Dear Family and Friends,

Today the risen Christ is up to something, right around you.

What is it?

What matters most to the heart of Jesus today?

He was pretty clear on this. Jesus said: “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not stand against it.” (Matt. 16:18)

He who is Lord of Lord and King of Kings declares that everything He is doing in our world has one focus. It is moving toward one finale—a glorious party where He is again fully united to all the crazy, flawed, diverse, struggling people who love Him, at a banquet to end all feasts called the “wedding banquet of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:7-9). God is an eternal community of Three-who-are One, so what God cares about most is building and uniting an eternal community of the saved. And starting with our small slice of His Kingdom—then to the ends of the earth, we get to help!

If Jesus has our hearts: “all things are possible!”  How we view this project is crucial. If we build a church focused on attracting people, they may come. If we build a church with a desire to attract God into our midst, both He and people will come: “And I, if I AM lifted up, I will draw all people unto Me” (John 12:32).

So the real “groundwork” of any physical facility project is not done with bulldozers or lawyers—but with hearts that affirm what Jesus affirms: “Father, I have brought You glory by finishing the work you gave Me to do.” (John 17:4) As with Jesus, so with you: “For you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.” (Eph. 2:10)