Initiatives for 2025
IMPORTANT AIMS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD
As the new year gets under way, there are a handful of new initiatives we’re pursuing in faith. Ministry opportunities we’re excited about that we believe God will use to advance our mission, glorify his name, and increase our joy. Below you’ll find 3 key areas where we’ll be concentrating our efforts as a church in 2025. Please join us in asking God to work in and through them and consider how you’d like to be a part of these exciting things:
Discipleship
We’re launching a 4th small group! Starting in February, this new group will meet at 7pm on the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of the month. This is significant. Decreasing the size of each group will position us to disciple and care for one another even more effectively as we rejoice, weep, bear burdens, build one another up, and hold fast to Christ together in these important moments of our church’s life.
We just might need to launch a 5th group sometime later this year as well. Stay tuned for more updates there!
P.S. to help us be the best small group members we can be, we’re also hosting a Biblical Counseling Seminar on 1/25. This is an evening of learning, equipping, and asking questions we’d love as many church members as possible to benefit from. A one night investment that will bear fruit in our life together all year long. Watch the blog for more details here.
Youth
For the first time ever, we’re rolling out a youth group! Sometime in February or March, we’re starting up the Youth Book Club. A ministry for the Jr. High and High School students of our church that aims at their growth in Christ. The Youth Book Club will come alongside the discipleship efforts of our parents to:
Host discussions around the kind of books that shape hearts and souls.
Build intergenerational relationships with adult members within the church.
Provide an intellectually challenging and socially stimulating context to space for our youth to invite their non-Christian friends.
Help youth think wisely and deeply about living God’s way in God’s world.
Increased Opportunities for Mission & Evangelism
Local - In addition to our regular patterns of the weekly Run Club, annual French Park community events, sharing in city wide festivities, and the Fall Bridge Course, in 2025 we’ve got 4 neighborhood outreaches planned. Saturday mornings we’re setting aside to go into our city to have spiritual conversations, share the gospel with our neighbors, and become equipped and emboldened to make evangelism a part of our everyday lives. Mark your calendars for 10am on 2/1, 4/12, 9/6, and 11/15 and expect the Lord to use our ordinary evangelism in extraordinary ways.
Global - This summer, we just might be sending Emily Jones to Santander, Spain! She’d join the brand new church plant, Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Santander in doing the same thing we’re doing here: inviting neighbors into the everlasting joy of Jesus. Please pray for God’s direction, provision, and peace and consider how you might partner with her as she prepares for what’s next in the process of this potential relocation.
Would the Lord lead us into a new year with fresh faith and eager expectation for all he has ahead of us. Seizing the opportunities to share in the joy of Jesus and spread it to neighbors all the way from Santa Ana to Santander!