A note from Kris Hassanpour
Joanne and I have been doing really well! We've worked hard to find a rhythm that works for our family in this busy season of planting a church and having our third child. We now have three children: Braylon (5 years), Kyler (3 years), and Sayla (7 months). Each of them brings so much joy to Joanne and I as we watch them grow and make new discoveries. Please pray that God would protect our family from the enemy and that God would continue to provide for us in 2014. Our church plant recently celebrated one year in September! 2013 has been our first full year in church planting, and we've seen God protect us and provide for us in special ways. We're rejoicing in the people whose lives are being changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please continue to pray for us to have a spiritual and tangible impact on the people in our city. We want to see more people coming to faith in Jesus and worshipping him.
Thank you so much for your support of my family and our church. Spanish River Church will forever be part of any legacy our church leaves behind in this city. We are grateful to God for the leadership and committed members of Spanish River Church and pray the same prayers of protection and provision for you.
Love, Kris Hassanpour
Prayer Focus: Brant Bosserman & Trinitas Presbyterian Church, Everett
Brant Bosserman, lead pastor and church planter of Trinitas Church is advancing the Gospel in Everett, Washington. Brant and his wife, Heather, joined the Spanish River Church Planting family in May 2013.
For the first six months of our meeting as a core group (prior to our formal launch) we did an in-depth study of the character of Biblical worship. This study left our core group members feeling like they rediscovered the purpose of the sacraments, prayer, observing the Lord's Day, preaching, song, responsive readings, confessing our faith together, catechizing children, corporate confession of sin, etc. With this rediscovery that there is a way to indulge the Gospel in the Christian Life as worshipers together, there has been a tremendous zeal among our members to see the church grow, and to share its message with others. Literally every member of our core group has invited friends, family, nominal Christians, and unbelievers to hear the Gospel preached, and see believers worship together.
We have been tremendously blessed by special events in church (our launch service; several infant baptisms; visits from missionary preachers; etc.), and special gatherings outside of Sunday worship (Summer BBQ's; Monthly Lady's and Men's Outings; Play-dates for mom's and children; and Discipleship Groups). At this point, none of our events have failed in their intended purposes or in their ability to draw attendants. I can accredit the eventfulness of all such gatherings to God the Holy Spirit as he has worked within our core group members to bring about a joy and excitement to be present, and to invite others. There would seem to be no substitute for genuine joyfulness to gather on the part of church/core group members. In the next six months we are especially excited for (a) the opening service in our new meeting space; (b) our member reception service; and (c) the continuation of our weekly discipleship groups.
We would appreciate prayer regarding regarding our facilities. As our plant grows, we are in need of facilities that can facilitate that growth with sufficient nursery space for our children, and sanctuary seating for adults and visitors.
Prayer Focus: Caleb Davis, Denver
Caleb has spent most of his life in the major cities in the Northwest – Portland and Seattle.While in Seattle, Caleb helped to start two new churches, one in Downtown Seattle and one in the Rainier Valley (the country’s most diverse zip code). Caleb and Sara have been praying about planting a church in Denver for the past 7 years. After sensing God was leading them to make this move Caleb transitioned from his responsibilities, they were prayed over, and sent by Caleb’s fellow pastors in July of 2012 to begin a new work in Denver. Recently Caleb sent us this update: “Things are going great. We just had our 8th service yesterday. We've been going through 1 John, which is such a great book on authentic Christianity. It's going slow and one person at a time, one conversation at a time, one sermon at a time but it's really cool to see what has been happening. Every single week we have had new people come and check things out - some have stayed and others are still TBD. Almost every week we have had non-Christian people come which is encouraging. We usually have about 40 people there on a Sunday. One thing I'd love your prayers on is for some strong team/leaders to come our way. I'd love someone else on staff. Don't really have the funds at this point to make that happen but I'd love for God to send us someone that would be willing to raise support or someone that would be a solid teammate that could work for free until we could pay them. Other than then smaller tasks that I can delegate to people in our church I'm doing everything and it's a lot!”
Prayer Focus: Pete Armstrong & Dwell Church, NYC
Pete was born and raised in Olympia, WA, and educated at Calvin College, Fuller Theological Seminary and Calvin Theological Seminary.
Pete and his wife Lily moved from Seattle to NYC to start Dwell Church.
Dwell Church is a growing gathering of New Yorkers exploring the life of God in community. Their vision is simple: connecting the Mission of God to the Bowery. That means that they both encourage people to be in relationship with God but are also fully engaged in serving their neighborhood. They started meeting in an apartment in September of 2011 and launched public worship on April 15, 2012.
Some have been Christians for a while and others are investigating Christianity for the first time. Many live in the neighborhood of the Bowery but others commute from Brooklyn, Queens or uptown. There is a strong sense of internal community but they are also enjoy reaching out to serve the neighborhood and city.
Pete writes how God is at work at Dwell “two more people recently came to faith and would like to be baptized. God be praised! I'm going to take them through a short course on the meaning of baptism. I find that this is often when spiritual attacks come from the enemy. So I want to pray protection over Susie, Janay and myself during this crucial season. They are hoping to be baptized on December 8. Susie is an Ivy League graduate (married to another Ivy League grad, of course!) who works as a consultant. She is Korean-American. Janay grew up in the projects in Brooklyn and works in retail. She is African-American. I am so thankful that God is drawing folks across borders of class and race together at Dwell. May He bless our times together and not let anything stand in the way of their baptism and growth as they follow Jesus.”
Pete and Lily are thankful for: believers being called to NYC to build God's Kingdom here, my brother and sister-in-law worshiping with us, seeing the fruit of their prayers the last few years, a powerful testimony in worship from a Columbia grad changed by God's love, ready to change the world, more folks than ever connecting through our gospel communities, a wonderful core group who gives of their time, leadership and finances, powerful times of prayer and worship together, financial faithfulness of friends who continue to support us, the opportunity to serve Christ in a wonderful urban environment, increased confidence and marvel at the gospel through preparing and giving sermons, Lily taking classes for a counseling degree at Alliance Theological Seminary.
Pete asks that we join them in praying: for a bigger vision of what God wants to do with Dwell in this city that He loves, for more families and children from the neighborhood to join up with Dwell, for the teenagers who live, study and play along the Bowery, for deepening relationships, especially with those who don't know Christ, for connecting our faith in Christ with our busy days at work, for new and emerging leadership at Dwell and in Christ's church more broadly. for our Leadership Development Network currently ongoing, for ways to connect with couples and other young marriages we can pray for and encourage, for a larger space we're hoping to move into on January 1, for favor from landlords and for the finances to make the move into a long-term sustainable space for Dwell.
Inauguration of Training Center at Sarampet
A note from Pastor Sudhakar after the first training held in the Bad News Good News Training center in India.
Dear Brothers in Christ,
Its a great joy and blessing to see the work completed and the first batch of church planters trained this week at Sarampet.
For two days I spoke about the Bad news and Good news and God has given me more clarity and also new illustrations while I was speaking to them. The more I speak about this the more I am getting to know and experience.
Also we had each church planter demonstrate preaching the complete Gospel so that they would learn more effectively and also learn to practice.
Out of these ten church planters few of them have really understood most of it and have demonstrated very well. I was so happy to see the seeds being sown on good soil.
Your prayers and support will bring a great impact in the region of Telangana.