The message I preached this morning was entitled, “New Life” and came from 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. It was my first sermon as the lead pastor of First Wesleyan Church, Shippensburg. I could tell all morning that friends and family across the country were lifting me up in prayer to the Lord. I know the Lord blessed the entire day.
I closed the sermon with an opportunity to respond by acknowledging a need for re-newed life in Christ and was pleased that a couple handfuls of our people responded. Praise the Lord!
After church we had a great fellowship dinner downstairs in honor of our arrival as the new pastoral family. My vice chairman, Dayton, closed out our time together by having the people gather around me, lay hands on me and pray for me. It was a powerful moment. We very much enjoyed visiting with folks and beginning to get to know a few people that we hadn’t yet met.
Attendance this morning was 50! That’s more than an 8.5% growth rate since last week (46)! :)
Keep praying for us and our new church as we continue to push through this transition and honor God with everything we do!
Stevan, congrats on the new church. they’re blessed to have you guys. Oh and congrats on the rapid growth rate. Incredible!
Sounds like God was definitely there with you in the service. That is so awesome. I think those numbers are going to just continue climbing each week. So excited to see what God has in store for you, the family and this church family.
Hey man, I was wondering if you were just gonna go week to week to start off with and move into series type stuff with your sermons. Just curious. Didn’t know what your preferred. What are the top 5 books you are reading/going to read to help with the transition? Tony Morgan and Tim Steven’s Simply Strategic Series is an easy read and easy to apply. Excited to see how our journeys go brother.