I hope you and your family are all having a great week and a great Friday!  I’ve had a little bit of a strange week – my wife Janet has been gone this week seeing her mom in North Georgia, so I’ve been “bach-ing” it.  She drives home today, so please keep her travels in your prayers.  Because of COVID-19 she hasn’t seen her mom since January.  I know there are so many of you who are or have been in that same boat.  Please know that you continue to be in our prayers!  And speaking of prayers, I can’t say enough good things about our online night of Prayer and Worship.  Our Worship Team, Tech Team, and Prayer Team all worked together to create a very powerful experience.  I hope you and your family were blessed.  And how about our Beach Baptism this past Sunday night (see picture above)?!  We baptized 8 people!

As always, there are so many great things happening at Coastal right now that I want to share with you!  First of all, our Fall Semester LIFE Group Catalog is now available!  For those of you who didn’t pick up a physical copy on Sunday, don’t worry.  We’ll be mailing one out this week.  But the easiest thing to do is simply go to our website, check out all the groups and 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!  YOU NEED THIS!  WE NEED THIS!  So check them out and starting signing up!

We had our Preconstruction Meeting this week with the City of Charleston for our new building!  In fact, this coming week we meet with the Project Manager with Hill Construction.  All of which means that site work will start soon (tree fencing, barricades, etc.), quickly followed by demolition and actually putting a big shovel in the ground!  Woohoo!  So exciting!  Trust me, we’ll be keeping you updated on everything that happens.  If you’ve forgotten what we’re doing or what you’ve been giving toward, go to our Daring Faith page on our website and check out the videos.  If you’d like to start giving toward this project and be a part of a move of God at our church and leave a legacy for future generations, simply use the key word, “daringfaith” (all one word if you’re TEXTing to give).

As school (whatever that might look like for you) gears up, you might be wondering what’s going on with our Waves Student Ministry (6th-12th Grade).  They will be kicking off the week following Labor Day, September 8th.  The first three weeks of the month our students will meet in small groups designed for their specific age and gender. The final week of the month they will all come together for a night of worship and fellowship. Even though the semester may not look like “normal,” we are excited about the opportunity for our students to grow both closer with each other and deeper in their faith. Individual groups and times are listed in our life group catalog and on our website.  If you have any questions about Student Ministry please reach out to Pastor Ryan Spell.

LIFE & LOVE!
Pastor Chris

Here are this week’s “Friday 5”:

  1. Our next Saturday Serve is Saturday, 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. We just announced some exciting news this week!  Our church has decided to purchase a site license for something called, “Dave Ramsey+”.  What that means is that beginning Tuesday, September 8th, we will share 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 on 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. It’s hard to believe that it’s back – it’s time to start stacking and packing chairs after our service on Sunday and then setting them up again for church on Saturday mornings (tomorrow) at 9:30am.  It’s a great way to serve, meet some other people, and even get in some exercise.  If you’re looking for more of a “behind the scenes” way to do all those things and get involved at Coastal, this is it.  With approximately 10 people it only takes about 30 minutes.  Ken Bartlett leads this LIFE Team.  If you would like to be a part of this Team, you can respond to this email, reach out to Ken, or simply show up & serve and introduce yourself.  For the most part, this is a task that has to happen every Saturday.  But even if you can help only once a month, that makes a huge IMPACT!
  4. It’s hard to believe that it’s back – it’s time to start stacking and packing chairs after our service on Sunday and then setting them up again for church on Saturday mornings (tomorrow) at 9:30am.  It’s a great way to serve, meet some other people, and even get in some exercise.  If you’re looking for more of a “behind the scenes” way to do all those things and get involved at Coastal, this is it.  With approximately 10 people it only takes about 30 minutes.  Ken Bartlett leads this LIFE Team.  If you would like to be a part of this Team, you can respond to this email, reach out to Ken, or simply show up & serve and introduce yourself.  For the most part, this is a task that has to happen every Saturday.  But even if you can help only once a month, that makes a huge IMPACT!
  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 9:30am service (at approximately 10:45am).  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. Our church is throwing an online virtual Baby Shower for Ashley Hojnacki THIS Sunday, August 30th at 6pm through all of our normal online platforms (church online, website, and facebook).  For those of you who don’t know, Ashley is our church’s Office Manager.  This is Ed & Ashley’s first child.  They are having a girl – Blake Rose.  Here is a link to their registry:  https://www.babylist.com/babyhojnacki.  Gifts can still be dropped off at the church this Sunday.