February 2008

Lots has been happening. Let me introduce you to our newest staff member, whom I mentioned in my last post: Pastor Bill Pitts.

In his own words:

Bill grew up in Atlanta, married a beautiful Jersey girl (Patty) and has made a home with their amazing kids (Cailtin, Cody and Mason) in Baltimore over the last 8 years. After coming to know Christ as a senior in high school, Bill spent 20 years in Youth Ministry helping students figure out that God loves them and has a plan for them. He's excited to now be a pastor at the Light and see people from all over Bolton Hill and Mt Vernon experience church simply and as a family. He's still working on completing his master's degree and figures to have it done sometime before his 4th grade son graduates high school. Eating out at new restaurants, watching American Idol and going to the beach are his family’s favorite things to do together. Bill loves reading, computer games and the Dunkin Donuts Caramel Swirl Iced Latte.

Bill’s transition into pastoring The Light has gone really well. Having him here has really freed up a lot of my time, and is allowing me to manage the transition of Dan out of the Downtown church.

Our move to the new space, in addition to Bill coming onto staff, has been good for us. Your prayers haven been so important to us during this time, and we thank you for them. We have changed some of our service and layout in the new room, specifically by arranging the seating around tables (café-style), rather than row-upon-row of lecture-style seating. Considering our desire to build community amongst those who have been coming, we found the fixed seating of our old room to restrict us too much. Essentially, people would arrive, disperse themselves around the room and then just face forward for the duration. However, in our new room, the very fact that people are clustered around tables, naturally facing one another, means that we have the opportunity to encourage community. While we were concerned that it might be awkward, it has been working out great. People are engaging one another and meeting new people.

The fact that the room is slightly smaller helps to encourage that sense of community as well. Room/space psychology can be peculiar that way, but in our new space, it feels close and comfortable, giving people that sense that they are part of an actual community.

The flexibility of the new room also means that our artists who participate in worship by drawing, sketching, and the like, can be situated within the congregation, rather than be sequestered off to the side, as they were in the old room, detached from the congregation. We are able to encourage artwork at the tables now, as well, by equipping each one with art supplies and paper. It’s been exciting to see people engage with God and the sermons and themselves in this way.

However, what has been the most exciting has been the re-ignition of our core group. Most everyone has pulled out of the slump that seemed to be wearing us all down. This has meant not only that people are excited about serving again, but that they are dreaming and visioning for the future again, and inviting people again. What has really encouraged us all is that some of our less committed people (or so we thought) have been inviting the most people of all. And they’ve been coming. And coming back!

Over the course of the last month and a half, we have easily ministered to at least 80-90 people. We have had more people than ever that just drop by, and then return the next week. We’ve been able to start 2 weekly small groups with more regular attendance than last year. But, as exciting as all these people have been, it has still been a bit discouraging that our Sunday services rarely top 40 people. The majority of those 80-90 are repeat attenders, but never all on the same day.

We’ve also been looking for a more permanent meeting space in which we could not only meet for Sunday worship, but also use throughout the week as an art gallery and hopefully a café. This would allow us to interact with the community in more ways than just a Sunday service. Bill and John Kovacs have been scouring the neighborhood of Mt Vernon for the space to which God is calling us. This has been difficult at times, as many spaces need a lot of work, are too expensive, or ultimately aren’t large enough. But we trust that God will provide this space, and are simply persevering. Please pray for us in this search.