Friends and family,
The summer season has begun, and we are excited about the community engagement that will happen over the next few months! Below is an update based on last month’s prayer requests as well as specific ways you can pray for us this month:
1. First Preview Service Last Month
City on a Hill Brighton had its very first preview service on May 5. We had 57 people attend, including kids, co-workers, and a few people from the community! From this preview service, I was able to have a follow-up gospel conversation with someone who made a profession of faith. Emily and I are so excited by the trajectory of the church as we continue to grow and take steps towards beginning weekly services in September.
2. Cross Pointe Volunteer Team
Cross Pointe is a valuable partner church from Georgia and brought their first volunteer team to Boston this week. These seven volunteers helped with promotion for our community events, setup/teardown our movie night in the park, setup for our second preview service, engagement in the community with gospel conversations and a lot more. Volunteer teams accomplish tasks and goals that we would otherwise be unable to complete. For example, our Cross Pointe volunteers organized what will become our church’s storage space in a local high school’s auditorium (where our church gathers). This project was essential to being prepared for future services. We are so thankful for each of our volunteer teams and the personal encouragement they are to me and Emily!
3. Movie Night in the Park Yesterday
We started off our summer season with our first movie night of the year last night. Even with school still being in session for the year, we had almost 200 people from our community gathered together! At each movie night we have a church information table where people can give us their information and let us know if they are interested in more of our events or even if they are interested in events specifically focused on exploring their faith. We had 10 people express an interest in exploring their faith! We will follow up with each of these individuals to pursue these gospel conversations. City on a Hill Brighton will host five of these movie nights throughout the summer (once per month) and we look forward to seeing the fruit from these events.
Ways to Pray:
1. Preview Service TOMORROW
Our church’s second preview service is TOMORROW. We will meet at 10am in the auditorium of a local school, Brighton High, which is well-known and easily accessible to our community.
Pray for:
-A culture of hospitality and gospel intentionality to grow within our members even now
-A smooth morning with minimal issues or obstacles
-Those far from Jesus to come to faith in Him through the teaching of His Word and a clear explanation of the gospel
2. Movie Night in the Park June 21
Movie nights in the park are a great week to engage with the community as a whole, build personal relationships with those that attend, bless our neighbors in a tangible way, and serve the community with no expectation of anything in return. From each large event like this at least one family becomes a regular part of the life of our church, including Community Groups, Sunday morning services, and more. Please pray that life change would happen for multiple families through community events like these. Also pray that we would have many more individuals express interest in exploring their faith when they visit our church information table.
3. Aaron Preaches June 30
Many churches in the metro Boston area lack a large staff to rely on for preaching help. Instead, church plants in Boston and surrounding areas have created a solid network of camaraderie and friendship to use other pastors to preach. Through this brotherhood of church planters, I have had the opportunity to preach multiple times to a wide variety of churches, including an Indian church, a church in the metro area of Boston, and a church in downtown. On June 30, I will be preaching at City on a Hill Church Somerville (20 minutes north of where our church plant will be located in Brighton).
Pray for:
-Rest for these pastors that take a small break from preaching.
-Smooth sermon preparation and faithful teaching of the Word
-The Spirit to move mightily in the hearts of those that hear the good news of Jesus