Five to Thrive

Recently, we went through a summer series entitled "Five to Thrive," which was based on the abundant life Jesus promised in John 10:10. We challenged you to commit to these five areas (squeeze the sponge) so you could stop surviving and start thriving:

1. Big Group
2. Small Group
3. Connect
4. Serve
5. Give

I wanted to give you some feedback on each, so you can see how we are doing as a Church. 

Big Group - This is our Sunday morning gathering. We have seen a steady increase over the last few weeks since vacations and time away are coming to an end and school is ready to begin. 

Small Group - Our Life Groups have launched with an amazing success! We have had an average of 70% of the Church getting plugged in to "The Story" at some point during the week. The youth Life Groups on Sunday night are going great as well with huge gains in our teen class. 

Connect - These are our opportunities to connect with other and experience what the Bible calls "fellowship." We have not had a lot of connecting opportunities through the summer, but the fishing trip and following fish fry were greatly attended and definite memories were made. 

Serve - We have had new people stepping up to serve in various ministries, but we are still in need of volunteers for Junior Church. We are continually asking for teachers - so "squeeze the sponge" and volunteer today! (click here to make that happen)

Give - We recently partnered with Haitian Christian Outreach again to sponsor the kids at the Kaypotier school in Haiti. Last year, we gave substantially and completed a school expansion for the kids there, and we are pushing to get them the education, medical attention, and food they need to transform their culture. That is going great, but we have a long way to go to reach out goal. 

Let me close by saying "thank you" to everyone who has decided to commit to the Five to Thrive. You are on your way to abundant life, a life where you are not just surviving, but thriving!


- Rich Hodges
  Minister 
  RichardHodges73@gmail.com