We had such an awesome BHCC annual Dinner Celebration at the Blue Marlin Seafood Grille this past Sunday!
We are so blessed to have the owners, Mike & Cindi Videtti as our good friends! They have been a blessing in a multitude of ways to BHCC since we began!
I was very grateful to have my good friend Glen Sartain with us to speak at our dinner celebration too. In many ways, Glen is like an apostle of BHCC. He's been like a pastor to me & my son & husband & has been watching over our church since we began five years ago.
We are truly honored to have such a gifted man of God as our church / pastor's coach. Glen lives in Texas & is currently on staff at churches in Calfornia, Texas & NY. He's a close personal friend of Rick Warren & works for the Purpose Driven Ministries. He's coached thousands of churches & spoken to pastors all around the world.
I have no doubt that it was God that connected Glen to BHCC. I think it is also an indication of the larger future that God has planned for our church.
Our church is at one of the most exciting places its been since its birth in 2002. Celebrating our five year birthday in Sept. of this year was a huge milestone marker for us! I know it is only by the grace of God that this church is here & continuing to GROW in amazing ways!
It sure felt like all the forces of hell have tried to come against us at times with the goal of destroying our church. At times it almost seemed like evil would win. I'm ashamed to admit that there were times I wanted to quit. I made my share of mistakes.
But halleluiah, God had a plan through it all & as always, all things work for the good of those who love Him! BHCC has always been HIS idea & plan from the beginning & in many ways, I have only been a very small part of that plan. I am continually aware that I am merely His servant, His slave, nothing more.
And this servant is continually amazed to see God's fingerprints in all the building blocks of His church! 2007 has been a year of amazing growth for BHCC! We've accomplished so much in the past year! I don't think it really hit me until our dinner celebration when we had slides to remind us of all we have done in only one year!
We became church at movies, we moved our offices & renovated the space, we opened the Mosaic Cafe which continues to be a HUGE success! Last week we had 61 people there & it was packed! The week before we had over 50 people & the feedback about Mosaic has been tremendous. We're meeting a huge need in our community & have made many new friends!
Our Wed. night bible study continues to grow & we have new people coming almost every week recently. And our Fall Open House has been truly amazing!! We've retained 40% of our first time visitors. (Most churches only retain 20% or less.)
We've had many new people commit their lives to Christ in 2007 as well as re-commit their lives to Christ! And those are just the big victories! There were many smaller ones along the way as well!
I am amazed at the hard-working team of people God has assembled at BHCC! I see so much humility in our people & never before have I seen a group of people more willing to pitch in and work wherever needed!
I know there will continue to be challenges & many spiritual battles in the years to come--but I also know the real battle belongs to the Lord. Now is a season for us to celebrate the victories & praise God for the dedication & hard work done by so many!
I thank God for every single person at BHCC & I thank God that He is God & I am not! (halleluiah!) I can't wait to see all He will continue to do in the coming year!
I continually pray that God and Christ alone will get all the glory forever and ever! Amen!
Peace in Christ Alone,
Pastor Lin :-)