November/December

The Light is well on its way. We are having weekly Sunday services that are going well. We are still meeting at the University of Baltimore and have had a fairly consistent, if small stream of visitors. That has been both exciting and frustrating. It’s exciting to see the regular faces, but frustrating in that we have had difficulty in getting the vast majority more involved and committed to The Light.

Many of our core group are tired and burnt out from the Launch and all the work that has gone into getting the church started. The constraints of our room and the burnout have meant that we have settled into a consistent rhythm with our Sunday Services already. While that makes things easier, it does pave the way for predictability and routine-ness in the future. However, with a calling to be innovative and creative, we are resisting that. But it can be difficult. Needless to say, everyone is looking forward to the holiday break – a chance to start off a new year with new vision and passion for what God is calling us to do.

So, we are finishing off the year by planning our 2008 Outreaches, coordinating when we can host missions teams from our faithful partners. This brainstorming and planning stage is ideal for laying the groundwork for looking ahead and reclaiming vision. In preparation for this, we have a getaway planned for the Core Group on the first weekend of January to reflect and evaluate and plan ahead.

Not everything, however, is so difficult. We have added a couple of new people to our Core Group – literally, our first couple, Jason and Nikki Rhodes. Not only do they bring new energy and ideas to the group, but they bring worship-leading talent and a heart for ministry. Jason works with computers and Nikki teaches in a nearby library/elementary school outreach program. And more specifically, Jason will be joining the inaugural class of our new Internship Program at Grace Life.

Which leads me to more exciting news! We are finally beginning a formal Internship Program amongst our Grace Life network of churches. While we have had a few interns over the years in various capacities, we haven’t always had the time or the resources to develop them as well as we would have liked. But we have finally reached a place as a network in which we can.

The program is geared for people who are exploring ministry as their full-time profession, and we have 4 people who are starting this process with us: Matt Kim (who is in his final year of Seminary, getting his MDiv, and has been with us for several years), Jason Rhodes (who, with his wife, Nikki, has just joined our Core Group at The Light), John Kovacs (who has been with us for a few years, and is awaiting confirmation as a US/C2 missionary), and Jesse Johnson (who with his wife, Rachelle, has just joined our network staff part-time as Worship Director).

Given that we are in our third church plant, and planning our fourth, we have many different roles and opportunities for each of these folks to get their feet wet, to explore the type of ministry God may be calling them to, and to gain experience in church ministry itself.

By mid-December, we will be finished with our lease at the University of Baltimore, and are looking for a new space – whether a different room within UB, or an entirely different location altogether. As I wrote in my last post, we have begun to feel limited in the space we currently use. It limits how creative we can be as well as the setting/atmosphere we desire to create.

Ultimately, our vision is to have a place that is our own, that we can use as a gallery and café, open to the community all week, and have a worship center in its midst, or in another part of the same space. This would be a first for the city of Baltimore, for any church to be open for something like that.

I’d like to update y’all on the Global Impact Conference I spoke at in Mississippi, in early November. Thank y’all so much for y’all’s prayers. I had a great time sharing there, and even saw some of our partners. I was also able to connect with new church leaders and pastors. It was exciting to see so many people and churches who were excited about missions opportunities abroad and here in North America. I appreciated the invitation to be a part of that and to share with everyone what God is doing in Baltimore and in the Grace Life Network. I also had time to visit and speak at another church in MS, and catch up with some of the people who came to last summer’s missions trip. It was very encouraging, and I always look forward to going back to visit more of our friends there, now. More than the partnerships we are developing, I am so thankful for the friendships (and getting my fix of catfish! And pecan pie! Thanks to Paul Harrell and Nan Suggs, I got my fill of that Southern specialty as well.)

New Series: Growing as a Christian

For our recent series at The Light, about Growing as a Christian, a few of our folks got together and made this video:



Great work Jason, Alison, and Sarah!

The Launch!

We had our Launch Service on Sunday, October 7^th, and everything came together so well! In keeping with our theme and our desire to support the artists in our community, we began with a gallery show of several folks’ artwork.

We asked people to submit any of their work that they wanted to show, and they did! (You can see more of these on our website (www.gracelifechurch.com/light), under the “Creative” tab.) With coffee and refreshments, it was an opportunity to engage with our visitors and friends in a new setting, as well as ease newcomers’ transition into the service. It also allowed some of our less involved folks the chance to contribute and feel a part of The Light, by their artwork contributions.

We had well over a hundred people, several of whom were first-time visitors, and known to be unchurched. Please pray that they would return, begin to get involved with the larger life of the church, and come to know God.
We also had the pleasure of hosting a Vision Tour with MS leaders and pastors from the Jones County Association during this time. It was such a blessing to have them with us at our Launch service, to share in what God is doing here.

Thank you for praying for our Worship needs. We have had several people come forward to join in this, and have been able to share and “borrow” folks from our other churches to fill our gaps. God has brought a few new people to us who are specifically gifted in worship leading, and have been developing relationships with them as they have begun serving in this way.

Another area for prayer is that of our new worship space. We will soon come to the end of our lease (by Christmas), and as much of a blessing as our current space has been, we are finding ourselves constrained and limited by it. Thus, we are looking for our next space. We need a facility that will not only allow for a better flow from the reception area/lobby to the sanctuary, but also provide more/better space for the growth of art-worship.
There are also several technical limitations with our current room that we need better solutions to than are allowed now. Essentially, we need a room/facility that allows us to minister to people more fully.

Again, I cannot begin to thank our partners enough for their help and support:

BCMD (especially Dr. David Lee and David Jackson)

BBA

Embrace Baltimore (especially Bob Mackey)

MS Baptist Convention Board (especially Ken Rhodes, Paul Harrell, and Rob Sugg), Associations, and churches.

Your assistance in our journey thus far has been tremendous and crucial to our progress. Thank you for your obedience in God’s calling, and your love for His Kingdom.

(much thanks goes to Pastor Nate Blackledge of FBC in Ovett, MS for most of these pictures!)