Wow! I know I keep saying that, but that’s how I feel right now. Wow! Sunday was awesome! We had another person who gave their life to Christ! We are shrinking the size of Hell – one LIFE at a time! Another person renewed their commitment to Jesus. Tons of people signed up to take Next Steps and get involved here at Coastal. We also had our largest non-special event attendance – 186 people! We kicked off the New Year stating that we were going to be a church of 250 by the end of the year. It’s March, just three months into the year, and we were at 186! Between the two services, Nursery had 21 babies!

On Friday night, we had a Financial Team meeting to go over the church’s finances – more of a reality check than anything else. While things are definitely better than they were about 6-8 months ago, we are still dealing with the effects of a down economy. People are hurting. We are looking at ways of cutting spending and continuing to make wise decisions. However, we are carrying too much debt. We prayed that God would bless our people. We prayed that our church would grow and that our people would grow in their giving. Well, not only did we have a great attendance, but I got an email from Rebecca, our Treasurer, telling me that some serious praise was in order. We had a great offering! Keep it up Coastal!

On Saturday night we had our Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. We had a blast! It was our way to thank our Volunteers. I think they felt blessed. We gave everyone a new t-shirt. On the front of the shirt it says, “Don’t just go to church.” On the back it says, “Be the church.” It also has our web address. On Sunday it was cool seeing everyone wear their shirt. I explained that it has two meanings. One, we don’t want anyone thinking that they just attend Coastal. It’s not about us. We are on a mission to see people come to Christ. And everything we do fits into that purpose. Two, the church is not located at 460 Arlington Dr. We are to be the church in our community, in our schools, in the workplace, wherever God has placed us. In fact, by Sunday night I had several people tell me that they were stopped by people who asked about our church because of their shirt.

And lots of new people are signing up to serve all over Coastal. In Promiseland, our Children’s Ministry, Janet has had several new people step up to observe and serve! Someone served in Nursery for the first time and came out saying, “I found my niche.” Somebody else was offered a t-shirt but he responded, “No, I want to earn it by serving.” We highlighted our Communion Ministry on Sunday and Geri had 5 new people volunteer. Wes had over 20 students Sunday night and has had several new volunteers.

On Wednesday night at 7PM we are having another “Egg Stuffing” party! Right now we have 11,000 stuffed Easter Eggs. We want to push that number to 20,000. Bring plenty of eggs and plenty of candy! It should be a lot of fun.

Like I said – WOW! These are exciting times. But this is just the beginning. I can’t wait for Sunday! Bring your lost friends! I plan on presenting the gospel in a very creative way. Don’t miss it and don’t miss this opportunity.