Dear Faithful Prayer Partners,
God DOES answer prayer!
Last Fall, and again this past Spring on two separate occasions, we asked you all to pray for a new church start in Batesville – the Compass Church.
This past week I received this email update about how the Lord has worked and is working.
So, rather than try to share second hand, I thought I would just pass the email on to you in its entirety, and thank you personally for joining together with this new church through your prayers. God is Good!
Tim
Guys,
We launched our new website a week and a half ago. Go check us out at www.thecompasschurch.net.
The Lord has been working overtime here. We launched CompassLife (small groups) on Sunday, June 27th (I know, it's the middle of summer) and they have exploded at the seams. We launched with 4 adult groups, 1 college/young adult group, and 1 youth group. We had 136 the first week! Since then 1 adult group has spawned a 2nd to accommodate its growth and we have created a brand new group meeting on an alternative night to allow for new folks who have expressed interest since launching. Currently, we have 4 adult groups and 1 youth group meeting Sundays, 1 adult group meeting Mondays, 1 adult group and 1 college/young adult group meeting Tuesdays. The response has been absolutely amazing! Chad did an excellent job of taking our leaders through a month-long series of training in preparation for our launch. Each group has a leader and apprentice or apprentice(s) with the understanding that they would be taking a lead role as groups multiply (the word "split" is not in our vocabulary). Presently, we run CompassLife in 10-week terms with breaks in between and will be off through the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Each term will launch with an open enrollment period which will give folks an opportunity to expand their connections within the church and choose from multiple studies. This first term we are studying "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan as a church-wide activity.
This past Sunday the 18th was a milestone Sunday for Compass. We had our highest attendance to date of 218 and we gathered Sunday evening poolside at the home of one of our members for a special baptism service, our first! Over 150 joined us for that celebration!! You can check out the pictures on the website to catch a taste of some of the emotion of that evening.
I could go on and on. It's such a joy to be a part of a movement ordained by the Father. Pray that we will continue to stay out of His way and let Him continue to work. Chad, feel free to interject any additional thoughts you may have. What an amazing journey and we're barely 5 months old!!
One in Christ,
Mickey Jones
Directional Pastor/Worship & Administration
Compass Church
P.O. Box 4077
Batesville, AR 72503
(870) 307-7673 (cell)
Tim Wicker
Church Planting Strategist
Missions Ministry Team
Arkansas Baptist State Convention
1-800-838-2272 ext 5159
http://abscchurchplanting.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ArkansasChurchPlanting
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