Christmas Prayer

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will KNOW what is the hope of His calling..." Ephesians 1:18

He has called each of you to serve Him by obeying His word - to LOVE GOD - LOVE OTHERS!
What an amazing year!!

• As Team Leaders rose up to the challenge of shepherding the teams
• As new volunteers joined teams - folks that have been here for years and some only after a few months!
• As we discovered new friendships and deepened existing relationships
• As we learned that we may not have it all together...but at least we are getting through it together with His Grace and love.

By YOUR service to others - coming in early on Sundays, serving 3 Services, cross-training in areas that needed an extra hand, showing Christ's love with your smiles and prayers - YOU have shared your hope in the Lord to so many people that desparately want to believe that God really does care about them. You show them they matter to you, to us - and God softens their hearts as they yearn for HIM!

For me - that is the BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT - to see hope come alive in other people's lives! God is so amazing with how He blesses "abundantly beyond all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Team WORK...

It takes work to move from point A to point B.

It takes TEAM WORK to leap from "same ole same ole" to extraordinary heights!

In May, we changed how you serve in First Impressions from every week or every other week for one service to TEAMS! WHY?

Well, ONE) This ministry had grown from about 20 volunteers in 2005 to over 200!
TWO) This "thing" I was doing was "not good"..according to the greatest authority - GOD!
Just check out Exodus 18:17-18.

Of course -this only came to me after being afflicted with Pink Eye (in both eyes) AND Shingles all at the same time in February! Someone asked me: "What is God trying to tell you Mary Ann?"

So we have TEAMS!! With TEAM LEADERS! And they have COACHES!!

Rather than Mary Ann caring for 200 volunteers, I care for the 12 Coaches that care for their 4 Team Leaders that care for their 5 to 9 volunteers. When a volunteer serves on a team - they serve only once every 4 weeks - but they serve the entire weekend - ALL 3 SERVICES!

We are still in transition with the NEW "fangled crazy idea"!! But since God's words laid it all out, I have no doubt that we are on the right track. He is the author of OUT OF THE BOX ideas!

And I gladly sign on to be on His Team anyday!

Too Busy to Serve?

The following is a devotion from Greg Laurie. Greg was here this summer for the HARVEST CRUSADE at the RBC Center.


Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

— Matthew 8:21–22


Everyone who serves the Lord is busy. We all have a lot of things to do. But I thank God for every volunteer in the ministries that we so often take for granted. When you go to church, there are people who will help you find a seat, minister to your children, and maybe even show you where to park. All of these people are volunteers. And they are doing these things because they love Jesus.

Maybe the Lord has spoken to you about getting involved in a ministry. And maybe you have been resistant, saying, "I am very busy. I have other things to do."

That's what one man said when Jesus called him to service. He responded, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father" (Matthew 8:21). Now, this man's father was not actually dead. Rather, he was using a Near Eastern figure of speech, a common expression that described a son's responsibility to help his father in the family business until the father died and the inheritance was distributed. In other words, this man was saying, "Lord, not now. I will do it later. I would like to go and preach the kingdom, but I am busy."

The same can happen to us. God might speak to our hearts about serving Him more. And we respond, "Lord, I love You. I check in every Sunday. I put a little something in the offering. But I don't have time to go out and do those extra things. I am so busy."

If you haven't discovered the joy of serving God, then you are missing out. There is something for everyone to do in service to Him. Don't miss out on that.

HIS Ministry!

I found this a long time ago and I don't have the author but it always encourages and motivates me...

SERVING GOD IN YOUR PLACE

God knows you and He knows your heart desires to serve Him. You are someone that He will use to make a difference, to share His love, and to touch the hearts of others.

What has qualified you for this high privilege of being used by Him?
Is it your talents, your personality, your education, your influence, or your résumé?

It is none of these; rather, it is the response of your heart toward Him. God is always searching for those whose hearts are yielded to Him so that He can work mightily through them.

Sometimes we can be led to think that God’s work is dependent upon us, upon what we do, and upon what we know. The truth is that God wants us to be totally dependent upon Him.

He is the Treasure, we are the vessels;
He is Vine, we are the branches;
He is the Living Water, we are the channels through which He flows.

The apostle Peter was someone who needed to learn this important truth. Jesus taught him the futility of trying to get results through his own efforts by allowing him, an expert fisherman, to labor all night and come up empty. Afterward, when He followed Jesus’ word to cast out into the deep, Peter pulled in a catch that was beyond his dreams.

As His servant, remember that your ministry is His idea and not yours. He is the One who knows you, who has called you, and who has equipped you to serve Him. Remain true, remain faithful, remain restful, and remain totally dependent upon Him.


God is not looking for those who are clever,
but for those in whom He can be wise;

He is not looking for those who are talented,
but for those to whom He can be all sufficient;

He is not looking for those who are powerful,
but for those through whom He can be almighty.

I'm in a ministry?

Fall...okay...not quite Fall..but September is HERE with the distant promise of cooler weather - which also means that most kids are back in school, regular schedules are back in place, college students are back in town and people are settling in to their church again!

If history is any indication of what we can expect - then we can expect ALOT more people coming to Hope. There are so many new families looking to get their families grounded in God, college students far from home needing a "church-home", people just looking to see if God really is real and THE ONE they can trust in - for the first time or again. So, we must be ready for them all - for the ONE that God brings across our paths. I hear from so many people that share their first experience in coming to Hope was so warm, welcoming, friendly and easy! Now that's what I call the ultimate "easy button"!!

I remember after attending Hope a couple months, I began serving as a 4th & 5th Grade Small Group Leader. My thought was that I was "babysitting kids" since I had zero background in church - growing up a Buddhist. Then one day, someone asked me "What is your ministry, Mary Ann?". I was confused. I didn't go to preacher school - as I loving referred to seminary since I did not know the word "seminary". I can't be a minister or have a ministry.

Boy was I wrong!!

Serving God in a way that reaches out to another human being for the purpose of HIS ultimate plan - Love HIM - Love OTHERS - so that as many people as possible come to really KNOW HIM because of what YOU did in their lives....to me - that's ministry!

Not working out the schedules, showing up for "my commitment time", checking off some list of "to do's" - while they are all part of getting things done - MINISTRY is being available - TOTALLY - CRAZY - SACRIFICIALLY - for HIM!

When He calls - I want to be ready to GO.

First Impressions is indeed a Ministry - Loving and accepting anyone that God brings through our doors, across our paths, to our counters, by our seats, on the shuttle, in the parking lot, eating together and sitting on benches.

Don't miss out on the blessings!

On Second thought....

Pray for me...

These past few weeks and the coming 3 weeks represent to me another reason why the TEAM approach - with Coaches taking care of Team Leaders and Team Leaders taking care of there teammates! You are taking the load in a big way while there is so much going in our lives - Dean's job, selling our house..and then this past week gearing up for the Leadership Summit and next week "living" the Summit beginning on Monday with preparation of more ideas, planning all staging areas for our Guests; Tuesday the Willow Creek volunteer will arrive to tour and get updated with us; Wednesday we unpack all the boxes for to set up a temporary bookstore for all the resources being sold at the Summit, etc.; Thursday - Saturday - THE SUMMIT and then we still have the weekend services.

Oh yeah, my youngest son Jackson, is getting ready to leave for college...ECU - Go Pirates!! And for those of you that know me well - I'm not handling this with the greatest grace...okay; frankly I'm being the biggest baby of all - I'm still in denial about the term (EN)....empty nester YIKES!

Then God reminds me I am not the only one going through this thing called life! Pete and Mary have a son in Iraq, which is a far greater stress than 2 hours away at college. I've heard from so many people that are struggling BIG TIME with their employment or lack of employement. People have lost loved ones and loved ones are diagnosed with serious diseases. Lots of us are lonely.

Then we learn of the shocking news of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis - Unexpected and excruciating pain! I think - boy - the enemy is having a field day!

But this morning I read Obadiah (yep - the whole book - It's only 1 Chapter!!) because I loved the description of God that Steve used in his sermon this past Sunday - "Mighty to Save"!

Obadiah's name means "servant of the Lord" and the theme of this book is about how pride and gloating and bitterness and holding a grudge leads to destruction. God takes care of it all. We can put all that "yukki stuff" in our lives in His hands - knowing that "the kingdom will be the Lord's". (1:21).

So it was comforting to me that I lay my battles, my hurts upon His MIGHTY Shoulders - to cry on those massive and tender arms of His - and while I go through the trials of my life today, next week and years from now, that as His SERVANT I chose to declare that only our GOD is incredibly MIGHTY to save me from forever hell and yes - today's hell.

New Team Member

Please welcome Ruby Carpenter this Sunday as she steps in to serve in Guest Services!!!

Summer is winding down and folks will be coming back to church from being on vacations - Let's stay together on all fronts-encouraging one another-praying for one another. We will be challenged and stressed "to the max" and as someone prayed recently - pray that God will "bless us to the max"!

Let's Get Started!

I do have a separate personal blog (which is open to anyone). This one is dedicated to the volunteers (and very interested parties) that serve at Hope Community Church!

The goal is that we can all participate in an open forum of discussion about events, issues, ideas which affect how we serve others and how we can encourage each other!

In addition, as God continues to grow us - both in number and spiritually - perhaps the input and feedback will open our eyes to things we may not have ever thought of --- if done with love and for the good of many!

Please feel free to share your ideas, thoughts and suggestions here! Let's see what happens!