desire to be a church of Community Groups. Our goal for starting a Sunday morning gathering is to have 3 Community Groups of 10-12 people. By God’s grace, at the beginning of the new year we will reach that goal! Starting the first week of January, our Sunday night Community Group will multiply into 2 separate groups to better reach the pockets of people around us. These Community Groups are where we live out the identity of disciple, family, missionary, and servant. Please pray for fruitful ministry, for those far from Christ to come to these groups, and for our groups to be biblically strong and gospel-focused in our care for one another and the community around us.
2. Steps Toward Launching our Church!
Church planting has been a long journey for Emily and I and the team of people that joined us a few months ago from North Carolina. We are still on track to start weekly services in September 2019, just nine short months away! Emily and I are in the final steps of getting city approval and reserving a meeting space at a local high school called Brighton High. We have a great relationship with this school and have served there many times in the past year with clean up projects or providing gift cards to 40 of their homeless students. Please pray that the meeting space requests are approved quickly and with no issues! This is a huge prayer request for us and the most pressing one right now.
Our plan is to launch:
-Interest Meeting: January 6
-Vision Nights: 3 monthly prayer gatherings from February to April
-Preview Services: 4 monthly Sunday morning gatherings (to make any necessary changes) from May to August
-Weekly Services: City on a Hill Church in Brighton starting September 8
We know this has been a long process for us as well as our prayer partners so thank you for your diligence in praying us to this very spot! We trust that God will continue to provide and guide us to the right place for the church to start.
3. Colborne Christmas Party
Along with the logistics of starting a new church in our neighborhood, we also desire to reach our community and specifically our direct neighbors in our complex with the love and kindness of Jesus Christ. This month Dan and Kelly Jacobs (who are a part of our church planting launch team) will be hosting a Christmas party for our friends and neighbors in this area. We are so thankful for our launch team’s partnership in sharing the good news of Jesus’ birth with all of those around us in tangible and intangible ways. Pray for opportunities to love, serve, and care for our neighbors well during this holiday season and specifically for gospel opportunities at this Christmas party tomorrow.
4. Passion Conference
Passion Conference exists to see a generation of 18 to 25-year-old students to leverage their lives for Jesus Christ. Emily and I will be leading a group of ten students/leaders from local colleges to DC January 2 to 4. This will be the first time our college ministry has had a large enough college presence at the church to take a group, so we are very excited! We’ve seen the college ministry grow from 2 students to 25 in the last year. Pray for lives to be altered by and for the good news of Jesus and that the students we bring would either come to a saving faith in Jesus alone or be drawn closer to Him in their walk with God.
