End of Year Recap 2020

Friends,

Disconnected, that’s how many of us feel right now.

It’s hard to feel connected after the ways we’ve connected our whole lives have been interrupted for going on nine months now. To help bridge that disconnected gap, I thought I’d give us all an end of the year church recap that doesn’t involve Zoom (shudder).

There’s literally thousands of amazingly beautiful things the Lord Jesus has done in our church and his people this year, but looking back, these are what stand out to me:

·  Moving Online – At the drop of a hat we moved our service and whole church experience online. A big shout out to Tyler Sawicki for all his work behind the scenes with this!!

·  Family Worship Resources – Jessica Kennedy and the Nino’s team provided great resources and coaching for families locked down with young children.

·  Served People in Our Local Body – Pastor Greg managed our ability to meet many practical needs in our local body.

·  Prayer Meetings – All the elders ran daily prayer meetings throughout the week during lockdown to lift up the needs of one another.

·  Navajo Nation Food Donations – You made huge donations of food to meet basic needs in the Navajo nation as COVID ravaged their community.

·  Devotionals – Our elders wrote and led devotional times three times a week to care for your souls.

·  Encouragement from Christian History – I made some short videos that were meant to encourage you as we explored different writings from Christian history.

·  First Light – Navigating COVID-19 restrictions, we engaged in a generosity endeavor that saw over 100 families commit to bring light to darkness through our church.

·  Core Convictions Class (5 Solas) – Over 100 people participated (in-person and online) in our first ever C3 (Core Convictions Class) class looking at the theological distinctives of our church through the lens of the Protestant Reformation.

·  New Preachers - Pastor Jay and Pastor Nathan both preached their first sermons and did an amazing job proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you all.

·  My Beard - I grew a quarantine beard, which became a quarantine mustache which my wife hated so I shaved it off.

See friends, 2020 wasn’t all bad.

I end this note with deep thankfulness for the elders, staff, and leaders of this church who love you very much with the love of Christ.

Let’s look forward to 2021 when we’ll move back to the Nob Hill neighborhood, return to be known as City on a Hill Church, re-engage with local mission, and, as a church, prepare our first-ever permanent home.

See you there,

Pastor Ryan