January 2016 Update
Harvest Bible Chapel is a church that is elder governed and staff led. The men who currently serve as elders are Steve Buehler, Steve Deedrick, Ed Gaul, and Chris Persons.
We meet weekly on Wednesday evenings to pray over, discuss, and resolve various issues in our church pertaining to doctrine, direction, and discipline. In addition to these meetings, we desire to make ourselves available as shepherds to pray, counsel, encourage, and serve you. If you have needs, please feel free to seek us out. We are down front after each service and we would love to know and serve you.
REFLECTION ON 2015
We are grateful to God for his work in our church this past year. We have seen many commitments to follow Christ. 41 people were baptized and 88 people committed to being healthy members. With the successful launch of two services, we are so thankful to you for serving the Lord faithfully! We are encouraged that the addition of a second service has now made room for more disciples. Who will you invite to join us as we continue pursuing Jesus together? We’ve got room for them!
How did it go in 2015 with your word for the year? (ex. Joy, discipline, etc.) Reflect on how the Lord worked through this character quality, sin issue, or victory that you sought during this year. We would encourage you to seek the Lord as you consider your word for 2016. What is it that God would have you focus on in the next year? Let’s continue to be built strong on Jesus Christ our Cornerstone.
The Mission of the Church is Missions. The Mission of Missions is the Church. This year we began to see God take our time, talents, and treasure outside the walls of our local church to strengthen churches around the world. We are so grateful for all the recent support of the Caribbean Compassion Initiative to send supplies to Harvest St. Vincent. There were 92 bins full of your love and generosity shipped to the island to meet the needs of countless people and increase the ministry of the church.
10 YEAR VISION
We are now in the process of finalizing a 10-year vision for our church. Our prayer is that each one of God’s people will mature in their faith due to the vision and mission God has given us. We plan to hold a vision meeting the evening of Sunday, January 17, 2016. We ask that everyone who calls Harvest Bible Chapel their home would come as we long to encourage you and invite you to grow deeper in your walk with Christ.
FUTURE BUILDING
After much prayer and discussion, at this time we feel that the Lord is leading us to pursue our primary mission as a church, which is to make disciples. There was a potential site we were interested in but have decided not to pursue that option presently. We are totally committed to God and his plan and know that when the right facility becomes available he will put us in that building for his glory. Please continue to pray for clarity, unity and God’s timing for our church. He is able!
WE ARE PRAYING FOR…
God has placed several things on our hearts to earnestly pray for and we would love for you to join us in those prayers.
PRAYER: As the world around us is changing in obvious ways, we want to be a people dependent on prayer. Individually, in small groups, and corporately we want to fervently seek His will for our lives and church.
LEADERSHIP: Everyone who calls Harvest their home is a servant leader and has the opportunity to use their gifts to make disciples. We are grateful to those who are assuming new roles of leadership and desire to see more leaders rise up this coming year.
UNCOMMON COMMUNITY: We believe God’s people are called to continually grow as we all pursue a relationship with Him. Pray we would be a people who are passionate about Jesus, united, and genuinely loving one another.
STEWARDSHIP: Everything that we have belongs to The Lord and we want God to have all of us. Pray we would use our resources wisely to advance the mission in Rochester, in our surrounding area, and around the world.
- The Elders of Harvest Bible Chapel Rochester
*This is an update for September-December 2015