Happy Easter! This Sunday we celebrate the glorious, triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! He is the mediator between God and man and has allowed us into a relationship with Himself. We are going to have a glorious day worshiping our risen Savior this coming Sunday! Make sure and invite your friends and family to be here with you on Easter Sunday. We have an Easter banner you can use to take your Easter photos as a memory.
This coming Friday, April 3, we will have our annual Good Friday service. Friday is the day of the week in which Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. Even though the day is marked by death, it’s a good day because of what it meant for those who would receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Our service begins at 6:30. We will share the Lord’s Supper together and celebrate all that it means that Christ died on the cross for us. We look forward to finishing our worship on Sunday morning for our Easter celebration!
We are doing a special outreach for all of our guests who come on Easter. We will be giving each one a special gift bag which will include information about our church as well as information about the Family Fest which will take place the following Sunday.
We have several events scheduled to Connect our Community to Christ and His Church. We call them C4 events. Here they are in sequence. #1- Our One Week Later service takes place on April 12 followed by the Family Fest. The Family Fest will include a giant egg hunt for the kids, bounce houses, food trucks, and fellowship. We will have free snow cones and cotton candy for everyone! You don’t want to miss the Family Fest! #2- April 19 is Life Group breakfast at 9:30. We are looking for all of our guests who come on Easter to come back with us on the Family Fest and then also to get involved in a small group Bible study. We’re going to welcome them into our classes on the 19th. Be on the lookout for guests that you can invite to your Life Group. #3- Orange Bucket Sunday is our third C4 event. Food4Kids is an organization that helps to feed the hungry children of Alachua County. Get your orange bucket on Easter Sunday! Make sure and bring back your filled bucket on April 26. #4- May 3 is Love Loud. Our Life Groups and members of our church can participate in ministry events where we love our community in Jesus’ name.
I want to make our church aware that we are getting close to the time that W.W. Gay Construction will install our new air conditioning on the roof of our building. We don’t have this date locked in, but it should be towards the end of April. When the time comes, we will have to take one Wednesday night off in order to give our contractor 5 full work days to put in our new air conditioning system. Just be mindful for the announcement when we get those dates nailed down.
We’re so thankful for these that have recently been baptized. We’re also looking forward to baptisms on Easter and are so thankful for over 20 that have been baptized thus far this year. Can we pray for 50 to be baptized this year for the glory of God?!
We are running out of space! That’s a good problem to have in a church. That means that new folks are coming our way! People are getting saved! People are being baptized! Our church is growing! We’re thankful for this reality. We need to be praying about the future. I just want you to be in prayer that God would lead us and guide us as we move forward. Most likely we will need a committee to be elected by our church to meet with the Pastor and pray about what our next steps are to solve our space problems for worship and educational space. Praise the Lord we have these issues to deal with. We are so grateful and thankful for the faithfulness of our people.
What a joy it is to be a part of the North Central family! This place has impacted so many, including me. For me to be the pastor of such a wonderful people is the joy of my life! I love you in Jesus!
Pastor Calvin