CORE N E WS LE T T E R
11/16/19
Hey Gang! I am so very excited to be in the midst of this anniversary series on Spark: Life After Debt. And I think it is appropriate to be doing this series during this Thanksgiving season. Looking back, we have so much to be thankful for. In the last year we have seen God move in some incredible ways through Spark. We have seen around 400 families make two-year commitments to Spark and we have seen over 60 new families make commitments. To date, 811 individuals have given to spark with 112 of those being first time givers! This is such cool news. The result of this high engagement with Spark is that we have collected $4.32 million towards our $9 million goal, and we aren’t even halfway done. We have another 13 months of Spark left in order to reach our goal. The results of this generosity is that we have funded our ongoing ministry budget, we have paid off $1.3 million of debt resulting in less than $700,000 of debt remaining, and we have fully funded $100,000 towards compassion projects here in our community and around the world. I truly believe God is using us as a church to create a Spark that ignites a movement towards our vision and mission for the next 50 years of ministry at College Heights, and it is because of you all surrendering yourselves to Jesus and his working through you, so thank you for being willing to sacrifice, to serve, and to give so that we are able to make disciples of Jesus who change the world. Hey Sy! I’d like you to know...
Reporting Core Stories Our leadership has established six values that represent who we have been, who we are, and who we desire to become. We want to share stories of how people in our church are living out the mission of making disciples who change the world. We hope you share some too, so we can celebrate together!
K R I
Kingdom Influence. Everyone has kingdom influence and has been created by God with a plan to be used for his mission. Raise Up and Send Out. We have raised up kids, pastors, missionaries, and church planters and sent them around the world with the good news of Jesus. And we only want to grow in this area even more. Inclusive of Others. We will always be exclusive on Jesus, but we also learned from him to be inclusive of others, no matter their background.
M E S
Multiply on Every Level. We make disciples who make other disciples; we reproduce campuses that reproduce other campuses; and we plant churches that plant other churches. Environments for Learning. We teach the Bible to kids, we create mission trips for people to learn about the global work of God, and we invite interns to do ministry with us. We want to raise up the next generation of kingdom workers. Strategy is Prayer. If we truly want to be a part of something that lasts for eternity, then we must pray big audacious prayers and partner with God in making everything new.
Core Value Story: Inclusive of Others Corey and Madison Reagin invited some friends to church on Sunday. Their friends have two children whom they did not take to programming, and when the time for communion came, they did not get up to go get communion at the stations because it was difficult with their kids. However, one of our ushers saw this, and took communion to them! Corey told me later how impressed they were of how someone noticed their situation and served them. He said, “They literally brought Jesus to this couple!� Being inclusive of others typically is not seen in big gestures, but a dozen small steps towards people like this on a consistent basis. It is ordinary people taking small steps out of the ordinary consistently that makes an extraordinary impact. I have a Core Story to tell!
SPARK Update Our goal for the Spark Generosity Initiative is to raise $9 million to eliminate debt, cover our operating expenses for two years, fund the One Less Gift campaign, and make updates and renovations where needed. As of November 16, 2019, you as a church have given 4.32 million! I’d like to give feedback
Did You Know...? Did you know that we had 107 Women from our church attend Women’s Encounter this last month, October 11-13. If you do not know about Women’s Encounter, it is an intensive weekend of encountering Jesus, being freed from strongholds in your life, and experiencing the power of his grace and redemption. Twenty-six of our own women taught and gave witness to Jesus and his transformational power in their lives. As a result of Women’s Encounter, we had two baptisms and multiple groups of women have been created in order to support, encourage, and inspire each other to follow Jesus, be changed by him and be on mission with him. I’d like to give feedback
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chjoplin