It’s easy to go through each week and miss out on the many things God is doing in your church, and it’s even easier to think that God is not moving when you don’t see what it happening. Sometimes we get discouraged when BIG things are not happening…but often times, it just takes a simple look back on the previous year to see God’s hand in your church.
2016 was an EXCEPTIONAL year for Gospel Community Church, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight everything that God has done in and through GCC. It is only through His grace and mercy alone that these things came about, so please give God the glory alone for everything that conspired in 2016:
- Due to God’s mercy and grace, we’ve been able to support two wonderful organizations here in owensboro that are doing the work of the ministry in areas we cannot currently minister:
- Friends of Sinners – which ministers to folks battling substance abuse issues here in Daviess County.
- CareNet – which is a Christ-Centered Pregnancy Center here in town that does an AMAZING job at ministering to those who are struggling with unplanned pregnancies and other similar issues.
(While our meager financial contributions to these organizations seem small to many, they’re sacrificial to a nearly 2-year-old church plant.)
- God has brought together the right people and supplies to start a small but helpful Food Pantry here at GCC – which feeds roughly 12-15 families each week in this community. For a church our size, that is a BIG blessing to be a part of.
- Our Church family experienced 1 ADOPTION this year, as the Carpenter family welcomed home Henry. I’m sure the Carpenters would agree that this only came together by God’s grace and His work.
- God convicted the members of GCC and it’s Leadership this year as to our need for more purposeful, personal, and corporate prayer, and this caused us to launch a weekly Prayer Meeting, where we intercede for each other, for our church, for our community, and for the lost in and around us.
- God made it possible and provided the wisdom and patience for our church leaders to undergo nearly 14 weeks of Leadership Training, where Vision and Purpose of our ministries was further fleshed out and God-Glorifying practices were put into place in our church.
- This helped us with better organizing our ASL Classes and Reshaped our Youth and Children’s ministries.
- Praise be to God that we’ve seen Growth in our ASL Classes, and that more people are communicating in American Sign Language in Owensboro than before. We’ve seen SELFLESS ASL teachers pour their hearts into this class and this ministry, and we are thankful to God for knitting them into our church (Caitlin, Amanda, Lacey, Crystal, Chas, Joshua H.).
- God made it possible for us to physically connect with a group of outcast, destitute, impoverished, oppressed Deaf people in Haiti, and to assess how we can be involved in bringing the Gospel to those who have not heard it in the near future. We helped put shoes on their feet, and God broke the heart of one of our pastors for this people group and this country. We WILL be going back in 2017.
- In 2016 we gathered as a Family during our first annual GCC Family Picnic, and celebrated the many people that God has brought into the church and knit us together with…
- God gave our pastors the desire and wisdom in 2016 to lock arms with other Church Planters and Pastors in the area, and help start a small “Church Planting and Leadership Cohort” to help each other carry out the work of the ministry in their respected churches and communities when able.
- Through this cohort GCC has had the opportunity to plug into Whitesville Baptist Church and help them while they have been without a Worship Leader or musicians
- We’ve been able to plug into Garden Green on a few occasions, including joining together for a Christmas Eve service… And we’ve prayed for and have plugged in with Harvest Church of Calhoun, Redeemer Fellowship in Evansville, and New Clover Creek in Breckenridge County.
- Several Pastors from this Cohort plugged into GCC in 2016 and helped us with preaching, music, and other areas – including Will Troutman, Joe Hearne, Matt Shown, and others.
- PARTNERSHIPS & SUPPORT: In 2016, God softened the hearts of many churches and organizations as to the purpose and mission of GCC, and we have been able to partner with and/or receive missional support from SEVERAL Churches and organizations this past year:
- Bellevue Baptist Church here in town fell in love with GCC and it’s mission, and plugged in to help us financially and physically in 2016 and 2017. If you remember, we joined them in November for their Big Missions Day, and worshipped with them and with several churches of other languages.
- Whitesville Baptist Church also has a heart for our church and our mission, and started financially and sacrificially supporting our mission in 2016.
- Encounter Church here in Owensboro loves our mission and our church and plugged in to financially help in June of 2016
- Life Community Church loves our church and our mission and plugged in to support us financially in 2016
- The HORN Foundation just recently decided to plug into GCC, giving us a substantial grant to help us purchase equipment and/or secure and renovate a facility to better contextualize what we are doing to better serve our Deaf brothers and sisters here.
- In 2016, God placed Pastor Danny and a Baltimore-based Pastor named Michael Crawford in the same room together at a conference. Michael pastors Freedom Baptist Church in Baltimore Maryland, and has a heart for reaching those in unreached people groups. Their church has financially supported GCC in 2016, but now they’re in the planning process of launching a Church Planting Network called “The Banquet Network” to reach what they feel is the LARGEST Unreached and the most overlooked people group in the world – those in the disabled community.
- Michael and his team has been keeping an eye on what we at GCC are doing here in the Deaf Community, and we have been asked to plug-in, consult with, and help them shape their network as they launch.
- Michael and his team has been keeping an eye on what we at GCC are doing here in the Deaf Community, and we have been asked to plug-in, consult with, and help them shape their network as they launch.
- Also In 2016, God saw fit for us to became members of the Sojourn Network and partner with them in the process of Church Planting. Furthermore, we became a Sojourn Network “Church Plant” – meaning they financially and physically help us each month in our church planting endeavor. As a Sojourn Network church, we also help the network with their church-planting initiatives, and they consistently pour wisdom and teaching into our leaders through various ways.
- In 2016 God also made it possible for us to become a Kentucky Baptist Convention supported church plant, and started receiving financial support and help from the KBC
- God also made it apparent that we need to associate locally with more like-minded churches and pastors who are on mission to make the name of Jesus famous, and we then petitioned to become members of the Blackford Breckenridge Baptist Association – something we greatly look forward to in the near future.
- God made it possible in 2016 for us to bring Pastor Danny into FULL TIME Ministry, as well as raise up and ordain a part time Worship Pastor within the church.
MOST IMPORTANTLY…. in 2016, we witnessed people come to faith in Christ Jesus right here at GCC and have baptized people nearly monthly. We have seen people grown in faith, in sanctification, and in fellowship with one another here – all of this the work of God and God ALONE.
If all of the previous things I mentioned didn’t happen in 2016, this past year would still be overwhelmingly BLESSED by seeing our new brothers and sisters come to faith in Christ Jesus – being adopted into the Kingdom of God!
If you ever think for a moment that God hasn’t moved here in Owensboro – or here at GCC – or that the work God makes available for us to do here may not be worth it….just take a look around, and take inventory as to what God Alone has done in our little church…
So let’s take a moment and PRAISE GOD for what HE ALONE has done here at GCC and here in Owensboro in 2016!