May 2018 Update

What an amazing start to the new year! God is moving in the church, and we’ve seen His faithfulness through the 512 regular attenders we have each weekend, the 8 lives that were changed through the waters of baptism, and the 168 new friends and family who have come to Harvest for the first time, all happening between January 1-May 1! 

The Elders have had productive meetings on January 10, January 17, January 24, February 7, February 28, March 7, March 21, April 11, and April 18. In addition to their normal practices of prayer and time in the Word, they focused on the following:

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:

The elders and a few staff members attended the Bethlehem Pastor’s Conference in January 2018. The experience encouraged them to lead the church by pursuing the Holy Spirit in prayer.

BUILDING TEAM: (CHURCH HOME FOR HARVEST)

In addition to our building team, a financial campaign team has been formed with roles and responsibilities defined. The finance team is exploring the process and planning for how our capital campaign will be conducted. The building team continues to be active in pursuing, vetting, discerning, and reporting on opportunities. The elders thank these individuals for their service to the church. $40,000 was added to our Building Fund in the first quarter, bringing the total account to $285,000. We have currently received 103% of our giving projections through March.

10-YEAR VISION SURVEY: (MEMBER’S MEETING)

In January, we had a great turnout for the annual member’s meeting. At that time, we produced a survey about the 10-year vision, and we are grateful for your participation in that survey. We are crunching the data and focusing on figuring out our next steps.

PASTORAL QUALIFICATIONS:

We were grateful to install Brent Thomas as pastor of worship in March of 2018. His title is now the Worship and Creative Arts Pastor. We are excited for his chance to preach during the series “Rock Solid” this coming summer. At this time, the elders decided to wait on installing Matt DeCola as a pastor.

THE KNOT:

We were blessed and encouraged to have Pastor Ron Zappia and his wife, Jodi, come to Rochester for our marriage event, The Knot. 80 couples were encouraged and equipped through this weekend of teaching and worship. We are grateful to all who volunteered time and energy to make this an amazing time for all.

EASTER:

As a church body, we committed to the 21 days before Easter to seek God through prayer, Scripture reading, and fasting. We offered weekly, live prayer sessions at the office as well as prayer guides to help our people commit to prayer during this season. Over 1,200 people got to experience Easter at Century High School through 4 incredible services on Friday night and Sunday morning.

PRAYER REQUESTS: 

·  Join us in asking the Lord for the right building opportunity, at the right time, for our church. Pray for clarity and unity among our Building & Financial Campaign Teams, that God would open and close doors according to His perfect plan.

· Pray for our people to continue the momentum from Easter and to seek God in prayer and fasting.

· Pray for summer to be a season of clarity, rest, and direction for the leadership team as they begin planning for the 2018-2019 ministry year. Pray for people to hear the Gospel and grow in their faith through the many summer events coming up!

*This is an update for January-April 2018