“Ready to Get Fit?” (4.30.22)

This week we are excited to kickoff an 8-week series based off of Peter Scazzero's book "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality." In the book Peter says: "Emotional health and spiritual maturity cannot be separated. It is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature."

We too believe that there is a strong connection between a person's emotional and spiritual health. And as we seek to grow in both areas in the coming weeks we believe that God will take our lives, families, and mission together to new heights! Can’t wait to see what God has in store for our time together!

Here are some resources you could use during the week to help you go deeper:

Book: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

Right Now Media: Facing Anxiety Devotional by Right Now Media, Overcoming Emotions that Destroy by Chip Ingram, Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado, Fear and Faith by Trilla Newbell

LOOKING BACK: What a year we’ve had so far!!

• We successfully joing our two churches into one, setting us up for much greater missional impact in the years and decades to come!
• Our children’s team has been fully staffed and helping a growing number of kids pursue Jesus. A new prize center called the Treasure Cove is also up and running and the kids are loving how their pusuit of God is also helping them get some fun prizes.
• Our teens had their first lock-in and even put together a church-wide pancake breakfast.
• We had a handful of growth groups kickoff and dozens of people pursuing Jesus together in community.
• We were able to experience our first baptisms together, and many people have made commitments to follow Jesus on a deeper level.
• We have been able to serve and care for over 10 families who lost loved ones in the last few months.
• We had a powerful time celebrating the resurrection between Good Friday, our Easter Egg Hunt, and our Sunday worship celebration. We had over 200 with us on Sunday and nearly ran out of seats, what a great problem to have!
• Several new families have joined our church and we continue to see 120-150 on a Sunday morning with dozens more joining us online.
• Our building is hopping! Monday - Saturday we have many groups meeting including: Karate, Dance, Youth Group, Growth Groups, and soon Narcotics Anonymous. It’s great to see so much community engagement.

COMING UP:

One of our stated goals when we came together was that we hoped to serve as a hub for ministry in western Wayne County. We are working on re-launching our dinner church in Norwayne. Pastor Andy and Joy are building a team and working to kick things off by this summer with some outdoor events. We are also exploring starting a dinner church at Ashford Court. If you’re interested in helping launch either of these ministries, please see Pastor Andy.

Game nights have re-started. Typically every third Friday of the month we get together at the church and fellowship and play games together. We’d love to have you join us, you can learn more by visiting our Facebook page or website.

We are able to serve once again in our schools. If you’d like to help in the lunchroom, help kids learn to read, or serve at our community dinners, see Bill Leinenger (Schweitzer) or Anita Johnson (Wildwood)

This year annual conference features all 3 MI Conferences and is free to anyone who wants to hear more about where God is taking us and engage with hundreds of believers. Learn more or signup at: fmcusa.org/michigantricon

You’ll start seeing some construction around the church beginning next Monday. We are borrowing Preschool funds to create two bathrooms in our kids area and fix the drainage on the north side of the church. The contractor has graciously given us 90 days after completion to pay the balance. We are trusting the sale of the Venoy property will happen in some form well before then.

We are continuing to run about $12,000 behind our giving goal for this year. Please pray about how God may use you to bridge that gap so that every ministry and missionary can flourish!

We continue to negotiate with a group who is looking to buy our Venoy property. They are proposing a land contract at this time. Please pray for this to come together in a way that helps facilitate the mission moving forward. God’s got this!!