God Has Brought Overwhelming Confirmation...!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Dear Hillcrest Church Family,

We have finished counting the response forms from Commitment Sunday and I have some wonderful news to share with you. Our congregation has overwhelmingly confirmed God’s will for our church…!

92% of those who responded to my call to commitment said, “Yes, Pastor Mark, I believe we should follow the vision the Holy Spirit has given you to rebirth our church downtown!” Only 7% said, “No.” In spite of all we have been through these last several years, the God who supernaturally delivered us from debt has now brought us to incredible, Spirit-inspired unity and crystal clarity regarding our future.

A very high percentage of our constitutency participated in this process and a very large majority made the one-year commitment going forward. Our ministry team and I will soon be contacting you who made this commitment so that we can begin exploring new ways to involve you in our ministry outreaches. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your step of faith! I believe with every fiber of my being that we are on the verge of great things. The very best is yet to come for our church family and you are going to be a part of it…!

Several precious people who have life-stage or other issues that will make it impossible for them to regularly attend our services in our new, downtown location communicated their own personal conviction that God is nevertheless calling us to take this dramatic step. I am so very grateful for those of you who did this. Thank you for responding to the prompting of the Spirit and acting in such a selfless way for the good of this local body of believers and God’s greater Kingdom agenda. Your blessing means more to Teresa and me than you could ever know. Your continued prayer support will be a great source of strength to us. God will surely allow you to share in the victories we win for His glory alone. I encourage you to walk with us down this path forward as far as you can. Know that we will bless you from the bottom of our hearts when the moment comes that God leads you to another local church and that we will always consider you a part of our “extended family.” You will always be welcome to come back for a visit or to stay!

I want to speak a word in closing to those of you who do not yet know what the Lord is calling you to do personally. We would love to have you be a part of what God is going to do in this city through our church in this new season. You have unique gifts and there is thus a unique contribution that only you can make to the fulfillment of this vision. I encourage you to continue prayerfully seeking His face for direction. Please be sure to feel free to ask me or any of our ministry leaders any questions you may have. We respect your right and ability to hear from God concerning your own future and we want to be as available to help you in your decision-making process as you would like and to provide you with whatever further information you may need.

If the Lord has already made it clear to you that your season at Hillcrest Church will come to and end when we relocate, I want to thank you for all you have done in the past to help us minister to people in the midst of the storms we have weathered. You helped make it happen! I pray God’s blessings be with you always!

In closing, let me speak a word to every one of you. No matter what your response was on Commitment Sunday, Teresa and I love you! We will always be willing to serve you in any way that we can in the future regardless of whether or not you are a formal member of this church.

Let’s Take the City…!

Pastor Mark Brand