Launch Service

All Saturday night I did not get a wink of sleep because of our launch service that we have been waiting for the past year and a half.  The night before Andrew and I put everything aside we needed to load in the van.  It was an early morning but we were ready for it.  I was disappointed when I walked outside and noticed how slick it was from the snow.  I dismissed the thought right away knowing that God was going to bring who needed to be there that morning.  We arrived at the KY Theatre at 8:30 and the launch team trickled in.  I have the best launch team ever!  Sarah, Andrew, Jessie, Jason, and Aerial helped out with the sound.  Lauren, April, Stephen, Ryan, and Mark ran around like crazy people.  Abigail was her cheerful self, welcoming people as they walked in.  One person, Kenny, arrived early and Aaron Renfroe sat with him the entire time, which I was happy to see.  Tawndee and Alicia helped out with the refreshments and décor of the entire theatre preparing it as a place for worship.  Gentry had a huge smile on his face when he brought all the balloons in.  Joseph was rockin it out in the hallway as people walked in.  Jordan, Angie, Jenny, Christy, and Jenn helped transform a few hallways into one of the best children's areas I have ever seen.  Danielle was also a big help running around and fitting and need as it arose.  There were a lot of moving parts but it was awesome to see the excitement.

As people started coming in there were a lot we didn't recognize, Praise God!  They were people who had seen our fliers, ads in the Kentucky Kernel or Chevy Chaser.   We had a total of 150 in attendance.  We are reaching a population of young people, 18-35 who are entirely missing from our churches in the U.S.  God has made it clear that Embrace is His church and does not belong to the launch team or me.  It is awesome to meet people and invite them into the life of Embrace.  The next few weeks I will continue my preaching series:  Are You Burned Out On Religion?

We will be starting our discipleship series on Tuesday nights called "Deeper."  It is 10 week sessions of how to be a disciple and apart of Embrace.   We are going to continue to have Friday night dinners at our house on Columbia Avenue.  We are hoping to get more small groups and other programs off the ground as needs arise so we are needs driven instead of program driven.

Our biggest challenge will be to continue to let people know that we are in the KY Theatre.  We need to get the word out and focus on our evangelism strategy. 



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