There are many critics about the Church. But I have been encouraged and challenged about what God is doing and what He will do in the Church. I remember Jesus saying He would build His church. That is comforting. He will not fail.
Where I get lost, and maybe you do too, is when I focus on the church as an organization. And as a practitioner, a pastor, and a leader, I easily get lost in the weeds of church leadership and growth books, blogs and conferences. Please don’t misunderstand me, there is a great deal of good stuff in all of these areas. We are blessed to live in a day where there is so much out there to encourage and train. But what really has charged me lately has been the joy of seeing God move in people. When I focus on the people and the miracle of God working in and through the ordinary person I become very optimistic. God does miracles in and through people. And God’s people are the Church.
In the coming weeks and months I look forward to seeing God’s people unleashed. At New Hope we are focusing again on what really matters. First we worship, then we love people. I know this is very simple, but for me it is also life giving!
Hopefully you can excuse a positive rant, I know they are uncommon!
New Hope 
God bless us all. He does bless us in many ways in our life. So deep, that sometimes we loose sight of how truely blessed we really are. I’ve been told too many times that you don’t need to go to church to have God in your life. But to me, its more than that. Its a place where people join together to praise God, and what He’s done in our lives as a body of people. The people that love Him, and thank Him for how or what He’s done in our lives. I thank God for bringing me to New Hope. The members at New Hope are like family to me. In the back of my head, they are people that I’ve just met. But God has shown me more than that they’re just peole. They’re God’s people that are there for the same reason that I go…to love as God wants us to love. The people at New Hope love as if they’re my biological family…unconditionally. And thats what church is to me…love, home, and most of all a reconection with God. Surrounding myself around people that are looking for the same thing in life that I am. And that is to get closer to God. With the love that God has planted in us, that is what New Hope does for me