2009 was another great year at Flint Hill! We have taken in six individuals by profession of faith (this is new kingdom growth!) and nine by transfer.
We have continued to pursue Evangelism and Outreach through the use of our television commercial, and hands on ministry. We went into several mobile home parks and took a small gift as well as a personal invitation to attend our church. We continued our visitation follow up program. And, we held a fall revival to encourage our members to “get fired up’ about inviting people to know Christ.
We will finish this year having paid 100% of our conference and district apportionments. And, we have made good on our obligation to World Gospel Missions and various other local missions endeavors as well as raising one thousand dollars for Camp Sumatanga and five hundred dollars to help our former District Superintendent, Paul Messer, in his ministry in Africa.
We have a new Nurture team coach who is working with the Children’s teachers to revamp our entire Children’s Sunday school experience. This new way of doing Sunday school will involve a rotation to various stations to help drive the lesson home to each child. Furthermore, we have hired a husband-wife team (Kim and Kelly Scott) as our new Youth directors. They have gone to work to help our youth to become more active in the church. They have done this by incorporating them into the worship service through drama and music and through deliberate discipleship. And, we have begun a youth fifth Sunday service whereby the youth are in charge of the entire worship service on that day.
Our Trustees have been very busy also. We have purchased and placed a new lighted sign on old Dadeville Road to make our church more visible. And, we are working on signage for Highway 280. We have placed new signing on the building to make it more “user friendly.” We have cleared a lot of brush to make our church more visible from the U.S highway. To support our new youth workers and the youth, we have remolded an old storage room and have turned it into a nice youth room complete with a pool table and big screen tv. And, as of this writing, have begun construction in our sanctuary as we remodel it to give us a larger stage area. This is being done so that praise team and drama teams can be seen we they are in front of the congregation and to make our sanctuary more contemporary.
Our Worship team has also been very active in planning our worship experiences. Worship has improved as our very capable worship leader, Mary Perry, has worked help our praise music to take on a more “upbeat” feel while maintaining a “bended” service. And, I have incorporated movie clips into my sermons on occasion to help us to appeal to a younger audience. And, by holding a weekly staff meeting which includes myself, Mary Perry and Kim Scott, we have been able to help each week’s sermons them to be better enhanced.
I can not put into words my gratitude to God for His great blessings upon this church this year. Even though many members are now (or are about to be) unemployed, the financial blessings have continued to flow. Even though the church is lead by a pastor, who sometimes doesn’t get it all right, it continues to flourish. And even though, it is made up of mere human beings, God’s Spirit continues empower us to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God!
