First Celebration Gathering!

Yesterday we had our first Celebration Gathering for our church plant! We were so excited to make this addition to our home group, and we are very much looking forward to see how God grows us into a church body. This is such a huge step in our church planting process!

Mike worked really hard on the sermon/materials for our gatherings: Essentials of the Christian Faith. Each month when we meet, we will be walking through some of the core doctrines of Christianity, basically what Christians believe and why. He put together these handy binders, with notes, devotionals, and further study resources for each topic.

Our Celebration Gathering has a traditional church feel to it, which is different from our home group meeting, which has functioned more like a community group. The monthly Celebration Gathering will take place in the morning (like traditional church), and includes similar elements- fellowship time (coffee and snacks as people come in), teaching, musical worship, and children's sunday school. Each month, members of our core group will volunteer for a specific area to help with, and we are excited about everyone's enthusiasm to serve! 

While we didn't have any new visitors this first week, we were so blessed by the commitment and excitement of our group. We have started a "by name" campaign to begin praying and asking people to join us. While we want people to connect with our group, we more importantly want them to connect with Jesus. And we are continuing our 100-day campaign of praying Matthew 9:38 over our church plant. It's not too late to join! ;)

I just wanted to share some pictures I snapped of the morning, because it's fun, and I want to be able to look back and "remember when."

Remember when we met in our living room?

Remember when there were 9 adults and 5 kids the first week?

Remember when Mike preached with a stool and a laptop?

Remember when we only met once a month?

Remember when we sat on a couch and some folding chairs?

Remember when the kids met in the back bedroom of the house?

Remember when we had slides up on our TV screen?

Remember when the dog was running around during the church service?

Remember when Mike played the guitar for our service?

Remember when the little kids were running around during the church service?

I want to remember these precious moments, because they are just as sweet and beautiful to Jesus as a larger functioning church. I want to remember these moments, never forgetting how the Lord worked and grew and shaped and formed our little body. And I want to remember these moments, so I can remind myself of why we answered the call to church plant. To remind myself that this is His story, not ours.