"The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.
He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit." (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
The tree planted near water does not fear the storm. Its roots stretch down deep, and it is not shaken by the wind. It does not fear heat from trials. It is not parched by the scorching sun. The tree does not worry about future droughts. It draws from the fresh stream and continues to produce an abundance of fruit.
There are seasons of life that just seem harder than others. But as followers of Jesus, we are also planted by a stream, a living stream (John 7:38), which we must stay rooted in and can also draw upon in times of trail. Jesus told his followers that anyone who is thirsty yet trusts in Him, will be filled up, and they will be satisfied.
Below you will find some celebrations from the previous week, as well as our weekly financial update.
Baptisms: This Sunday is the second of 3 weeks in a row that we will have baptisms during our worship services! Around 20 people have or are going public in their decision to follow Jesus. Join us each week as we celebrate the life transforming power of the gospel. If you have never been baptized and would like to be at an upcoming worship service go to hhbc.net/nextsteps to learn how to be a part!
New Sermon Series: We dove headfirst into our new series, Ephesians: The Gospel Unleashed, this past week. If you missed the sermon last week you can always catch up at hhbc.net/watch.
Last Sunday’s Business Meeting: Here are some quick highlights:
Ed Peterson shared that we are in the best financial position we have been in a long time. God has been so incredibly faithful through the continued generosity of our church family. As you continue to give to the vision and mission of HHBC, you are better enabling our entire church family to impact our community and world to an even greater extent with the Gospel.
Our Finance team shared that because of the continued generosity, we have been able to fully restore our staff salaries back to what they were before cuts were made in October of 2019. In addition, as giving continues to stay strong, it is our plan to reimburse any lost wages due to these cuts before the end of 2020. I know our staff wants to say thank you for allowing us to make this happen!
In addition, our Finance Team made the motion, which was affirmed by our church family, that we immediately raise our giving to the cooperative program (SBC) through the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV) from 1% to 2.5% with a continued goal of 5% at some point in 2021. Thank you for being a church that cares about supporting missions!
Following much discussion and prayer, our church voted in affirmation of a motion brought by the personnel team to move Rev. Brian Freerksen from the Student Pastor to the position of Executive Pastor. This new role will better help in giving strategic oversight and alignment to our ministries and serves as a supportive role to the Senior Pastor. We believe this new role will best help us continue to move forward in advancing the gospel in every ministry of Hyland Heights.
The church also voted in affirmation of a personnel team motion to form a search team, to be appointed by our personnel team, to fill the role of Student Pastor. Jackson Richardson, our Middle School Pastor, was made Interim Student Pastor so that our students will continue to grow as they have done in the previous few years, which includes 2019-2020 seeing the most students on Wednesday evenings in over a decade!
Josh Moon was also affirmed to oversee the communication responsibilities which had previously been overseen by Jackson Richardson. This is in addition to his responsibilities as our Technical Director. We are grateful for his desire to pick up and continue to move forward how we can better communicate in this new role.
Ways to Serve at HHBC: Our Emergency Medical Response Team is having it’s Fall meeting on Sunday, September 6th following worship. If you have any interest in serving as a part of this team please email Beckie Hunt at beckie.hunt.bh@gmail.com.
Doreen and Carmen are still in need of extra help on Wednesday nights for Cubbies (ages 3-4) and nursery (2 and under). The times are from 6:15-8:00 and we start this week. Also, Doreen still needs help on Sunday mornings with our special needs class. If anyone would like to volunteer for either of these, please contact us at mykerrboys@aol.com or Doreen.close@campbell.k12.va.us.
Sunday Reminders: As we continue to see Covid-19 numbers rise in our community, we remind everyone to take the precautions you would take when entering into any other building. If doing things like social distancing, washing hands well, and wearing masks can help us love our neighbors better and avoid potential spread in our church family so we can continue worshiping together in person, we should strive to do these things as much as we are able. Last week we saw many more people wearing masks in our hallways and would say this is a good thing, as our hallways are the hardest place to maintain social distancing. We also want to remind everyone that the 9:30 service still has plenty of room for you and your family to join us while best maintaining social distancing. Thank you for your help and understanding as we strive to keep the people we love as safe as possible. For additional information on HHBC’s response to Covid-19 go to hhbc.net/coronavirus.
HHBC Weekly Financials:
Weekly Offering: $20,149.21
Weekly Budget: $33,228.00
As of August 24th, we have received 106% of our year-to-date budget.
While one week does not make the year, this is one of the lower offering of the past year. We want to say thank you for your continued generosity and remind you that every time you generously give to Hyland Heights, your gift is not just going to keep the lights on and staff employed, but is serving to help us as a church family connect, grow, and impact our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s because of your faithful generosity that we are experiencing such life change, celebrating many baptisms, and are able to increase our missions giving. Thank you for your commitment to give faithfully, sacrificially, and generously that we can truly be the church that God is leading us to be for His glory.
Please also remember that giving in worship will continue to look different as long as Covid-19 persists. We will not pass the plates for your safety, but will have offering baskets where you can give as you exit the worship center following whichever service you attend. For many, we know that you have started to give online, and this continues to be an excellent choice to make giving easier/safer for you and to make sure that the ministry and mission of HHBC continues to impact more lives the weeks to come. If you would like to give to Hyland Heights online, simply go to hhbc.net/give.
"On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.'" (John 7:37-38)
Dr. Josh Carter
Senior Pastor