Tag: CityReach

Church in a School

currentaccbuildingTomorrow Ambridge Christian Center, one of our church plants, will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary! Over the last two years ACC has seen nearly 150 people come to Christ just during the weeks of CityReach.  Pastor Mike & his team have some incredible things to celebrate tomorrow and it’s going to be an even greater day because of their big move.  Over the last couple years, the church has continued to grow and has now outgrown their current facility.  ambridgehs

Tomorrow is their first Sunday service in their new meeting location, Ambridge High School. Please keep them in prayer as this is a big step and could really open the door to impact more people with the gospel in Ambridge.

My prayer for ACC tomorrow:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Eph. 3:14-21)

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CityReach Wrap-Up

What a week it has been! Last night we held Block Parties at the 5 CityReach sites and passed out book bags filled with school supplies to over 1,000 kids! It is amazing to see what God can do when we work together.

While I was at Ambridge last night I received a phone call that BridgePoint in Tarentum was running out of book bags for their Block Party. So the coordinators at Ambridge allowed us to grab some of their extra book bags. We loaded them up and drove them to Tarentum. One church helping another – that’s what it’s all about! Here’s a closing glimpse of the impact of this week:

  • Nearly 1,000 people each night at all the sites.
  • Average attendance at each site of just over 230.
  • 173 people committed their lives to Christ!
  • 5 Churches fired up and ready to explode into the fall!!

In addition to the lives that were impacted in each of the communities, we also had a student missions trip arm of CityReach this year. Over 120 students from APC and other churches from around the country came in and ministered at each of the sites. What a blessing and impact this was to our sites! A big thanks to our APC youth pastors: Cullen, Gregg and Ben for running this whole arm of CityReach this year. You guys did an incredible job and helped these 100+ students have a transforming ministry experience!!

Tonight we have one more block party in Millvale. Please pray for a great response and good weather! Praise God for allowing us to be a part of this great mission of redeeming a broken world!!

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Day 3 of CityReach

Last night we held the last of our Outreach and Kid’s Crusade Services leading up to our big Block Party night tonight. I went to PCO & Ridgewood and had the opportunity to hear some powerful worship from Judah Praise at PCO and here Seth Franco again at Ridgewood. After the service at Ridgewood, I was talking with Pastor Chris Hezlep of Ridgewood and he was commenting on how cool it was to have all these different churches working together this week for one common goal: to reach the lost!

I would agree – there is something powerful about unity and cooperation in the Body of Christ. It’s an answer to Christ’s prayer in John 17, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” That is the power of a week like CityReach. It’s not always easy working together, but it sure is more biblical.

Here’s the summary of lives impacted last night:

  • Attendance at Outreach Services: 574
  • Attendance at Kid’s Crusades: 415
  • Lives Committed to Christ: 45 (Total of 133 for the week)

Thank you all for your prayers this week – one more night! Pray for no rain!!

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Day 2 of CityReach

Well, Day 2 of CityReach has come to a close and it was another good one! I was at BridgePoint tonight and we had Seth Franco speak. Seth is a former Harlem Globetrotter who now travels and uses his basketball tricks to share the love of Christ with people. It was a great night to see the pavilion filling up with people from the community! Below, I posted a video of Seth’s basketball routine tonight.

Also, in case you’re wondering here are the evening totals: we had 547 people at the outreach services tonight, 432 kids attend the Kid’s Crusades and the best part of the night: at least 47 people committed their lives to Christ!! What a week! Enjoy the video!

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First Night of CityReach

Tonight was the first night of CityReach and what a night it was! I was at Sharpsburg where Greg Hubbard was the speaker. It was quite a kick-off to the week. Here’s a brief video of a few of the 19 that committed their lives to Christ tonight at Sharpsburg as they publicly declare their commitments to Christ! (I apologize for the poor quality, but just listen through the whole thing)

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First Student Service of CityReach

I am so pumped for CityReach coming up this week! Tonight was the first night of a new component we’ve added to CityReach this year, the student missions trip. We have over 120 students and leaders staying at Allison Park Church all week and serving at the 5 different sites throughout the week. We have students that have traveled from as far away as Illinois to be here this week. Tonight we had our first service with the students and what a great time it was! I just love standing in the presence of God and watching students seek the face of God. How refreshing and exciting! I can’t wait to see what God is going to do at each of our sites this week and through these students!!

If you’d like to see the site schedule for the week, you can check it out here.

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CityReach Coordinators

Yesterday we had our last CityReach Coordinators’ meeting until CityReach launches in about a month (Aug. 12-15). I am so pumped to see what God is going to do this year! We have some great coordinators who are doing an amazing job in laying the groundwork for CityReach at each of our 5 sites. It’s a ton of work to pull off, but they are well on their way to doing it.

You may ask, why do we even do CityReach? Why not put more effort in helping the church week-to-week? Well, I’m glad you asked. First, we do provide a lot of support on a week-to-week basis, but here’s a much better answer to that question:

  • There are going to be children attending the kid’s crusades at each of our sites who will come beaten physically, emotionally and spiritually.
  • There will be husbands and wives attending our adult services who haven’t spoken to each other in a loving tone in years.
  • There will be families that barely have enough money to survive week to week let alone by their kid’s school supplies attending the Friday night block party.

This is the reason we do CityReach. It’s not about just another outreach or program. As ministry should always be, it’s about people. Please be in prayer for these 5 warriors you see above (pic includes Deana from NOH and myself) as they coordinate this incredible community impacting opportunity in August!

If you live in the Pittsburgh area and would like to volunteer at one of our CityReach sites, you can contact us here.

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