March 17th, 2010
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage tonight! :-)
I want to send out a special big WELCOME to all our newly joined BHCC Enews members. We are very excited to have so many people visit our church in the last few weeks and we're hoping that the people of BHCC have made you feel at HOME!!!
Thanks so much to Julie Burley for that awesome devotion & enews she sent out yesterday! We are blessed by her sharing her heart & gifts with us!
I just want to remind all of you of some BHCC Happenings:
There will be NO Wed. night Bible study TONIGHT (03/17/2010)!
We are taking a one week break between studies!
Next week, we will begin a 2 week wed. night study titled "Case for the Resurrection." WE will cover such questions as: Why should Easter matter to me? What evidence is there that Jesus' was truly resurrected? What does it mean to me personally?
So that will be a two part study at the Mosaic Cafe from 7-8:30pm. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.( 3/24 & 3/31)
Then, beginning on April 7th, our Wed. night study will begin another brand new 6 week study called "40 Days of Love!" This will follow our Sunday message series with the same topic but again will take it to a deeper level!
Here is more about what this new Easter Series will be about:
What would you give to radically improve, even transform, what matters most in your relationships? How about 40 days of your time?
Join us this Easter and learn how to get a breath of fresh air to infuse new love into all your relationships. The Bible tells us that love is the highest value in life. It tells us that we need God’s strength to love. It also tells us that love is the primary objective in life.
Come join us as for forty days, as we study one of the greatest chapters in the Bible about love. This study will teach us how love acts and how love lasts.
Unearth the core of Jesus’ ministry in how we show love to the people God has placed in our lives here on earth. How can we communicate more like Jesus? How do we love our creator, our neighbors, and ourselves?
We do have aa great hard cover book available to go along with the study at a very awesome price of $10.00. The book is called "The Relationship Principls of Jesus" by Tom Holladay. It has daily readings (about 2.5 pages) for 40 days! Here is what is said about the book:
In forty days, bring new depth and health to your marriage, your family, and your friendships. In six weeks, you'll explore and implement six foundational principles that Jesus taught and lived. You'll be equipped with insights and a practical path for fulfilling God's intention for all your relationships--even the difficult ones!
If you're interested in the book, please sign up this Sunday at our welcome table or send a reply to this email!
God has been doing some amazing things in and through BHCC recently and we're very excited to see and experience all that He has for us! The new sound board sounds AWESOME and again, a big thank you to everyone who made it happen in Jesus' name!
You'll be seeing many new announcements and events announced in the next few upcoming weeks so read your E-News!
And remember, Easter is a perfect time for all of us to reach out to people who don't know the GOOD NEWS of Easter like we all do! 85% of people who attend church go because someone invited them!
AND...check out this info and words from recent research by Tom Rainer:
Ninety-six percent of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if they are invited.
Perhaps we need to pause on this response. Perhaps we need to restate it. More than nine out of 10 of the unchurched said they would come to church if they were invited. If you glean anything from this article, please remember this point.
We estimate that 160 million people in the United States are unchurched if we define unchurched as attending church two or less times in a year. If our research is close to accurate, the implications are staggering. More than 153 million people would start attending church if they were invited!
What constitutes an invitation? For many of the unchurched, it was a simple invitation to come to one's church. For others, it was an invitation that included an offer to meet someone at church to show them around or walk them in the building. In either case, the process was pretty basic. If we invite them, they will come.
The next obvious question is: Are Christians inviting non-Christians to church? The heartbreaking answer is "no." Only 21 percent of active churchgoers invite anyone to church in the course of a year. But only 2 percent of the church members invited an unchurched person to church. Perhaps the evangelistic apathy so evident in many of our churches can be explained by a simple laziness on the part of church members in inviting others to church.
Perhaps the evangelistic apathy so evident in many of our churches can be explained by a simple laziness on the part of church members in inviting others to church.
Walk with me through one more calculation. Let us suppose that, instead of 96 percent, only half of the unchurched in America would come to church if invited. That means, out of 160 million unchurched persons, 80 million would be willing to come to church. Can you imagine how many people would be reached for Christ if that happened?
We who are leaders in the church must challenge the church members. When is the last time they invited an unchurched person to church? The answers they give could make the difference in the eternal destiny of a person. Perhaps it is time we sounded the clarion call to invite the church. It may be that simple, and it may be that profound.
Let's get invititing in Jesus' name!
Much LOVE to you all!
Because HE LIVES,
Pastor Lin