Saturday, November 21, 2015

November 19, 2015 - 400 Dozen Cookies, Pray for France, Construction Update


Hi Everyone, 

Please continue to pray for the citizens of France and the Christian churches there in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Brad has carried on conversations over Facebook with several evangelical pastors in Paris who asked us to pray for them and their churches as they share grace and hope in this time of grief and confusion. Pray that God will open the eyes of the French people and, for that matter, the rest of the world, to the reality of sin and evil and their urgent need for the one true Savior, Jesus Christ. Pray that God will create in them a hunger for the gospel. Pray also that God will bring about a worldwide spiritual awakening among Muslims. I had read prior to the Paris attacks that many Muslims have been shocked and disgusted by the evil acts of ISIS and other radical Islamic group and have turned from Islam and embraced Christ. That's eternal good news in the midst of temporal bad news. 

Construction got a little wet this week. The rain stopped all exterior work yesterday and today, but we are still on schedule. The building pad will be completed next week, and work will begin on the foundation. Much is happening behind the scenes preparing for the commencement of interior demolition that is set to start on Monday. Our construction manager, Oliver Sperry Renovation, has done a great job each week preparing the building for Sunday activities and other ministry events. I'm confident they will do an equally outstanding job making the building ready for activities once demolition and interior construction begins.

Movies in the Park is coming up fast (Dec. 12) and we need 400 dozen cookies! That's right, 400 DOZEN! If the weather is good, we typically have 1500-2000 people at MITP. It's our biggest outreach event of the year. We not only need cookies; we need lots of volunteers to help with set up, take down, serving food and drinks, greeting, and more. To volunteer to bake cookies or work at the event, email Cathy Dangerfield. Begin praying now for beautiful weather!! That's by far the most critical part of MITP, and we have no control over it. Pray also that God will bless our preparation for the event and lead hundreds and hundreds of unchurched people to attend. 

We will wrap up our Acts study this Sunday by looking at how our response to adversity affects those around us. Read Acts 27-28 to prepare for the message.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

November 5, 2015 Grab Your Coffee; Don't Be Like Eutychus (Acts 20)

Hi Everyone, 
Our newsletter is now compatible with mobile devices! According to Constant Contact, the service we use to produce the Canopy Roads Connection, approximately 50% of all emails are opened on mobile devices! Wow! After reading that statistic we realized that we needed to take immediate steps to reformat our weekly publication. We hope this will make it easier for you to read it and stay informed. If you read this on a smart phone or tablet, let us know how it works for you.

Beginning this Sunday the cafe will be outside under the covered drop off. For all my fellow java lovers, you can pick up a cup of coffee before you even enter the building! Now you won't have to worry about the embarrassment of nodding off during the service while that pastor goes on and on...BTW, we are taking a temporary break from snacks while we make the transition to the new set up, but don't worry. Snacks will be back.

Construction update: The new berm on the top of the hill has been sodded and will be watered by the new irrigation line. Actually we already had an irrigation system, we just had to reinstall the line that ran where the berm was placed. The electrical sub has begun work on his part of the project. It's one of the largest and most critical areas of the expansion. 

All In Commitment increase: Last month we reported that the All In campaign is projected to be about $267,000 short of funding all of the construction costs. We mentioned that if every family in the church would give about $70/mo. more to the campaign for the next two years that we would have enough to fund it in full. Terri and I prayed about it, and we have increased our giving by that much. Several other members have increased their giving as well. (To be clear this giving is above and beyond the regular giving to the budget. We must continue to fund the ongoing operations of the church while we pay for the construction.) Will you pray about giving $70/mo. more to the campaign for the next two years? If we all go all in we can pay this off in two years!

We are winding down our study of the book of Acts on Sunday mornings. This week we will cover chapter 20. Then we will only spend two weeks on the remaining eight chapters. Read in Acts 20 about what happened to the guy who fell asleep during Paul's sermon. In the last half of the chapter, read about Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders. What did he say that encourages or challenges you in your relationship with Christ?

Invite someone to join you on Sunday...

I'm All In,
Matt