Dear Ren friends and family,

This week I'm not going to take the time to give you all the details of regular happenings. Hopefully by now you know that we meet Wednesday night at 7pm, Sunday at 10am and 5pm.

What is most on my heart is the spiritual health of the community.

We have been in our new building for about a month and each week we are experiencing beautiful outpourings of the Spirit. I have been overwhelmed at times at how tangible the presence of Christ has been during worship. I'm so thankful for the musicians who prepare passionately to lead us.

I'm still sort of floating that we are actually in our new building and everything is completed. We have our full certificate of occupancy with the city and are approved for gatherings of 500. Our first couple Sundays were smooth and I especially want to thank the dozens of volunteers helping to provide ushering, security, parking lot, prayer, coffee, hospitality, ministry to children, visual displays, and worship. It's so beautiful when everyone works together.

If you have not heard we are finally in our new location at 184 Broad Street and last Sunday was our opening day on Easter. We had close to 500 come to our services to celebrate and we sensed a special strong presence of God upon us!!!

Hello beautiful Ren community and friends. I'm sitting in one of the local cafes called White Electric and there is music filling the air that is I think the worst music I've ever heard. The coffee is amazing and the music is usually fine but today it sounds like a group of 20 teens who don't play instruments raided a school band closet and just started vandalizing the instruments. And someone recorded it. I'm not even hearing a melody. It's just straight noise and static. Maybe I'm getting old?

Someone once said, "the hardest part of faith is the last half hour." This statement strikes a chord with me right now as we are finishing up this extensive renovation.

Every February at Ren the window opens to enlist to be part of the Core (membership). The way membership works at Ren is that people join in February and commit for one year. Memberships expire on the last day of February each year and must be renewed.

Over the years I've met so many genuine followers of Jesus who sell themselves short and think small thoughts about their lives. They struggle to imagine themselves being great in God's kingdom. They hold high views of God, but for whatever reason don't believe they are candidates for the fullness of God.

Last week I began a brand new series on the fullness of God.

New Series

I am so excited and burning to begin a brand-new series on the fullness of God. The idea of fullness may mean different things for different people, but it essentially means the full spiritual life of God that can work in and through us.

Last Sunday, Pastor Scott spoke to us about the light that Jesus brings, and that he dwelt among us and revealed to us who God really is. This is good news to our souls and the more we think about this and mediate on it, the more we will have joy in our lives. God bring us into deeper joy when we really begin to understand what he has done for us.

Christmas is upon us and, if we are honest, even as followers of Christ, we sometimes struggle to be excited about the season. The shopping malls, parties, advertisements and extra responsibilities threaten to dull our minds from being captivated by the wonder of Christ's birth. I am praying for us this year that we would be awakened to the glory of the birth of Christ and that we would ascend the heights of joyful worship.

Many people have traditions around Thanksgiving to help them count their blessings. Some families take time at the dinner table to express specific things they are thankful for. Others retreat to quiet places to muse on all the good that has come to them. Many folks gather around living rooms or in churches the night before Thanksgiving to sing songs of gratitude. It's actually pretty awesome that our culture does this each year.

This Sunday I'll be unpacking the book of Habakkuk. We don't actually know too much about this obscure prophet, but we know he likely wrote the book during the time before the Babylonian captivity when God's people were corrupt and suffering greatly for it. The little book of Habakkuk is a glimpse of the prophet's conversation with the Lord. He speaks to God and God responds. It's very raw and real.

The story of Jonah is not merely about a big fish. It's really a story about God's parenting tactics and it can be a little uncomfortable to take in. Here's a guy, a prophet of God, who refuses to do what God is calling him to do. He basically doesn't like the Ninevite people God is asking him to minister to. So he runs.

This Sunday we continue in our "Epic Stories" series talking about Daniel and the lions den. The book of Daniel is a great read, and if you have time this week I'd encourage you to read the first six chapters in preparation for Sunday.

This Sunday we will be looking at the wonderful story of Ruth that took place back in the days of the judges.

On Sunday morning before my 9am sermon I took some time to talk a little about the need for all of us to step up and be the church during this time of renovating our new building at 184 Broad.