Dream Come True

From the first week Encounter had it's pre-launch meetings back in August-December 2008, we spoke about the dream of planting a church ourselves.
That dream became a reality this morning December 30, 2012.
We had Mark & Kristin Artrip and part of their Movement Church launch team in our last church service of the year.
The service began with baptism's and eventually had Mark share about how Encounter partnered with his dream to plant a church in Hilliard, OH.

Our elders had the privilege of praying over the Movement Church team and then we all had lunch together.

Highest Offering in Encounter's Four Year History!

Wow Encounter Church!!! 
Did you ever give above and beyond this morning!
With gifts that came in before and after the Day of Generosity, our offering has totaled out at $20,486.39.
That's simply amazing!
Can't wait to tell Rut and the team down in Guatemala about this:-)  

You're Invited to Christmas Eve @ Encounter Church

There's no Sunday morning church service tomorrow, December 23rd.

But we are looking very forward to 

our 5:00pm Christmas Eve Service.

Hope you can make it:-)

November 18, Day of Generosity

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the focus for our November 18th, Day of Generosity was announced last Sunday. (scroll down on the link to see past Day of Generosity focuses) 
Each year Encounter takes a Sunday morning offering in November and gives 100% of it away.  It is promoted weeks ahead of time and usually is the largest offering of the entire year.
This year's focus is the purchase and delivery of an SUV for our ministry partners down in Cruz Blanca, Guatemala working with orphans through the ministry of Vision Trust International.
On Sunday I had some fun showing the congregation "potential" vehicles the elders considered.  Most of them were quite silly. But after talking with Matt Storer, president of Vision Trust and another couple at Encounter who also had this project on their hearts, it was decided the vehicle would be a Honda Pilot.
The hope is that it would be five years or younger with really low mileage. It will need to be a four wheel drive version and the plan right now is to drive it down instead of shipping it.  It's approximately 2,800 miles, in case you were wondering:-).
As I said above, 100% of the November 18th offering will go towards the vehicle and its delivery, though people are encouraged to send support money into the church office prior to that date as well (Encounter church, 6160 Riverside Dr., Ste. #103, Dublin, OH, 43017). 
More details will be discussed this coming Sunday in the service.

October 14th was a great Sunday!

This morning had a number of amazing church body life moments.  It started off with three great worship songs led by our worship band.  Then we had two people baptized: Jean Griffith and Ted Dresnek. They both spoke about their journey coming back to God and now wanting to go public with their faith.

Then Kyle Mielke, shared about an opportunity he has to go to India to see a former workmates wedding and also amazingly visit the child their family sponsors through Vision Trust.

Then finally, before the the message, I shared about our upcoming Day of Generosity. The Sunday where we give away 100% of our mornings offering to a specific need.  The date is November 18th and it is the fourth time Encounter has has it.  Check out my next blog entry for details:-)