Diving In

God continues to amaze me with His goodness, provision, and faithfulness! God recently called my wife and me to leave a full-time salary and help with Relate Church, a new church plant in Hendersonville, NC.  We have been blown away with the heart of this church. It has been such an awesome challenge working with leaders who have an unquenchable passion to reach this city, and to branch out in order to reach more cities. The passion is not to grow Relate but to fulfill the Great Commission, if the church grows from outreach, then great, but the heart is to reach the lost, period!  I know that many of you have been praying for Melissa and me since we have begun this journey so I wanted to give you all an update on how things are going so far.

Since we have moved we really haven’t had a chance to catch a breath and have just dove right in head first. Don’t get me wrong, we have loved every minute and are not complaining whatsoever. It’s amazing how we knew this summer that God was saying NOW is the time to trust Him and move. Well now it all makes sense as Relate has tripled in size within the past month. We recently have gone to two Sunday morning services: 9:35am & 11:15am. We have been averaging around 150 counting both services, however, this past Sunday we had 177 in attendance and 12 people received Christ. We are already discussing a third service as our second service has been pretty packed with people sitting on the floor this past Sunday. With our location being the Skyland Theatre in downtown Hendersonville, it has opened doors for us to minister to so many people. The opportunities that I have had to share Jesus with people this past month have been unbelievable. During the Applefestival this year downtown Hendersonville was packed with tourists from all around the southeast. Since we are right in the middle of downtown, we opened up our church to the public offering clean restrooms, free waters, or just a place to get out of the heat. This turned out to be a huge hit because the only restrooms available were on just one side of Main St, and local businesses wouldn’t allow you to use the restroom unless you were purchasing something there. We had around 3,000 people pass through our church that day, and everyone was so appreciative. This opened up opportunities for many conversations about Jesus and the gospel. That evening our band did a concert in the theatre, and rocked out! I was so humbled by the number of Relate volunteers who gave up their entire Saturday to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and actually had fun doing it. I didn’t hear one complaint from anybody all day, and we really just had a blast serving and loving people.

This has just been one example of the heartbeat of Relate Church and our desire to show the love of Christ to the community and ultimately the world. It has certainly been a ride and we are excited with what is to come. This move has certainly not come without its share of challenges and the enemy has been on the attack, but by the grace of God we are pressing on.  Continue to pray for us as we dive in and get our hands dirty. We aren’t here to cruise and be comfortable, but to serve and see Christ glorified. Pray that we will stay focused on the prize and call that God has placed on our lives. We give God all the glory for everything He has done through us and Relate Church. Without Him we are nothing, but through Him we can do anything!