Preview: Service

I have been sharing for a little while now about our family's journey to Houston to help plant a multicultural church. It has been almost a full year in the process for us, and over a year in the making for several of the other families on our team. In May 3 of the 4 families on our team moved to Houston, and we soon joined in August. This past summer has been full of community outreach and making personal and meaningful connections with families in Pearland.

After so much planning, anticipation, and hard work, we were thrilled to hold our very first Preview Service. Now that term may sound a little funny to some so I will explain what it means. A preview Service is just that...a preview of what your normal church service will look and function like. It is a chance to work out any kinks and to help figure out how to make things operate smoothly. You treat it just like a normal service but it gives us a chance to fine tune everything before the "official launch" of the church.

We had 33 people in attendace at our very first preview service. We had several friends and family show up to support us, as well as a few families from the community that we had met. It was so exciting to see the vision that God has put in front of us actually coming together!

We were able to hold our service at an event center at a park. Here is a little of what our Service looked like:

This was a few hours before the service started. Every one getting set up and sound checking. The location was perfect! We are praying that it will be open to us on a weekly basis when we launch the Church this January.

Our nursery all set up for the little ones.

The two and three year old class having their lesson time. We also had a good group of 5 kids for our older class that Chad and I taught, as well as 4 other little ones in the nursery section. We have been blessed with lots of little ones already.

We are all very excited about our next preview service coming up in November. Continue to pray for our team as we work even harder to reach out to the community of Pearland and make deep connections with families. We are so excited to see what God has in store for Pearland and Advance Church!

Vision and a Purpose: Church Planting

Sunday night my husband was able to share the vision of our Houston Church Plant with our home church. It was wonderful to be able to share our passion and excitement with them. To let you get a better idea of that vision too, this is the video that our Church Plant team's lead Pastor made (and my husband wrote the script for)....

That video gets me so pumped and excited to see what God is going to be doing in Houston, Texas. Pretty unbelievable that Houston is the most culturally diverse city in America! That means is surpasses both Los Angeles and New York. Thousands of people are moving to Houston everyday. The need is great!

I just can't help but think....how amazing would it be to reach one person from another culture. We disciple that person and equip them to share the gospel. They then go back to their family (in America) who doesn't speak English. They share the truth of the gospel with their family who then accepts Christ. They go on to share with their neighbors and their friends. Finally, maybe some one they have reached feels a burden to go back to their home country to share the gospel. They go back, already knowing the language and the culture. They are able to effectively reach the people of their country for Christ.

It thrills me to think of things like this happening in the future! I am so excited to see the great and mighty things our God is going to be doing!

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"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
-Romans 10:14 (ESV)

Our Houston Church Planting Team

 

This is our Advance Church team. We finally were able to be all together in person for the very first time on Monday. It was such an amazing thing to be able to talk, to share in each others excitement, and to see, this is really real!


I had previously shared how we came to be a part of this Church planting team last month. It has been quite the journey and amazing to see how God has brought each couple into the picture.  The rest of the team will be moving to Houston in just five short weeks! Wow, that is coming fast! Chad and I will be joining them in August after we finish up the summer, serving at our current Church. God has already been moving in great and might ways, and we are all so excited to see what He is going to do in Houston!

I will continually be sharing our journey as Church planters with you. Please be in prayer for us and our team as God leads and directs.