Wow – we had an amazing Easter Weekend at Coastal! First of all, I can’t thank all of our volunteers enough for all of your hard work – 6 services over 3 days! All of our Teams – Praise & Worship, Tech, Coastal Kidz, Security, Cafe, Prayer, 1st Impressions – knocked it out of the park! Many, many people were at multiple services and some were at all 6. We seriously have the best volunteers at Coastal and could not do what we do without you! We kicked off a new series over the weekend called, “Bridges,” and hundreds of people literally walked across a bridge, representing various next steps in their faith. It was a very moving moment in each service. Going into the weekend, I seriously had no idea how many people to expect in attendance in-person. For the last several months we’ve been averaging around 350 people in-person (about 40% of our pre-covid in-person attendance). I really thought that if we doubled that in-person (700) it would be a miracle. Well, we had 1081 people in-person over the weekend! And then we had another 1175 online – for a grand total of 2256!
Like always, we had a lot of 1st time guests – people who were invited by a friend or who saw an ad, received a post card, or found us online. But what was also so powerful is that I saw people in each one of our 6 services that I literally haven’t seen in-person in over a year. Easter was their first time back in-person since the shutdown. It was very emotional for me as a Pastor/Shepherd and for them – most were in tears. I expect to see more and more of that in the weeks ahead, people starting to return to in-person worship. Again, if you are out and about in the community, your kids are in school (in person) and in sports, you’re going to restaurants, the gym, Costco, Wal-Mart, Target and grocery stores. . . it’s time to come back to in-person worship. Consider this a loving, Pastoral nudge.
Don’t forget that we go back to our regular Sunday morning worship services times this week – 9:30am & 11:15am. Also, there is no Coastal Kidz set-up or Chair set-up tomorrow as we were able to leave everything up this week for Spring Break. We will be stacking and packing our chairs and breaking down Coastal Kidz after the 11:15am service on Sunday. If you took home and put up a Yard Sign, please pick them up and return them to the church. We really try to do our best to reuse them each Easter.
If it’s been a while since you’ve been by our campus, I can’t wait for you to see all the progress on our new facility! It’s really beginning to take shape. In fact, if you are ever in the area, I’d love to give you a tour! I love you Coastal! And I love being your Pastor!
LIFE & LOVE!
Pastor Chris
Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:
- UPCOMING OUTREACH PROJECTS:
PINK House – The PINK House is a community center in the Ardmore subdivision in West Ashley. We are going to be putting on a community Tailgate Party and Clothing Distribution, Saturday, April 10th, 10am-1pm.
Soldier’s Angels – We’ll be helping with the Veteran’s Mobile Food Distribution, Tuesday, April 13th, 8am-1pm.
Tricounty Family Ministries – We will be assisting with their Emergency Grocery Distribution, Wednesday, April 14th, 9am-1pm.
Suburban Hotel Tailgate – Let’s make an impact together by serving local veterans and persons transitioning from a local homeless shelter in Charleston into permanent housing at the Suburban Hotel in North Charleston! Saturday, April 17th, 10am-1pm meet at Coastal in the Welcome Center! This is a project that is suitable for the whole family.
If you are interested in serving in any of these projects, you can sign up on your Connect Card this Sunday or sign up now on our website. If you have any questions, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613. - Interested in officially making Coastal your church family by becoming a Member? Our next Membership Class is Saturday morning, April 17th, 9:30am-12noon. You can respond to this email, sign up on our website, or sign up on your Connect Card on Sunday. You can join us either in-person or online through Zoom.
- We are planning our Annual BEACH BAPTISM out at Folly Beach on Sunday, June 13th, at 5pm. You can sign up for it on our website. The only requirement for Baptism is that you have personally given your life to Jesus. Baptism is a public profession of your faith. At Coastal we call it “going public” and it’s a great celebration! It beautifully illustrates Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. If you’re unable to participate in our Beach Baptism, remember at Coastal we’re ready for you to get Baptized any service, any Sunday. If you are interested in getting Baptized simply respond to this email or sign up on our website.
- We are excited to announce that Coastal is starting a Celebrate Recovery Support Group/Ministry! Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind. If you have a track record of personal recovery and you are interested in possibly serving in this Christ-centered ministry, please let us know on your connect card or you can reach out to Pastor Scott Huff at scotth@coastalcommunitychurch.org.
- If you would like your family to participate in the Baby/Child Dedication on Mother’s Day (May 9th) or Father’s Day (June 20th), sign up on your Connect Card. Include the child’s full name and the service you will be attending. Coastal’s Baby Dedication is a special time for our parents and children. The purpose of our Baby Dedication is not for the child’s salvation or commitment to Christ. It is more of a prayer/renewal time for the parents as they commit to raise their child the way God wants them to and a time of prayer for the child to grow to be the man or woman God has called them to be. It is also a time for our church family to commit to you, the parents, to be the support that you need. Most people think of a Baby Dedication as just for our newborns, but we’ve had all different ages participate. If you’ve never had that special prayer time for you and your child, we’d love for you to sign up and participate.
P.S. One of the ways our church marks the coming of Summer is through “SUMMER OF IMPACT!” For the entire month of June, our church will saturate Charleston with a variety of outreach projects almost every day! What better way to show that we are followers of Jesus than by serving the people right here in our community! The 2021 Summer of IMPACT Catalog with all the details will be available both in-person in the bulletin and on our website on Sunday! If you have any questions, please reach out to Pastor Chris Jones at 843-870-4613.
