August 2007 at New Hope Christian Fellowship

Wow, it's already the beginning of September, and we're gearing up for a terrific fall season at New Hope!

As I look with much anticipation to September and a new "year," I am reflecting on what an awesome August we've had. August is statistically a tough month for churches. Attendance-wise, we had been averaging 160-ish back in May, and when June hit we dropped dramatically to the 110-120 range (with a low Sunday of 86!) and we weren't sure what the summer was going to hold for us as a church! But this last month we averaged around 130-140, which is very solid considering all the vacations and missing college students. Not only that, our giving for the month of August was outstanding--God has been good to us financially, and I know all of us Shepherds praise God for our fellowship's faithfulness.

But church isn't about numbers. It's about connecting with God, serving Him, and connecting with others, and August has been good for those things, too! We've enjoyed good teaching from three of our Shepherds (Dewey, Rich and Ken), and been led in worship by two different leaders (me and Dustin) in two different locations (in the Senior Center and in the Park). We also had a chance to eat lunch together last week with a potluck barbecue.
Our softball team had a blast finishing up the season with three wins and one loss (and, uh, only one major injury). Kevin and Cheryl Gebhart were nice enough to cap off the season with a pizza party at their house. I think we're all disappointed the season is over, and we may get together for an unofficial friendly game with some players from Creekside Community Church sometime soon. I know I got a chance to become better aquainted with some people as a result of playing together!

And of course we had a great week of Children's Day Camp (I've written in detail about them in posts from August 14 & 16), with 5 kids raising their hands on the last day to ask Jesus into their lives. We look forward to our children's ministry continuing strong with Awana starting up in a couple weeks.I love being a part of this church, and I hope we can continue to serve and glorify God in great ways this fall!