I am excited about the new year. Much was accomplished in 2016. God did some beautiful things and we are thankful for the salvations, baptisms, new members, dramatic increase in the number of those serving, the time of prayer and fasting, the sweet spirit of the church. We were blessed to see our discipleship ministries begin and are looking forward to the new discipleship groups and communities that will form in 2017. We are excited about the growth of our missions team and are eager to see what the Lord has for us in this area of missions in 2017. We've seen a large number of people connect to and serve in our worship ministry, more teachers being trained in our Sunday school, and we celebrate AWANA and our children's ministry! We are blessed by the spiritual growth of our youth and our college and career as well as the multiplication of our women's Bible studies and seeing our men's ministry start to take shape. God has brought us far in the past year! There is so very much to be thankful for! We journeyed far in 2016, and we have more to look forward to in 2017.

The theme in January is "All In" as we approach this new year. In 2017 we will be taking steps of faith in so many areas, and the challenge for all of us as members is to go 'all in' in this upcoming year, because that will be the cost of the incredible opportunities we have before us.

This first Sunday, we looked at the heart, the starting place for any discussion of going all in. We saw how the Word of God penetrates the deepest parts of who we are, how God calls us to delight in Him and treasure Him above all, how we have a Good and Gracious and Merciful Savior who loves us deeply....even when we fall down.

As we begin 2017, we think of our hearts, individually and as a community of faith. We want our hearts to delight in and love the Lord above all, and to be passionate for the things He is passionate about: His glory, His command to love Him wholeheartedly and our neighbor as ourselves, His Kingdom (and being on mission because we have been commissioned). As we begin 2017, we'll be talking about the incredible opportunities and great things the Lord has already been putting into place, and, we'll talk about taking significant, big steps of faith as we move forward to be the people the Lord calls us to be, desires us to be.

Looking forward to the journey! You are loved!

For the King and His Kingdom,

Pastor Kevin