Church Progress Report to the Church

I wanted to give you all a glance at what I'll be sharing this Sunday in Worship. I hope you'll be there as we celebrate what God has done this past year and what God has in store for us next year.

What an exciting time to be at Bluegrass Baptist Church! God has brought us through some truly amazing times! I've seen many of our members truly broken to see God use this church in a powerful way. I've often been inspired and prayed that I would have the kind of faith George Mueller had!

When Mueller was twenty-five, he went to Teignmouth, England, with his new wife, Mary, to pastor a small church. He gave up the small salary offered when he discovered it was paid through the rental of church pews. From that time on he resolved to live by faith.

Mueller moved in 1832 to Bristol, England, to be the pastor of another church. There his famous work with the orphans began when two young children were thrown upon the church's care. Mueller had only two shillings to his name when he began the orphanage work, but over the next sixty years God sent more than $7,500,000 to supply their needs. New buildings were built or purchased, staff was hired, and the hundreds of children never missed a meal. Many times prayers were said over empty plates only to have food arrive at the last moment.

Oh for the faith of George Mueller! Oh that it would wreck the livesof the believers atBluegrass Baptist Church!

We've seen that kind of faith begin to take root this year through a group of believers who were not content with "normal" and wanted to begin an adventure of faith. Attendance over the past year has increased as God has sent new faces our way!

God led our church togofrom one service to two for the first time in the history of Bluegrass Baptist Church.We've found that we've been able to reach a variety of people through this strategy which is very exciting. In April of 2008 we celebrated an average attendance of 335. In 2009 our average worship attendance is 418. In other words God sent 83 more people to worship with us on Sundays than we had last year.

We began a new strategy in 2008 beginning Adult Growth Groups on Wednesday nights. This included classes to help with marriage, finances and emotional health. We have watched a steady growth happen to a current attendance of 65 adult members on Wednesday nights this semester. Our Life Groups are small groups that meet either at the church, such as the men's ministry, or in homes. Life Groups this semester enrolled 63 adults in 5 different homes. Our hope for the fall 2009 semester is to have 10+ homes for Life Groups.

Many new ministries were begun in 2008 and 2009. We have a mission trip on the horizon to Japan in October. More people are participating in our women's Pilates class and co-ed kick boxing than ever before. We have a photography club that began meeting here at the beginning of the year and continues to grow. The oldest chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous has begun to meet in our space on Sunday and Wednesday nights. We are watching our children, preschool, and student ministry grow. We had 15 at the Middle School Lock In last weekend. Our motorcycle ministry continues to grow and meet each month. If I were to tell you about all that is happening this email would be twice as long. This is just some of the new things that are happening here at Bluegrass.

We have moved to an electronic newsletter, The KEY, which gives every subscriber newer, fresher and faster information while also cutting down on paper usage, mailing costs, and printing cost. This has been a real money saver! We are sending out a printed version to those who requested it.

God also blessed us with a new pavilion which will host countless celebrations and fellowships in the years to come. A sub-team was formed upon the recommendation of the properties committee to help us accomplish this dream. We look forward to using this pavilion beginning in June 2009.

Another change that God has sent our way seems small when I say it, but it really is exciting. God blessed us with anew color copier. This has been an incredible blessing. If you used our Spiritual Warfare booklet and our custom bulletinsyou saw this tool in action. The amazing thing about the new printer is that we can print in color and yet our expenses are markedly less than before.

We've had our challenges with our HVAC units as we completed the replacement of 2 units, and a compressor in the sanctuary. But we continue to see God meet our needs through your faithful gifts.

Beginning in August we are going to make a simple tweak that will make our schedule even more effective. Here's the schedule:

9 AM Traditions Worship and Life Groups (Sunday School)

10:30 AM Community Worship and Life Groups (Sunday School)

This will give everyone more time to fellowship and transition, which has been the main concern we've heard from the flock. We will also conduct baptisms in between the services, ideally around 10:10 to give us an opportunity to celebrate together God's work!

Don't miss this Sunday as we talk about DEPLOY in our final worship experience of our CALL OF DUTY series. God has given us so much this year! What does He have in store for us in 2010?

 ~Matt