It’s been quite a whirlwind of a week around here at Coastal!  Hopefully, you’ve heard by now that construction has begun on our new facility!  And by construction, I mean interior demolition and outside site work.  It’s all so surreal watching the walls come down, thinking about all the memories and lives changed in these rooms.  However, it gets me excited thinking about the future, all the new memories that will be made, and lives that will be changed for generations to come!  And by the way, none of this could be done without YOU and your faithful generous giving! 

Not only has construction started, but our Coastal Kidz Children’s Ministry has gone portable!  During construction Coastal Kidz will be meeting across the street (where most of you park) at Orange Grove Middle School! We will be setting up Coastal Kidz every Saturday morning at 8:30am.  We would LOVE for you to join us!  If you are interested in being a part of the Coastal Kidz Set-Up Team,   respond to this email or reach out to Janet Rollins at 843-442-8299.

You might have noticed that we now have a Sign Language Interpreter for the deaf and hearing impaired in our 9:30am service!  Our interpreter is Marissa Py.  Marissa and her husband Jordan and their family have been coming to Coastal in person since the beginning of the Summer.  If you see her on Sunday, thank her for her ministry and welcome them to Coastal!  If you know of any individuals who would benefit from an interpreter, please help us spread the word!

Don’t forget that we now have both of our Sunday morning worship services (9:30am & 11:15am) open for in-person worship.  Our 9:30am service is the only service with Coastal Kidz Children’s Ministry, BUT we’re adding Coastal Kidz to the 11:15am service NEXT Sunday, October 4th.  If you are interested in volunteering in Coastal Kidz in any capacity, please respond to this email or reach out to Janet Rollins at 843-442-8299.  Just like pre-COVID, our 9:30am service is the larger service. If it doesn’t matter to you which service you attend, would you please consider coming to the 11:15am service.  It would help us to continue to spread people out. 

LIFE & LOVE!
(We exist to share and experience the LIFE & LOVE of Jesus with Charleston & the world!) 

Pastor Chris

Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:

1. Upcoming Outreach Projects:
   Saturday Serve –  The foundation of all of our serving opportunities at Coastal really starts with Saturday Serve – the first Saturday of every month.  The next Saturday Serve is NEXT Saturday, October 3rd.  We meet in the Welcome Center/Cafe, project leaders make a “pitch” for their serving opportunity, and then we serve!  Come and join us next Saturday!   
   Tricounty Family Ministries –  We will be assisting with the Emergency Grocery Distribution.on on Wednesday, October 7th, from 9am until 1pm.
   Soldier’s Angels – We’ll be helping with the Veteran’s Mobile Food Distribution on Friday, October 9th, 8am-1pm.   If you are interested in serving in any of these projects or have any questions, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613.
2. We need your help! Our church is collecting new or used back packs, heavy duty bags, or small suit cases on wheels. We regularly help out Tricounty Family Ministries with their Wednesday meal distribution. If you have a car, you pretty much can take as much food as you can load into your vehicle. However, if you’re homeless and without a car, you can only take what you can carry. They are given grocery bags, but come on, have you seen grocery bags lately? Not very sturdy. This is a simple fix. So if you’ve got old gym bags, back packs, sturdy bags, or small suit cases on wheels laying around, bring them to church this Sunday, September 27th! We’ll have a tent & table to drop them off and we’ll take it from there! Thanks in advance for your generosity!
3. One of our favorite missions that we support here at Coastal is Operation Christmas Child (OCC).  Well, because of COVID-19, OCC is going to look a little different this year at Coastal.  We will not be having our big “Wrapping & Packing Party.”  Instead our OCC Team here at Coastal and a few other volunteers will pack & wrap boxes with the current gifts/supplies we already have on hand (You can sign up on your Connect Card to be a part of that Team).  From this point forward, what we are asking our church is to simply take home the shoeboxes we provide and pack them as a family and then bring back your completed boxes to the church between now and Sunday, November 15th.  Weather permitting there will be a table right outside our building with shoeboxes ready to take home each Sunday.  This would be a GREAT opportunity for you to teach your children about generosity, the true meaning of Christmas, and the love of Jesus.  You can go to OCC’s website for a great list of suggested gifts/items for the shoeboxes.  Different is not bad.  We really believe that we still have an opportunity to pack hundreds and hundreds of shoeboxes and share the love of Jesus with children all around the world!  Pray about how many boxes your family would be willing to pack, step out in faith, grab a few shoeboxes on Sunday, and help us do just that!
4. LIFE Groups have started!!  But it’s still not too late to join one!  Go online right now and check out the Fall Semester LIFE Group Catalogand sign up for a Group today!  And yes, you can sign up for multiple groups.  There are a variety of groups (both in-person and/or online) on almost every day of the week.  YOU NEED THIS!  WE NEED THIS!  So check them out and join one today!
5. As a part of the series (“Hope in the Dark”), we’re providing a daily devotional (5 days a week) and a weekly memory verse for the duration of the series as we read, study, and pray through 1 Peter together as a church. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for the devotional (it will be emailed to you daily)!  I really believe this is going to be a great study and a great series for our church and our community!  As always, invite and bring a friend to Coastal – either in-person or online.
   
   P.S. Attention Ladies!  Have you ever walked through a season where you just felt stuck? You’re invited to an in-person watch party of the “Dare to Be” Women’s Event on Sunday, October 4th at 8pm as Charlotte Gambill & Natalie Grant help us discover that God has already given us what we need to MOVE BEYOND!  And, guess what?  Our church has paid the ticket price for this event, so it’s FREE to you and anyone who wants to attend. Invite and bring a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, or a family member that needs a moment to reconnect and recharge in an evening of worship and Bible Study lead by women, for women of all ages.  For more information or to RSVP, please reach out to Rachel Speer or Dawn Judd.

It’s been such an exciting and emotional week here at Coastal!  Our construction project has officially started!  This week and next week is all about site work and demolition – tearing down all the interior ceilings and walls of our existing Coastal Kidz Building and putting up all the silt fencing and tree barricades. You can go to my Facebook page for pictures!  It’s exciting because it’s something that we’ve prayed about, talked about, and planned for almost 2 years now!  It’s exciting because it’s always fun to see new construction!  It’s exciting because very few churches, organizations, or businesses would do what we’re doing on the heels of a national shutdown and during a pandemic!  But God is faithful, and this church is thriving!  It’s emotional because we’ve been in this current building for 16 years.  It’s emotional because of the miraculous way God provided our building in the first place (ask me that story).  It’s emotional because of the many memories and stories associated with the old building.  It’s emotional because I’m overwhelmed with gratitude when I think about the generosity and sacrificial giving of our church that makes this possible.  Here’s what I said to our onsite General Contractor this week, “This is personal for me.  I’m not some guy in a long line of Pastors hired and fired by a local church.  My wife and I started this church 30 years ago.  This is our Baby.  This is our family.”  That’s why it’s been an exciting and emotional week!

So here’s what I’m going to ask you to do this week to mark the beginning of this project and all the excitement that goes along with it.  I’m asking you to give.  I don’t care how much you give, just give something above and beyond your regular giving specifically toward this project, this week.  Many of you have already made a specific 3 year “Daring Faith” giving commitment above and beyond your regular giving.  Give something toward that commitment this week.  Again, the amount doesn’t matter – $1, $10, $100, $1000, $10,000 or more.  Your giving is a tangible way to give thanks to God, to express your excitement and support, and to walk and give by faith.  Here’s what I’ve learned over the past 30 years as your Pastor: when together the whole church gives and walks by faith, that’s when God shows up and does a miracle.  I know this is late notice.  I know I haven’t prepared you in advance for this.  But it’s just something I felt led by God to ask of you – to give.  DO NOT worry about the amount.  However you give – online, TEXT (843-277-8337), App, Offering Envelope, check – simply use the keyword “Daring Faith.”  If you’re TEXTing to give, “daringfaith” is all one word, no spaces.  

Don’t forget that we now have both of our Sunday morning worship services (9:30am & 11:15am) open for in-person worship.  However, our 9:30am service is the only service with Coastal Kidz Children’s Ministry (probably until sometime in October).  And speaking of Coastal Kidz, beginning THIS Sunday, September 20th, Coastal Kidz will be meeting across the street (where most of you park) at Orange Grove Middle School! We will be setting up Coastal Kidz tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 8:30am.  If you are interested in being a part of the Coastal Kidz Set-Up Team, respond to this email or reach out to Janet Rollins at 843-442-8299.

I love you Coastal and I love being your Pastor!  

Pastor Chris

Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:

1. Upcoming Outreach Projects:
   Sububan Hotel Tailgate  We’re sending a tailgating team to the Suburban Hotel in North Charleston on Saturday, 9/19 (tomorrow). We meet at Coastal at 10am. We will be serving hamburgers and hotdogs to veterans and those who are transitioning from One80 Place into permanent housing. Help us to establish relationships with people who have never experienced the love of the church or of Jesus. The project will be completed by 1pm.  
   Tricounty Family Ministries  Interested in helping families in need? We’re serving with Tricounty Family Ministries on Wednesday, September 23^rd from 9:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. We will be assisting with the Emergency Grocery Distribution. We will be assisting many of the same people we serve at the North Charleston Tailgate at Saturday Serve. Tricounty Family Ministries is an organization that desperately needs volunteers!  You can sign up for this project on your Connect Card on Sunday. 
   If you are interested in serving in either of these projects or have any questions, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613.
2. Don’t forget that simply because you are a part of the Coastal family, ALL of Dave Ramsey’s best selling resources and tools are available to you FREE for 1 year!  This includes 5 classes (Financial Peace, Legacy Journey, Smart Money Smart Kids, the Jump Start Course and a new Budgeting course), the Everydollar+ budgeting tool, and a host of other resources designed to help families track their progress through the baby steps. You have access to everything for an entire year at your own pace, on your own schedule.  Here’s the link:  https://www.financialpeace.com/hosts/coastalcommunity?pc=94671724.  Sign up today!  We want to be known as a generous church, and we also want to do everything we can to equip our church and community to experience true financial peace in these difficult times! 
3. One of our favorite missions that we support here at Coastal is Operation Christmas Child (OCC).  Well, because of COVID-19, OCC is going to look a little different this year at Coastal.  We will not be having our big “Wrapping & Packing Party.”  Instead our OCC Team here at Coastal and a few other volunteers will pack & wrap boxes with the current gifts/supplies we already have on hand (you can sign up on your Connect Card to be a part of that Team).  From this point forward, what we are asking our church is to simply take home the shoeboxes we provide and pack them as a family and then bring back your completed boxes to the church between now and Sunday, November 15th.  Weather permitting there will be a table right outside our building with shoeboxes ready to take home each Sunday.  This would be a GREAT opportunity for you to teach your children about generosity, the true meaning of Christmas, and the love of Jesus.  You can go to OCC’s website for a great list of suggested gifts/items for the shoeboxes.  Different is not bad.  We really believe that we still have an opportunity to pack hundreds and hundreds of shoeboxes and share the love of Jesus with children all around the world!  Pray about how many boxes your family would be willing to pack, step out in faith, grab a few shoeboxes on Sunday, and help us do just that!
4. LIFE Groups start this coming week!!  If you haven’t already done so, go online right now and check out the Fall Semester LIFE Group Catalogand sign up for a Group today!  And yes, you can sign up for multiple groups.  There are a variety of groups (both in-person and/or online) on almost every day of the week.  YOU NEED THIS!  WE NEED THIS!  So check them out and starting signing up!
5. We begin a new series THIS Sunday, September 20th, called, “Hope in the Dark.”  We’ll be preaching through the book of 1 Peter.  As a part of the series, we’re going to provide a daily devotional (5 days a week) and a weekly memory verse for the duration of the series as we read, study, and pray through 1 Peter together as a church. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for the devotional (it will be emailed to you daily)!  I really believe this is going to be a great study and a great series for our church and our community!  As always, invite and bring a friend to Coastal – either in-person or online.
   
   P.S. Beginning this Sunday, and during the duration of our construction project, no one will be able to park or drive down the first drive (the old building) of our campus.  It will now be a “Construction Only” drive & parking.  Please park across the street at Orange Grove Middle School or even at Oakland Elementary School.

Well, I’ve got some exciting news to announce!  Late yesterday afternoon, I finally received the email I had been waiting on.  After much, much prayer and a long and sometimes difficult process, we are ready to start construction on our new facility!!  In fact, this next week will be our final week in our old building (Coastal Kidz & Offices) as we know it.  The pre-construction site work all begins next week (silt fencing, tree protection, barricades, etc).  And then the following week, the week of September 21st, the demolition begins!  All of which means that this Sunday, September 13th, is the last week of Coastal Kidz in our old building.  Beginning next Sunday, September 20th, Coastal Kidz will be meeting across the street (where most of you park) at Orange Grove Middle School.  We will be setting up Coastal Kidz next Saturday, September 19th, at 8:30am.  If you are interested in being a part of the Coastal Kidz Set-Up Team, respond to this email or reach out to Janet Rollinsat 843-442-8299.  This also means that all this next week our Pastors and Staff will be moving everything we are keeping in our old building into our old auditorium for temporary storage.  If you have some availability this week and would like to volunteer to help us in this process, simply respond to this email.  And if you are new to Coastal and have no idea what we’re about to do, please go to our Daring Faith page on our website.

Buildings are simply tools.  But I really believe that our new facility will serve as a beautiful symbol in our community that even during a season where it seems as if everything has been on hold, or worse, fading away or dying, that God is not finished with us. There is hope and new life!  Coastal we are here to stay, leaving a legacy for future generations!  Regardless of our circumstances, our mission has not changed – to share and experience the LIFE and LOVE of Jesus with Charleston and world!  And we will not be distracted or diverted from that mission!  This new facility is simply a tool to carry out that mission – a symbol of a growing church that chooses to keep walking by faith!

Don’t forget that starting THISSunday September 13thwe are opening up our 11:15am service for in-person worship along with our 9:30am service.  We’ve been monitoring our numbers and our capacity for social distancing in just the one in-person service at 9:30am.  As a result of that and a desire to help make people feel comfortable finding a seat, we are opening up the 11:15am service.  If you are concerned at all with being in a crowd or if this is your first time returning back to in-person worship, the 11:15am service would be the perfect service for you. 

However, for the month of September (13th, 20th, 27th) there will only be Coastal Kidz (our Children’s Ministry) in the 9:30am service.  As more and more people continue to return, including our volunteers, we’ll open up our Children’s Ministry for both services (hopefully in October).  Also, please keep in mind that our church will continue to follow the City of Charleston’s mask mandate. If you don’t have a mask, we will gladly provide one as you enter.  But most importantly, we will continue to show grace, kindness, and love to everyone.  As always, if you’re sick, immunocompromised, or caring for those who are, PLEASE stay home and watch our services online.

Don’t worry – we will continue to offer ALL of our services online at 9:30am, 11:15am, and 6pm.  If you miss a service, you can easily catch up on our Facebook page or our YouTube Channel.  But, and this is important – whether you’re in-person or online, stay ENGAGED!  We need each other now more than ever before.   And the best way to stay engaged is through our LIFE Groups.  If you haven’t already done so, go online right now and check out the Fall Semester LIFE Group Catalogand sign up for a Group today!  And yes, you can sign up for multiple groups.  There are a variety of groups (both in-person and/or online) on almost every day of the week.  Groups start in just one more week – the week of September 20th!  YOU NEED THIS!  WE NEED THIS!  So check them out and starting signing up!

LIFE & LOVE!
Pastor Chris

Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:

1. Upcoming Outreach Projects: Sign up on your Connect Card to help at Lowcountry Orphan Relief on Friday 9/18 from 9-11am or at the Suburban Hotel Tailgate on 9/19 from 10am-1pm.  Come make an IMPACT in our community by being the hands and feet of Jesus!  If you have any questions about these projects, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613.
2. Don’t forget that simply because you are a part of the Coastal family, ALL of Dave Ramsey’s best selling resources and tools available to you FREE for 1 year!  This includes 5 classes (Financial Peace, Legacy Journey, Smart Money Smart Kids, the Jump Start Course and a new Budgeting course), the Everydollar+ budgeting tool, and a host of other resources designed to help families track their progress through the baby steps. You have access to everything for an entire year at your own pace, on your own schedule.  Here’s the link:  https://www.financialpeace.com/hosts/coastalcommunity?pc=94671724.  Sign up today!  We want to be known as a generous church, and we also want to do everything we can to equip our church and community to experience true financial peace in these difficult times!  
3. Waves Student Ministry (6th-12th Grade) is back!  The first three weeks of the month are going to be strictly small groups meeting at a couple of different locations. We are encouraging ALL students to jump in to one of these groups and starting connecting again with other students and leaders. As we begin to see which groups are working out best (time & location-wise) for students, we might combine and shift the groups. We will keep you updated weekly on what the groups are looking like and have even opened up a poll on our Waves Instagram to allow students to let us know which group they plan on attending. The groups are listed on our website and on WAVES Student Ministry Instagram.  On the 4^th week of the month we are going to have a semi-normal Wednesday meeting and all joining together for a time of fellowship and worship.  For more information or to answer any of your questions, please reach out to Pastor Ryan Spell at 843-442-8985.
4. Attention all Coastal women & friends: Chosen Women’s Conference is going VIRTUAL for the first time ever, and Coastal is hosting a watch party on Thursday, September 17 (7:00–9:00 pm) and Friday, September 18 (7–9:30 pm). What is Chosen? It’s a live-worship, guest-speaker, community-building, faith-strengthening event designed specifically to equip and empower women of all ages to walk in the freedom God has given us. 2020 guest speakers include Christine Caine, Irene Rollins and Wendy Perez. Tickets can be purchased at www.chosenwomensconference.com. RSVP for the Coastal Watch Party to Rachel Speer rachel@coastalcommunitychurch.org.
5. What’s your Next Step here at Coastal?  If you’re fairly new to Coastal, a great next step is our Newcomers Reception.  Our next Newcomer’s Reception is THIS Sunday, September 13th, in the Welcome Center immediately following the 11:15am service (at approximately 12:30pm).  This is a great way to learn more about Coastal, meet staff and key volunteers, as well as meet some other new people.  Childcare provided.  RSVP online or on your Connect Card.  Or maybe your next step is officially making Coastal your church family by becoming a Member.  Our next Membership Class is Monday evening, September 14th, 6pm-8:30pm. You can respond to this email or sign up on our website.  For both the Newcomer’s Reception and the Membership Class, you can join us either in-person or online through Zoom. 
   
   P.S. On Sunday, September 20th (next week), we kick off our new Fall Sermon Series called, “Hope in the Dark.”  We’ll be preaching through the book of 1 Peter.  As a part of the series, we’re going to provide a daily devotional (5 days a week) and a weekly memory verse for the duration of the series as we read, study, and pray through 1 Peter together as a church. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for the devotional (it will be emailed to you daily)!  I really believe this is going to be a great study and a great series for our church and our community!  As always, invite and bring a friend to Coastal – either in-person or online.

We announced it two weeks ago and now it’s here – your pathway to financial freedom!  Our church has purchased a site license for something called, “Dave Ramsey+”.  What that means is that starting today you have access to ALL of Dave Ramsey’s best selling resources and tools FREE for 1 year!  This includes 5 classes (Financial Peace, Legacy Journey, Smart Money Smart Kids, the Jump Start Course and a new Budgeting course), the Everydollar+ budgeting tool, and a host of other resources designed to help families track their progress through the baby steps.  If you were to sign up for this on your own it would cost $130.  NOT NOW!  All of that and more will be FREE for our entire church!  You’ll have access to everything for an entire year at your own pace, on your own schedule.  Simply go to this linkand sign up today!

We see this as an investment in you, your finances, and your future!  It’s also a way to practically express our generosity and love toward you and our community and to be a real source of help.  Think about it – what if you had gone into the “shutdown” debt free and with money in the bank?  What if you could have hope for your life, including your finances? That’s what Dave Ramsey+ is all about – giving you a plan and hope so you can experience financial peace.

I hope you’re as excited about this as I am.  And more importantly, I hope you’ll sign up and access the material.  We want to be known as a generous church and we also want to do everything we can to equip our church and community to experience true financial peace in these difficult times! 

Again, here is the link:  https://www.financialpeace.com/hosts/coastalcommunity?pc=94671724

I Love You & I Love Being Your Pastor!
Pastor Chris

P.S. We are offering a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Virtual LIFE Group (sign up today!) this semester.  You’ll watch the videos on your own and then each week (Tuesday’s at 7pm) we’ll meet together on Zoom for discussion and accountability.  But this year, all the resources are FREE!  However, you don’t have to sign up for the Group to have access to all the material.

We have two more weeks in our “Summer Reading” sermon series – this Sunday and next Sunday.  And we’re closing it out with two great books – “Dream Big” by Bob Goff and “Parenting” by David Paul Tripp.  But on Sunday, September 20th, we kick off a new series that couldn’t come at a better time.  It’s called, “Hope in the Dark.”  We’re actually going to be preaching through the book of 1 Peter for this series.  The New Testament book of 1 Peter was written to Jewish Christians who had been driven out of Jerusalem by extreme persecution and now were scattered all over the world.  Throughout the Roman Empire, Christians were being tortured and killed for their faith.  To say that they were crushed, overwhelmed, and devastated would be an understatement.  So Peter wrote to these scattered, suffering Christians to try to give them hope and comfort, urging them to remain loyal to Jesus.  And it’s a message that could have easily been written for us today.  As the world in which we live seems to get darker and darker and more evil and opposed to Christianity, so many people today are feeling crushed and overwhelmed and have lost hope.  We need to be reminded that ultimately, this world is not our home, that we’re called to rise above this world and our circumstances, and that no one can steal our hope.  

Well, if any of that resonates with you, “Hope in the Dark” is going to be a powerful way to finish out 2020. As a part of the series, we’re going to provide a daily devotional (5 days a week) and a weekly memory verse for the duration of the series as we read, study, and pray through 1 Peter together as a church. In fact, you can sign up for the devotional (it will be emailed to you daily) today!  I really believe it’s going to be a great study and a great series for our church and our community!  As always, reach out to your “one”, your friends, neighbors, co-workers, people in your sphere of influence and invite them to Coastal.  People everywhere are looking for hope.  They are not going to find it in anything this world has to offer.  But hope has a name – Jesus!  And our mission is to point people to Him – to be ambassadors of hope! 

Only 2 more weeks until our LIFE Groups start!  If you haven’t done so already, go online and check out our Fall Semester LIFE Group Catalogand sign up today!  And yes, you can sign up for multiple groups.  There are a variety of groups (both in-person and/or online) on almost every day of the week.  Groups start the week of September 20th!

And don’t forget we only have 1 in-person service this Sunday, September 6th at 9:30am.  But beginning next Sunday, September 13th, there will be 2 in-person services – 9:30am and 11:15am.  Children’s Ministry will only be offered during the 9:30am service for right now.  As always, all services will continue to be online.  Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

LIFE & LOVE!
Pastor Chris

Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:

1. Saturday Serve is THIS Saturday (tomorrow), September 5th!  We meet at the church at 8:30am.  The leaders of the different service projects give a quick “pitch” of their project, we pray, and then we disburse to go serve!  It’s that simple.  You just show up, choose, and serve.  All projects are typically finished before lunchtime, so it’s not a sacrifice of your entire Saturday.  Come make an IMPACT in our community by being the hands and feet of Jesus!  If you have any questions about Saturday Serve or ideas for future projects, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613.
2. Don’t forget to check your in-box on Tuesday, September 8th!  We will be sharing an access code that makes ALL of Dave Ramsey’s best selling resources and tools available to our entire church FREE for 1 year!  This includes 5 classes (Financial Peace, Legacy Journey, Smart Money Smart Kids, the Jump Start Course and a new Budgeting course), the Everydollar+ budgeting tool, and a host of other resources designed to help families track their progress through the baby steps. You’ll have access to everything for an entire year at your own pace, on your own schedule.  So be on the lookout for the link and access code this Tuesday, September 8th!  We want to be known as a generous church, and we also want to do everything we can to equip our church and community to experience true financial peace in these difficult times!  
3. Waves Student Ministry (6th-12th Grade) is back!  The first three weeks of the month are going to be strictly small groups meeting at a couple of different locations. We are encouraging ALL students to jump in to one of these groups and starting connecting again with other students and leaders. As we begin to see which groups are working out best (time & location-wise) for students, we might combine and shift the groups. We will keep you updated weekly on what the groups are looking like and have even opened up a poll on our Waves Instagram to allow students to let us know which group they plan on attending. The groups are listed on our website and instagram.  On the 4^th week of the month we are going to have a semi-normal Wednesday meeting and all joining together for a time of fellowship and worship. Our goal in all of this is to get back to large group gatherings on Wednesday nights. However, we do believe with so much still up in the air, especially with school starting back this coming week, that it would be best to maintain as much social distancing and precaution as we possibly can.  For more information or to answer any of your questions, please reach out to Pastor Ryan Spell at 843-442-8985.
4. Attention all Coastal women & friends: Chosen Women’s Conference is going VIRTUAL for the first time ever, and Coastal is hosting a watch party on Thursday, September 17 (7:00–9:00 pm) and Friday, September 18 (7–9:30 pm). What is Chosen? It’s a live-worship, guest-speaker, community-building, faith-strengthening event designed specifically to equip and empower women of all ages to walk in the freedom God has given us. 2020 guest speakers include Christine Caine, Irene Rollins and Wendy Perez. Tickets can be purchased at www.chosenwomensconference.com. RSVP for the Coastal Watch Party to Rachel Speer rachel@coastalcommunitychurch.org.
5. What’s your Next Step here at Coastal?  If you’re fairly new to Coastal, a great next step is our Newcomers Reception.  Our next Newcomer’s Reception is Sunday, September 13th, in the Welcome Center immediately following the 11:15am service (at approximately 12:30pm).  This is a great way to learn more about Coastal, meet staff and key volunteers, as well as meet some other new people.  Childcare provided.  RSVP online or on your Connect Card.  Or maybe your next step is officially making Coastal your church family by becoming a Member.  Our next Membership Class is Monday evening, September 14th, 6pm-8:30pm. You can respond to this email or sign up on our website.  For both the Newcomer’s Reception and the Membership Class, you can join us either in-person or online through Zoom.
   
   P.S. As always, there are lots of serving opportunities at Coastal:  On Wednesday, September 9^th Coastal will be serving with Tricounty Family Ministriesassisting with the Emergency Grocery Distribution from 9am-12:30pm.  On Friday, September 11th, 8am-1pm, Coastal will be sending a team to serve local veterans in need at the Soldiers Angels-Veteran Mobile Food Distribution.  You can sign-up for either opportunity on your Connect Card this Sunday or simply reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at chrisjones@coastalcommunitychurch.org for more info!