2013 in Review
It’s hard to believe that 2013 is over and that we are already a month into 2014. While we have much to look forward to in this New Year, we wanted to take just a moment to reflect on what God has done in the life of Southern Hills during 2013. It has been exciting to see how God is using a very young church that is experiencing many things for the first time to impact the lives of people. There is no way that we can share all that happened this year, but here are some of the highlights:
- We continue to have our weekly worship services on Sunday evenings using the facilities of another church in our community. This arrangement has been an incredible blessing as we have all the space we need at a very reasonable price.
- On Wednesday evenings we meet in our homes for “Life Groups.” These groups provide an opportunity for the people of Southern Hills to spend time with one another learning what it means to “be the church” and “do life together.” Not only have our groups grown numerically in 2013 (we are needing to add more groups), but they have also served to grow our church in love for God and one another other.
- This year we have continued to partner with a local elementary school that allows us to serve them on a regular basis. We have been able to provide mentors for students who need some guidance and we have also maintained a snack pantry for children who are unable to bring snacks from home.
- In March we had the joy of holding our first Baptism Service and in one night we had five people follow the Lord in baptism. This was a great celebration of how God continues to change lives and a great “first” for our church family.
- Another “first” that we shared this year was our first Easter Celebration as a church. In preparation for our Easter service we passed out over 1,000 invitations to our community. Our church family enjoyed working together to invite others to celebrate Jesus with us.
- This fall we joined many other churches in our area in an outreach effort called “Explore God.” The campaign began with a training event that helped our church learn how to have conversations about God with their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Then we spent the entire month of September focusing on starting conversations with our community. Each Sunday in September our services were focused on answering common questions about God and Christianity. This was a high point in our year as we focused very intently on sharing the Gospel with our community.
- One of the blessings of our church is that we many young believers who are eager to learn God’s Word, but we also have some mature believers who are anxious to invest in others. This year we began using these two groups to form discipleship teams. Each week we have mature believers taking time to invest in younger believers and helping them grow in their faith.
These are just a few of the many things God has allowed us to accomplish in 2013 and as we enter into 2014 we are excited about what God has in store for us. We are thankful that He is using us to reach people in Round Rock and we pray that many more will come to know Him in the coming year.
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