Moving Forward

After spending almost a week in St. Louis, Missouri with our family and friends, we returned for a much needed time of fellowship, food and fun with the Urban Life family. We send a huge THANK YOU to Sylvester and Wanida Whitlock, who hosted our Family and Friends Day in their home last Sunday.

They displayed a tremendous gift of hospitality by preparing all of the food for this special church activity. They even had a portable pool and some toys ready for all of the children. It is a great blessing to have people who step forward in their gifting like they have done. We praise God for them.

The gathering also gave us the opportunity to show a video from our home church’s 25th anniversary celebration. Finally, we were able to give you guys a brief glimpse of where we come from and what we have always desired to establish in Harrisburg.

Now as we move forward and the season changes from summer to autumn, we are preparing the ministry for change as well. Our Midweek Gathering is coming to an end for this year. We’ll host the Lifetree Conversations throughout the month of September and conclude them on Wednesday, October 3rd. After that date, we won’t host any more Midweek Gatherings throughout the remainder of the fall and winter months.

In the meantime, we are preparing for some awesome teaching and discussions in our Sunday Gatherings. We will conclude our teaching on Financial Contributions in the local church by talking about the Principles, Practice and Purpose of Tithes and offerings. After three weeks of discussing the historical perspective and controversies surrounding money tithes, we can finally get into the Benefits of Tithes and Offerings.

Many people thought we were denouncing the money tithe, even though we repeatedly said we were not. We simply needed to lay out the documented history and the doctrinal conflicts about tithing money so that you would know that we are not using coercion and compulsion when we teach about the tithing principle and its benefits.

After that teaching, we will jump into a timely discussion titled “Church Hurts” so that we can walk everyone through another level of healing in their hearts and in their families.