We keep track of all the visitors that attend New Hope each week. We consider a “visiting family group” to be from 1 individual to a family of five. In the 2009 year we had a total of 281 visiting family groups come through our doors. Obviously, some were visiting family from out of town because of a holiday, baby dedication, or special event, but the majority are within driving distance and are potential converts and new church members.

There were 86 visiting family groups in the Saturday night services, 60 visiting family groups in the Sunday 9AM service, and a whopping 135 visiting family groups in the Sunday 10:30AM service. In a day when nothing is traditional any more, seekers still choose to attend that 10:30 AM service over the other alternatives.

The 10:30 service is a mission field! On an average Sunday there will be two visiting family groups attend that service (last Sunday there were 7). These are people who have expressed an interest in our church, have never been here before, and are prime targets for what we say our mission is: To make disciples who make disciples. It also contains those who come back a second, third, and fourth time: great potential.

If anyone really wanted to make a difference in the Kingdom of God, that’s the service to attend and become involved in. That’s the service where needs are the greatest. That’s the service to be praying for.

Tags: church, evangelism

Once upon a time there was a prince and a peasant who fell in love. They were so different. He was the stately prince. She was the common peasant. He was peerless but she was plain. She was not ugly, but she could be and often was. She was solemn, moody, sour, cranky and selfish – not the kind of soul you’d want to live with, but to the prince she was the kind of soul he could not live without. He proposed to her and she said yes. And he promised, “I’ll return for you soon.”

The oddity was not in his departure, but in her behavior while he was gone. She continually forgot that she was engaged. Some who were closest to her never heard her talk about it. There were even times when she was seen on the arm of other men. She forgot that she was engaged.

This is the story of the church, the Bride of Christ who often forgets She is engaged while She flirts with the world. How’re you doing?

Tags: church, fables, holiness

There are times when I get weary with life and its never ending struggles. Some times I just want to cry out, “Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly”. I long to be in His presence and out of the pressures down here. Apparently, that has been the sentiment of believers for centuries. Consider the words of the final closing verse of The Church’s One Foundation:

Yet she on earth hath union With God, the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion With those whose rest is won
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly, On high may dwell with Thee. Amen

Tags: church, heaven, hymns

Every church has to battle many things set up against it as Satan acts out His jealousy. Keeping the saints united is hard work amid this spiritual war. But the real Christians look forward to the day when He’ll call us home and the labor will be over. Then the work will cease and eternal rest begins. Verse 4 of The Church’s One Foundation:

‘Mid toil and tribulation, And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious Shall be the Church at rest.

What spiritual battles are you struggling with today? Hang on…just a little longer.

Tags: church, conflict, hymns

Another verse of this old hymn is rarely included in hymnals, but continues the theme of  The Church’s One Foundation. Through the centuries there have been multiple attempts to silence the church and its message. Obviously, none have succeeded. The greatest danger to the demise of the church comes from within. Samuel John Stone expresses that in this rarely published verse:

The Church shall never perish! Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish, Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her, And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor She ever shall prevail.

Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).

Tags: church, hymns

Phillips Brooks, the great American preacher of the 1800s, asked the operator of a local livery stable for the best horse he had. Brooks explained, “I am taking my wife for a ride and I want the very best for the occasion.”

As the livery man hitched up a horse to a buggy, he said, “This animal is about as perfect as a horse could be. It is kind, gentle, intelligent, well-trained, obedient, willing, responds instantly to your every command, never kicks, balks, or bites, and lives only to please its driver.”

Brooks then quietly said to the owner, “Do you suppose you could get that horse to join my church?”

What a joy it would be if all Christians who joined churches would fit that description.

Tags: character, church, Horse