Well many have said it was one of our best Renew series to-date this year. We don't know about that, though we are super grateful to our speakers for very timely messages, and all our folks who volunteered their time to provide an impactful and purposeful four weeks together.
If you missed any of the weeks (and there were quite a few folks gone at different times for vacations, etc), follow the links below to catch up on each message. You don't want to miss out - all four were great.
We had testimonies each of the four Renew weeks from members of our church family. They followed a theme this year - we asked folks who have found ways to live out their theology, and live out the "one anothers" in specific contexts, and serving others in unique ways. Below we've included a short note about the testimony we heard each night, along with a link to the organization or ministry each serves with, if you heard about one of these avenues of ministry and are moved by God to inquire more into it and possible serve there too.
Here are the Renew weeks from 2017:
7/9/17: Brent Hisayasu, teaching on "Forgive One Another." Pastor Brent kicked off the series on the command to forgive, from Colossians 2:13-14, and 3:12-15. Testimony: Steve Munday, on serving as a chaplain at the Simi Valley Hospital.
7/16/17: Bobby Scott, teaching on "Love One Another" from 1 Corinthians 13. Bobby hails from Community of Faith Bible Church in Los Angeles, where Anthony Kidd serves as senior pastor (our Men's Retreat speaker from this year, and a Renew speaker for us in years past). Testimony: Mike and Melissa Edwards, on foster care/adoption. The Edwards work with Arrow, a local, private adoption agency that has served other families in our church body. Head over to Arrow's website to learn more about local orphan care!
7/23/17: Bobby Blakey, teaching on "Exhort One Another." Bobby taught from Hebrews chapters 4 and 10, and the command to exhort one another "as long as it is called today." This message addressed a lot of practical ways we can be involved in relationships in a Gospel-centered way, fulfilling the Great Commission in one another's lives in the church. We heard from Kari Bennett this evening, and about her involvement in the Community Pregnancy Clinic, a vital local parachurch ministry that we're honored to support. You can find them very active on Facebook too.
7/30/17: Chris Johnson, teaching on "Encourage One Another." Chris used to serve here at our church, was saved here, his father was an elder, etc etc. You can hear about all of this as part of his message too. This was a great message to wrap up our series on "The One Anothers," since Chris has such a history with our church family, and because the command to encourage couples with so many of the other "one anothers" in Scripture. The testimony this night was from Zinnia Lewis, and her involvement with a ministry to local prisons called "Setting the Captives Free."
If you'd like to chat with any of these folks who serve with these ministries, we can put you in touch with them individually if you don't know them already. Email if you need more, or have other questions about our Renew nights or what's coming up in the Fall here at Grace.
A Renew recap also wouldn't be complete without a HUGE shoutout to Danny Lee, and all our children's ministry volunteers who made it possible to run our Operation Arctic VBS for our kids each of these four nights. It was our highest attended VBS ever, which is very exciting. We hope your kids were served well, and that they learned much about the Gospel over these four weeks!
It's our hope that these nights in July were an encouragement to you, and that what we heard and learned together would continue to bear much Gospel fruit in our church family. Thanks for coming out to Renew this year!
