Here Comes The Snow
NOVEMBER 2014 MissionDakota.com SpearfishConnection.com BelleFourcheConnection.com SiouxFallsConnection.com
Connection Church gathers on Mondays at 9 a.m. and monthly on Saturdays to serve the Spearfish community. “Kindness Outreaches” could be a free Halloween photo booth, taking donuts to area businesses, or giving a free pizza to families.
Here Comes The Snow
South Dakota has been blessed with a very mild fall so far. With little to no cold weather. we have enjoyed some unseasonably warm days. This has been a great blessing for us, but we know...winter is coming. As we make preparations for the cold, we are also ramping up for what God has in store for each of our church plants and for church plants to come in the future. Many of you regularly pray for Connection Church and our efforts across North and South Dakota. I wanted to give you a specific list this month of things to pray for so that you can be a part of God doing a work here. Pray for Leaders: Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Sioux Falls are all growing churches where people are getting saved and seeing great things happen. With that growth comes the need for more leaders. Please pray for those people that we will be able to identify, train, and put into leadership to reach even more people with the Gospel. Spiritual Warfare: Pray that God would protect our churches, leaders, and pastors as we take the Gospel into homes in crisis, families in need, relationships on the edge and people who need Jesus. We have a cunning enemy who wants to destroy us. Pray for God to get the victory every single time we go to battle. Salvations and Baptisms: We are praying for a spiritual harvest in each of our churches. God is doing a work in so many lives
and we are praying for many to come to know Christ and be baptized as a way of making that public. We believe that God wants to see dozens come to Christ in our churches and we are asking God for those opportunities to share our faith and see those lives changed. Future Church Plants: We are always looking to see how we can reach out to new areas to plant churches. We already have our foot in the door in several areas, and we believe that God is going to allow us to see those churches planted soon. We are also looking out to small towns across our region and forming a strategy to reach those towns of 200-500 people who have no church in their community. Pray for wisdom as we make these steps.
The work in SD is not nearly done and we could not do any of it without your help. I ask you to continue to do three things: Pray: Pray Daily for Connection Church in Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Sioux Falls Serve: Come help us do the work needed to reach out to people with the Gospel by serving on a mission team to our areas Give: If you are already supporting us, please continue. If you have yet to start, please pray how you can be a part and be generous so that we can go to more people, more towns, and plant more churches to reach our region with the Gospel. Thank you for loving us and may God bless you for the ways you are blessing us! —Doug Hixson, Pastor, Connection Church Spearfish Do you know someone who would love to read our monthly newsletter? Please e-mail us their info and we will add them to the list. Feel free to share this with your church, SS class, friends or family. E-mail: [email protected].
[email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected]
Connection Church Sioux Falls This has been an amazing fall for Connection Church Sioux Falls! For example, the month of September was the first month to average over 50 in weekly attendance! This was a big milestone for us—one that marks the way in which God is answering prayers made on our behalf from around the country, and also one that marks a growing network of influence through our relationships within the city. One of the ways that God is moving through answered prayer is the amazing Gospel conversations that are taking place around us. For instance, on Thursday evenings, we will have anywhere from 10-18 single guys from the age of 18 to 34 in our Gospel community. (I don’t know if you are aware of this, but single dudes don’t usually “go to church.”) This is something only Jesus is able to orchestrate, and we are amazed to get to see it firsthand. Along with this increase in influence in the city has come the pastoral, administrative, and organizational challenges typical of that kind of growth. Our people are largely made up of individuals who have either never been a part of a church, or their inclusion in the church was long, long ago. Please pray that God will continue to grow leaders in our midst. The process of investing in future leaders is demanding, so pray that God would make it incredibly fruitful, and that individuals would be able to pastor our congregation and create community centered around the Gospel as a result. —Jonathan Land, Pastor, Connection Church Sioux Falls
This is something only Jesus is able to orchestrate, and we are amazed to get to see it firsthand.
Connection Church Belle Fourche
God has recently allowed us to baptize two people and we have three others who are awaiting baptism. The three that are awaiting are a mom, her son, and her nephew. They just recently started attending, and God has really done a work in the life of this family. Please continue to pray that they will remain plugged in and faithful as they grow in their faith. Our attendance has been up this month due to a lot of new visitors. Our core group is doing a great job of embracing the vision of personal evangelism and inviting their friends to church! Please pray that we will be able to see these visitors assimilate into our church body. Please ask God to allow us to see more people saved and discipled through the ministry of our church. That is our desire! Our small groups are doing very well. It is so evident that God is at work in these groups. I sense a greater depth of conversation, deeper friendships being made, and an overall sense of excitement about what is going on in our church. Please pray that God would protect the unity that is so prevalent in our church and small groups. Thanks again for your prayers, encouragement, and financial partnerships. We are grateful for you all! —Stephen Carson, Pastor, Connection Church Belle Fourche
Connection Church Belle Fourche staff: Stephen Carson and family; Ashton Rone, Worship Pastor; and Ethan Tucker, Youth Ministry Intern with wife, Jamie.
Do you know someone who would love to read our monthly newsletter? Please e-mail us their info and we will add them to the list. Feel free to share this with your church, SS class, friends or family. E-mail: [email protected].
Connection Church gathers on Mondays at 9 a.m. and monthly on Saturdays to serve the Spearfish community. “Kindness Outreaches” could be a free Halloween photo booth, taking donuts to area businesses, or giving a free pizza to families.
Here Comes The Snow
South Dakota has been blessed with a very mild fall so far. With little to no cold weather. we have enjoyed some unseasonably warm days. This has been a great blessing for us, but we know...winter is coming. As we make preparations for the cold, we are also ramping up for what God has in store for each of our church plants and for church plants to come in the future. Many of you regularly pray for Connection Church and our efforts across North and South Dakota. I wanted to give you a specific list this month of things to pray for so that you can be a part of God doing a work here. Pray for Leaders: Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Sioux Falls are all growing churches where people are getting saved and seeing great things happen. With that growth comes the need for more leaders. Please pray for those people that we will be able to identify, train, and put into leadership to reach even more people with the Gospel. Spiritual Warfare: Pray that God would protect our churches, leaders, and pastors as we take the Gospel into homes in crisis, families in need, relationships on the edge and people who need Jesus. We have a cunning enemy who wants to destroy us. Pray for God to get the victory every single time we go to battle. Salvations and Baptisms: We are praying for a spiritual harvest in each of our churches. God is doing a work in so many lives
and we are praying for many to come to know Christ and be baptized as a way of making that public. We believe that God wants to see dozens come to Christ in our churches and we are asking God for those opportunities to share our faith and see those lives changed. Future Church Plants: We are always looking to see how we can reach out to new areas to plant churches. We already have our foot in the door in several areas, and we believe that God is going to allow us to see those churches planted soon. We are also looking out to small towns across our region and forming a strategy to reach those towns of 200-500 people who have no church in their community. Pray for wisdom as we make these steps.
The work in SD is not nearly done and we could not do any of it without your help. I ask you to continue to do three things: Pray: Pray Daily for Connection Church in Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Sioux Falls Serve: Come help us do the work needed to reach out to people with the Gospel by serving on a mission team to our areas Give: If you are already supporting us, please continue. If you have yet to start, please pray how you can be a part and be generous so that we can go to more people, more towns, and plant more churches to reach our region with the Gospel. Thank you for loving us and may God bless you for the ways you are blessing us! —Doug Hixson, Pastor, Connection Church Spearfish Do you know someone who would love to read our monthly newsletter? Please e-mail us their info and we will add them to the list. Feel free to share this with your church, SS class, friends or family. E-mail: [email protected].
[email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected]
Connection Church Sioux Falls This has been an amazing fall for Connection Church Sioux Falls! For example, the month of September was the first month to average over 50 in weekly attendance! This was a big milestone for us—one that marks the way in which God is answering prayers made on our behalf from around the country, and also one that marks a growing network of influence through our relationships within the city. One of the ways that God is moving through answered prayer is the amazing Gospel conversations that are taking place around us. For instance, on Thursday evenings, we will have anywhere from 10-18 single guys from the age of 18 to 34 in our Gospel community. (I don’t know if you are aware of this, but single dudes don’t usually “go to church.”) This is something only Jesus is able to orchestrate, and we are amazed to get to see it firsthand. Along with this increase in influence in the city has come the pastoral, administrative, and organizational challenges typical of that kind of growth. Our people are largely made up of individuals who have either never been a part of a church, or their inclusion in the church was long, long ago. Please pray that God will continue to grow leaders in our midst. The process of investing in future leaders is demanding, so pray that God would make it incredibly fruitful, and that individuals would be able to pastor our congregation and create community centered around the Gospel as a result. —Jonathan Land, Pastor, Connection Church Sioux Falls
This is something only Jesus is able to orchestrate, and we are amazed to get to see it firsthand.
Connection Church Belle Fourche
God has recently allowed us to baptize two people and we have three others who are awaiting baptism. The three that are awaiting are a mom, her son, and her nephew. They just recently started attending, and God has really done a work in the life of this family. Please continue to pray that they will remain plugged in and faithful as they grow in their faith. Our attendance has been up this month due to a lot of new visitors. Our core group is doing a great job of embracing the vision of personal evangelism and inviting their friends to church! Please pray that we will be able to see these visitors assimilate into our church body. Please ask God to allow us to see more people saved and discipled through the ministry of our church. That is our desire! Our small groups are doing very well. It is so evident that God is at work in these groups. I sense a greater depth of conversation, deeper friendships being made, and an overall sense of excitement about what is going on in our church. Please pray that God would protect the unity that is so prevalent in our church and small groups. Thanks again for your prayers, encouragement, and financial partnerships. We are grateful for you all! —Stephen Carson, Pastor, Connection Church Belle Fourche
Connection Church Belle Fourche staff: Stephen Carson and family; Ashton Rone, Worship Pastor; and Ethan Tucker, Youth Ministry Intern with wife, Jamie.
Do you know someone who would love to read our monthly newsletter? Please e-mail us their info and we will add them to the list. Feel free to share this with your church, SS class, friends or family. E-mail: [email protected].
