“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Galatians 6:10
God bless you, Heritage Family! Its such a privilege to be in a family like this! I dearly love each and every one of you and am blessed to be your friend, much less your pastor! May God continue to bless and use you, as well as care for and provide for you all!
I’m writing to you today to ask a favor of you. In the last three years we’ve seen amazing things at Heritage, and we’ve grown from this little group of believers in a scalding hot elementary school gym into a larger group of believers in a not-quite-as-hot high school gym. God has been faithful to use us to minister to the needs of his people in so many different ways, and we have seen continued growth in our church as a result. There’s no question we’re a different church now than we were when we began. When we began, most of us had the same background. The vast majority of us came from Applegate through Mountain to Heritage. Granted, that wasn’t everyone’s story, but it did encapsulate the vast majority of us. That is no longer the case. When I stand on stage on a Sunday morning and look out over our congregation, I see people from many different backgrounds and churches. A significant portion of our church congregation did not share they majority path to this point. This is a really good thing! I love the fact that our congregation is made up of people from many different backgrounds with many different perspectives. It adds to the flavor and experiences of our church, and I believe we are richer and wiser for it. But there are challenges that come with it. One of those I would like to address with you and ask for your help.
In the 1st year or 2 of our church, the most common complement I heard regarding our fellowship was our “family atmosphere.” So many people came to Heritage and felt like they just belonged there from day one. They were welcomed in with hugs and handshakes, and felt as if they had been here for years. I had many people tell me they were surprised at how young our church was, because we carried ourselves as if we had been in fellowship together for years. Well, that was actually true in some ways. Many of us had been in fellowship together for years. But now that we’ve grown, and people are coming from many different backgrounds, many of whom we do not know, I fear this experience might no longer be same for new attendees. Every Sunday I’m seeing a lot of unrecognizable faces in our congregation, and with that I have the same worry. “Does that new family feel as warmly welcomed and encouraged as they would have 2 years ago?” Mind you, I am not trying to make an evaluative statement of fact that says this isn’t happening. I guess what I’m just trying to do is remind us as a congregation of what our true niche and calling is, and hoping to stir us up by putting us in remembrance of these things. The tendency is for us to always gravitate towards the people we know, and assume that everyone is plugged-in to some degree somewhere in the congregation. However this is not necessarily true. In fact, few are the people who have the assertiveness required to find their own way into such a group. Much more common are those who are brought into fellowship by those already on the inside.
With this in mind, I would simply like to ask for your continued help in reaching out to the people the Lord brings to our congregation on Sunday morning. I hope that every one of us comes to church with a missional attitude. “Lord, I’m here to worship you and to serve you. How can I be your arms of love and grace this morning?”
In 2007, a word of prophecy was given to me through an African pastor in Uganda. This word of prophecy really describes God’s purpose for our church. It says this:
“The Lord God, your God, is sending a refreshment in your ministry of teaching, and the teachings will change many. Many shall come under your ministry and many leaders will be revived and restored in their rightful callings. Thus says the spirit of the Lord.”
When Pastor John Wabwire of Oasis of Hope Church in Uganda handed me that piece of paper, neither one of us knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking of the church that we attend today. And yet that is exactly what it speaks of. Our church is full of people who’ve come from many different backgrounds and many different churches. The vast majority of those people at some point have had what we would refer to as bad church experiences. Our church is full of wounded believers. Some because of experiences with with other congregants, others due to abusive shepherds. The stories are different but their destination and purpose in coming to Heritage Christian Fellowship is the same. God desires that our church be a place of instruction and healing.
Today, I simply want to ask for your continued help in fulfilling this mission that God has given us. This Sunday, I pray that each and every one of us would come to church with a renewed focus. 1st, I pray that we would model true worship and sacrifice to God as we sing, pray, and study His Word. Even as I send this e-mail, I’m going to be praying for revival amongst those who have called Heritage their home for any period of time. I pray that our worship would be vibrant and renewed. I pray that our self-sacrifice and renewed focus on God would be evident and contagious. I pray that as we lift our voices and lift our hands we would truly and clearly be lifting God into His exalted place in our sanctuary, or maybe better and more accurately stated, we would be seeing Him in that position anew. Secondly, and this is the primary reason I’m writing to you today, I would like to ask for your help in reaching out to others in the congregation. Please help me serve God’s people by actively looking around you and finding those families whom you don’t know. Introduce yourself. Reach out to them! If you came to this church and felt involved, comforted, and part of the family, then now is your opportunity to do the same thing for someone else. Do you find yourself sitting in the same place talking to the same people every Sunday? Obviously we need to continue to nurture and value the friendships that we’ve been given, but at the same time, we have been given a mission here at Heritage Christian Fellowship. People come to this church to be comforted, healed, and included. Those things can only be done in small part from the stage. I need your help!
It’s true that our church has grown in number. Summertime has a tendency to hide growth. Not that I’m prophetic in nature at all, but if I had to guess, I would say that come September were going to find that our church grew over the spring and summer. When everyone’s vacations are over and all the summer activities are dying down, attendance will probably stabilize, and will find that we’ve grown. But growth doesn’t mean we have to lose our small church feel. That atmosphere didn’t come because in numbers. That atmosphere came because of the hearts of the people that were in the seats. Now more than ever, we need to take this mission seriously and protect the family atmosphere that heritage has been known for, and fulfill the mission that God has called us to fulfill.
I love you guys dearly, and with great anticipation ask that you would join with me in prayer and practice over these things. Thank you so much, and may God bless each and everyone of you.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, the glory and majesty, the minion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Jude 25
All for the Glory of the Most High God,
Pastor Jeff
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Open Letter to the Heritage Family of Believers from Pastor Jeff
“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Galatians 6:10
God bless you, Heritage Family! Its such a privilege to be in a family like this! I dearly love each and every one of you and am blessed to be your friend, much less your pastor! May God continue to bless and use you, as well as care for and provide for you all! I’m writing to you today to ask a favor of you. In the last three years we’ve seen amazing things at Heritage, and we’ve grown from this little group of believers in a scalding hot elementary school gym into a larger group of believers in a not-quite-as-hot high school gym. God has been faithful to use us to minister to the needs of his people in so many different ways, and we have seen continued growth in our church as a result. There’s no question we’re a different church now than we were when we began. When we began, most of us had the same background. The vast majority of us came from Applegate through Mountain to Heritage. Granted, that wasn’t everyone’s story, but it did encapsulate the vast majority of us. That is no longer the case. When I stand on stage on a Sunday morning and look out over our congregation, I see people from many different backgrounds and churches. A significant portion of our church congregation did not share they majority path to this point. This is a really good thing! I love the fact that our congregation is made up of people from many different backgrounds with many different perspectives. It adds to the flavor and experiences of our church, and I believe we are richer and wiser for it. But there are challenges that come with it. One of those I would like to address with you and ask for your help.
In the 1st year or 2 of our church, the most common complement I heard regarding our fellowship was our “family atmosphere.” So many people came to Heritage and felt like they just belonged there from day one. They were welcomed in with hugs and handshakes, and felt as if they had been here for years. I had many people tell me they were surprised at how young our church was, because we carried ourselves as if we had been in fellowship together for years. Well, that was actually true in some ways. Many of us had been in fellowship together for years. But now that we’ve grown, and people are coming from many different backgrounds, many of whom we do not know, I fear this experience might no longer be same for new attendees. Every Sunday I’m seeing a lot of unrecognizable faces in our congregation, and with that I have the same worry. “Does that new family feel as warmly welcomed and encouraged as they would have 2 years ago?” Mind you, I am not trying to make an evaluative statement of fact that says this isn’t happening. I guess what I’m just trying to do is remind us as a congregation of what our true niche and calling is, and hoping to stir us up by putting us in remembrance of these things. The tendency is for us to always gravitate towards the people we know, and assume that everyone is plugged-in to some degree somewhere in the congregation. However this is not necessarily true. In fact, few are the people who have the assertiveness required to find their own way into such a group. Much more common are those who are brought into fellowship by those already on the inside.
With this in mind, I would simply like to ask for your continued help in reaching out to the people the Lord brings to our congregation on Sunday morning. I hope that every one of us comes to church with a missional attitude. “Lord, I’m here to worship you and to serve you. How can I be your arms of love and grace this morning?”
In 2007, a word of prophecy was given to me through an African pastor in Uganda. This word of prophecy really describes God’s purpose for our church. It says this:
“The Lord God, your God, is sending a refreshment in your ministry of teaching, and the teachings will change many. Many shall come under your ministry and many leaders will be revived and restored in their rightful callings. Thus says the spirit of the Lord.”
When Pastor John Wabwire of Oasis of Hope Church in Uganda handed me that piece of paper, neither one of us knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking of the church that we attend today. And yet that is exactly what it speaks of. Our church is full of people who’ve come from many different backgrounds and many different churches. The vast majority of those people at some point have had what we would refer to as bad church experiences. Our church is full of wounded believers. Some because of experiences with with other congregants, others due to abusive shepherds. The stories are different but their destination and purpose in coming to Heritage Christian Fellowship is the same. God desires that our church be a place of instruction and healing.
Today, I simply want to ask for your continued help in fulfilling this mission that God has given us. This Sunday, I pray that each and every one of us would come to church with a renewed focus. 1st, I pray that we would model true worship and sacrifice to God as we sing, pray, and study His Word. Even as I send this e-mail, I’m going to be praying for revival amongst those who have called Heritage their home for any period of time. I pray that our worship would be vibrant and renewed. I pray that our self-sacrifice and renewed focus on God would be evident and contagious. I pray that as we lift our voices and lift our hands we would truly and clearly be lifting God into His exalted place in our sanctuary, or maybe better and more accurately stated, we would be seeing Him in that position anew. Secondly, and this is the primary reason I’m writing to you today, I would like to ask for your help in reaching out to others in the congregation. Please help me serve God’s people by actively looking around you and finding those families whom you don’t know. Introduce yourself. Reach out to them! If you came to this church and felt involved, comforted, and part of the family, then now is your opportunity to do the same thing for someone else. Do you find yourself sitting in the same place talking to the same people every Sunday? Obviously we need to continue to nurture and value the friendships that we’ve been given, but at the same time, we have been given a mission here at Heritage Christian Fellowship. People come to this church to be comforted, healed, and included. Those things can only be done in small part from the stage. I need your help!
It’s true that our church has grown in number. Summertime has a tendency to hide growth. Not that I’m prophetic in nature at all, but if I had to guess, I would say that come September were going to find that our church grew over the spring and summer. When everyone’s vacations are over and all the summer activities are dying down, attendance will probably stabilize, and will find that we’ve grown. But growth doesn’t mean we have to lose our small church feel. That atmosphere didn’t come because in numbers. That atmosphere came because of the hearts of the people that were in the seats. Now more than ever, we need to take this mission seriously and protect the family atmosphere that heritage has been known for, and fulfill the mission that God has called us to fulfill.
I love you guys dearly, and with great anticipation ask that you would join with me in prayer and practice over these things. Thank you so much, and may God bless each and everyone of you.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, the glory and majesty, the minion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Jude 25
All for the Glory of the Most High God,
Pastor Jeff