July 2024

AS I AM
As we walk through this summer series titled "As I Am" we are being called by God to "be holy as I am holy." Each week of this series we're exploring a different character trait of God's and how he is developing that same character trait in us. As we do, I invite you to do three things.

1. Allow yourself to experience the blessings of God's character. He is faithful, loving, reliable, compassionate, merciful, and more. What a blessing it is to us that God is so good and holy.
2. Consider how you can allow God to develop within you that same character trait so that you, too, are faithful, loving, reliable, compassionate, merciful, etc. Examine your ways and your motivations and let his Holy Spirit work in you.
3. Remember God is gracious and forgiving. Don't let shame and guilt define your life—God doesn't. He gave us Jesus through whom we have forgiveness once and for all. Your faith in Jesus makes you a beloved child of God, defined only by him.

May the beautiful character of our holy God also define who we are as the people of God.

STAGE LIGHTING
The Full Council is exploring the possibility of upgrading our stage lighting for both the center (preaching) stage and the side (music) stage. This isn't really a matter of "needing to upgrade again" after what we did in 2019. This is more of an area of remodeling that wasn't really done in the first place.

Those of you who attend onsite might not notice the need very easily. That's likely because you've gotten accustomed to the way the lighting is in the room and it's a soft home-like experience. And it works. But those of you who watch online can tell the need for this because our video appears blurry and dark and washed out. That's not a problem with the cameras. It's the lighting. In lighting terms the minimum amount of "lux" needed (think brightness) for video is 1000 with 1500-2000 being better. Our current stage lighting is only 200-300 lux (which is probably about the same as your kitchen) using standard led floodlight type fixtures. We need more professional lighting to achieve the brightness that other churches have who do well with their service livestreams. When this upgrade takes place, you'll notice a significant improvement to the quality of the online video and a much brighter experience onsite. Please note, we're not talking about flashing laser lights and smoke and all that. This is just white lighting to brighten up the faces.  

Giving has been strong this year so we'll likely be able to cover the expenses but if you'd like to financially support that project, your gifts will help us ensure it gets done well.

MORE NEW PEOPLE
Last week Deanna and I enjoyed hosting half a dozen young couples (with no kids or with one baby) who are new to the church within the last 10 months. We had a great time getting to know each other and making connections. Sarah tells me that she's added 16 new families to our database within the last 8-10 months. Please, make connections with these new people by introducing yourselves and getting to know them.