Filed under: Uncategorized
Sunday was a great day at East Coast! Through the life of David, we talked about how God uses obscurity to develop us for future opportunities.
TODAY…
If we will be ok with the incubator of obscurity
God will take us and train us for opportunities
…TOMORROW
To catch Sundays message you can listen to it online at www.eastcoastchurch.net or you can visit our podcast page
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Sunday we had the privilege of having TJ Ward share the message with us. You can catch it on our podcast page or find us in Itunes under: The East Coast Podcast. In this message TJ shared through some decisions Daniel made, how Today Matters tomorrow by the risks that we take for God. He summed it up for us like this:
Those that resolve to take a risk for God
will be rewarded for their faith
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Whats going down for week three at East Coast Church?? We are continuing in our series: Today Matters, by looking at someone from the Old Testament. You have heard a about him. He has hung out with man eating lions & has friends who have spent some time walking around in a fiery furnace… Sunday we will look into the life of Daniel. God used Daniel greatly, even into his old age. It all started when one day he made a decision that affected what his “tomorrow” would look like.
Tomorrow, TJ Ward is speaking in place of our lead pastor,Kevin Connell. TJ is a local Jacksonville guy who has the call of God on his life to start a new church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. TJ and his wife Wendy have two daughters and are planning to make the move up to NC in a couple of weeks.
Remember last week we were introduced to Marti Johnson, a missionary to orphans in Uganda. Let me remind you that she needs our help and support by donating: digital cameras, AA batteries, and SD cards. She leaves February 3rd, so there isn’t much time to donate. We will see you tomorrow morning at 10:30 in the historical San Marco Theater located in downtown San Marco. Bring a digital camera, bring some SD cards, bring a few packs of AA batteries – because what we do TODAY MATTERS, tomorrow.
Filed under: Missions
With Haiti in the wake of history, What we had planned for the 2nd week of East Coast fit together well. Continuing in our series: TODAY MATTERS, we focused on burdens – specifically, being broken by the burdens.
Sunday we were faced with two burdens: Haiti & Uganda. East Coast decided to give 100% of our offering to Haiti Relief through Compassion International. We had decided that a good goal would be $1000. This by far exceeded our launch date offering totals, with less people there this week, we thought $1000 would be tough to hit. East Coast, you gave over $1400 on Sunday!! THAT blows my mind! Thank you for giving to something today that will matter for someone tomorrow. Thank you for being broken by the burden.
During the message Jordan Pope interviewed a local missionary named Marti Johnson. Marti has a mission in her heart for orphans in Uganda. She desires to share the love of Christ with them through the vehicle of photography. for more information please visit project perspective. Heres how you can help Marti – She needs…
- Digital Cameras (Walmart has them for less than $70 / Target has them for less than $30)
- AA batteries (you can get them anywhere, but she would love a 48pk, a $20 bill will buy this!)
- SD cards (these are less than $10 at most places, but you can find them here for $6 each)
Marti is the first missionary East Coast has picked up in monthly support. She currently needs about $600 more dollars a month to keep her in Uganda. She is leaving by faith on Feb 3rd, trusting that God will provide. Will you be broken by the burden and help reach orphans in Uganda through Marti’s ministry?
To catch this weeks message you can listen online or download it here. If you’re an Itunes podcast person, find us in Itunes by subscribing through our podcast page.
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Sunday January 10th was a monumental moment for East Coast Church. It was a day we have looked forward to for a long time. With the environment set and a message from the Word of God burning in my heart – we launched. With about 75 people in the theater, we had an incredible time kicking off the opening series: Today Matters. This series will run from January 10th – February 7th.
During this series, we will look at the importance of today and why it matters tomorrow. Sunday, we opened with Joseph and how he didn’t let the discouragements he went through derail him of Gods preferred future for him. You can catch the message here or listen from our podcast page. We hope you’ll join us Sunday at 10:30am for our 2nd service at the San Marco Theater in Down Town San Marco. For directions and mor information visit us on the web www.eastcoastchurch.net
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THANK YOU to all who donated jackets for the Jacket Drive that East Coast Church sponsored in November. You donated over 60 jackets to help keep those in need warm here in Jacksonville, Florida. The vision of East Coast is: “To build a bridge that brings a voice” – the hope of Christ! Though we don’t officially launch as a church till JANUARY 10th 2010, thank you for helping us accomplish the vision in a tangible way. Below are some pictures of students receiving jackets at a local middle school.
Lets pull together this winter and give away some jackets & coats for those in need here in Jacksonville. We’re collecting jackets and winter coats for the students and their families at Butler Middle School. Butler has a free and reduced lunch rate of over 90%!! Thats alarming. Most of us have a few coats in our closet, others have none…
You can get involved by donating gently used or new jackets. We have multiple drop off locations including the Chick Fil a at the Town Center. Also, Sivada’s Cupcakery is letting us use their cupcake shop as a drop off location. If neither of those will work for you email us at info.eastcoast@gmail.com
You have till November 30th to donate, so if you dont do it this week, hit Black Friday for a jacket or two… or 12!
Next time you walk out the door with a jacket on, take it off for a hour – it will give great perspective!
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What a great day East Coast had at our second preview service. Micah Pringle did an excellent job leading us in worship and the message hit hard on the Gospel! We also shared our community outreach plans for people to get involved in. For more info go to eastcoastchurch.net and click on the serving others tab.
One thing that we are especially excited about was a dude named Ben. Ben just happened to be walking by the theater, came in, heard the message of the gospel, and gave his life to Christ after the service!!! THIS is why we do what we do!
Thank you to all who have prayed for East Coast as we try to figure this thing out together. Please continue to pray for these things:
- Our final preview service on Dec 13th
- The jacket drive for kids in need
- The opportunities to serve single moms & widows
- And the families that need adopting this Christmas
For more details on how YOU can get involved in reaching Jacksonville, go to East Coast Church dot net and click the serving others tab.
Filed under: Pre-Launch
So East Coast had our 1st preview service on Sunday! Many of you have been asking how it went. I was going to wait to write up a blog post on it until I got some pictures. You can view them here.
I am still overwhelmed – seriously in shock at all the people who have prayed for us. About an hour before we began, the pastor of Southside Baptist (right across the street) came over to talk to me. He said that he was excited for us and that they have been praying for us. Wow, that was incredible. What if we all worked together to reach people for Christ?!?
I’m still amazed at all the prayer that was being lifted up for East Coast! To the other pastors in Jacksonville, fellow church planters, lay leaders in Jax and even out of state (thanks Sonny!), the Promise Land people, and the many friends & family members. Thank you for praying for us and thank you for communicating that to us through texts, twitters, facebook messages, and emails! I think we would all be amazed at the spiritual warfare going on that day. Again, thank you for the prayers.
I could see the hand of God in so many ways little by little working things out & opening doors for East Coast. We had about 60 people show up! a few people came from the community, but it was mostly our friends and family who came out for support – for that I am grateful! It is going to take a team of faithful and focused believers to reach out to our community in selfless service.
The San Marco Theater worked out great for us! I had an incredible time in personal worship, we had a ginormous screen to work with, and I got to share the vision of East Coast along with the message of the gospel! We recorded the message you can listen online here. It’s a terrible recording, for that I apologize. We are still working through some technical difficulties. Thanks again for your prayers, they really made the difference Sunday. Our next preview service is November 15th. I would love your prayers for this as well.
Filed under: Pre-Launch
Many things have happened since the last blog post. As of a week ago, East Coast was planning on going to the Park and Ride to try and reach out to 2,000 Jaguar fans who live in the San Marco area. Long story short, our permission was denied by the city.
Plan B was to go to the stadium, purchase a parking pass and hand out free waters there… still to no avail. We couldn’t get permission to do this on Stadium property. Knowing God has led us to do this, I headed down to the stadium THE DAY BEFORE THE GAME, to pray and look for where God wanted us to set up and give away free water…
Just as I was about to go home, I passed by a building within a stones throw of the stadium and saw a man pass by the door. “Why not?” – so I got out and explained our story to this man who didn’t have a clue who we were.
To make a long story short, this man had been a pastor for 30 years in here in Jacksonville and allowed us to have four spots to park some cars and set up a tent!!
We handed out about 1000 water bottles Sunday along with a printed card front and back that had the East Coast website on it, and the three preview service dates (October 18th, November 15th, December 13th). No doubt, this was a God’s provision – giving us the right place and the right time. Like I said before, we handed out 1000 bottles of water and spoke to probably 3000 people as we invited them to East Coast Church! Here are a few pictures of what took place Sunday morning…
