What a beautiful time we shared on Saturday at our International Christmas Party!

By our counts, there were about 75 people from 13 nations celebrating with us!

It was just a foretaste of what heaven will be like, where we will worship our Savior with people from every nation, tribe, and people.  (However, I expect heaven will feel less crowded than our bursting-at-the-seams house.  On the other hand, the international cuisine we shared might rival what we’ll partake of in heaven!)

Here’s a link to some pictures on our Renaissance Church facebook page.  Have you joined yet?

We had a great time this weekend distributing turkeys and groceries to under-resourced families in the Charlotte area.  We were able to serve 11 families (over 60 people).  Many told us that they were desperate, wondering where the money was going to come from to pay for a family celebration this Thanksgiving.   We are so glad that we were able to help meet their physical needs in the name of our Savior.  We also had the opportunity to minister the love, life, and hope of Jesus Christ to every family.  Many received prayer.  Several Bibles were given away.

I want to offer sincere thanks to all of you who made this Renaissance outreach possible.   Thanks to our volunteers.  Thank you again to those of you who gave.  And thanks to Nova*s Bakery for donating fresh bread.

I’m thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving.  Having the privilege of witnessing so many smiles this weekend is one of them.  Happy Thanksgiving.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:16-18

Jesus teaches us that we should love our neighbor.

You probably already know that.

It’s the putting it into practice that is the hard part.

“Who is my neighbor?” asked the expert in the law.  Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Your neighbor is everyone – especially the one right in front of you.

“What does loving my neighbor look like?”  The Scripture at the top addresses this question.  It means being the Good Samaritan.  Stopping for the one.  Being inconvenienced.  Taking a risk.  Giving sacrificially of your time and your money.  Stepping over barriers.  Getting your hands dirty.  Expecting nothing in return.

Love takes action. Compassion moves us to do something to alleviate the suffering, not just sympathize with it.

This Thanksgiving, Renaissance Church is helping needy families in the Charlotte area by supplying free turkeys and groceries.  It’s a small gesture.  But believe me, it can make a big difference to someone in need.

Know someone that needs a helping hand for the holidays? Contact us.

Want to help us express the love of God to Charlotte families? We’re collecting both funds and groceries.  You can even help us deliver the food, if you want.  Click here for more info.

Renaissance Church was hopping today.  Bouncing all over the place.  Going bananas.

Yes, I’m talking about our day at Monkey Joe’s.

The children we sponsored all had a great time.  Thanks to those of you who made it possible through your generosity of time and resources (including the folks at Monkey Joe’s).

Just another day of expressing our faith through love!

For lots more pictures (on Facebook), Click here

“What has gone wrong is… that over time Christianity became something to be practiced inside a building, instead of being a pulsating, life-transforming encounter with the living God that spills over and impacts the world.”
- Chinese minister Brother Yun (in his book Living Water)

That pretty much nails it.  That’s why we are starting Renaissance Church.

I get asked all the time, “Where is your church?”
Usually I say, “Well, if you mean a building, we don’t have one yet.”

The truth is, you don’t need a building to have a church.  There’s nothing wrong with buildings.  We hope to have one someday.  But Christianity is not about going to a building to observe a service.

Christianity, in Brother Yun’s words, should be a pulsating, life-transforming encounter with the living God.

And when it becomes that, you can’t contain it in a building of any size.  Rather, it spills over and impacts the world.

That’s when the church becomes the Church – the Body of Christ, the earthly representative of our Lord Jesus.

Do you want to make a difference in the world?  Start with your own relationship with God.  Be totally filled up with Him, and then take the overflow to your community.

The fun and excitement of our first Mega Sports Camp is over.  What a week!  God’s love touched 45 children and their parents.  Several made decisions to follow Jesus Christ.  And everyone had a lot of fun!

We received so much great feedback from the children and parents.  This was just the beginning of what God wants to do in our neighborhoods in south Charlotte.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends at the Vietnamese Christian Assembly of God who helped us so much.  And to our wonderful volunteers – Katie, Rod, Cindy, Chuck, and Gloria.  This camp simply would not have happened without all of you.

Notice the double rainbow in the picture above?  It seems almost every day of camp, the skies threatened rain.  People would call every evening asking, “Are we having camp?  It looks like it’s going to rain.”  We were determine to have camp, even if it poured.  But it never did.  A couple of nights it sprinkled briefly, but each time we prayed that God would hold back the rain – at least over Archdale park.  And every night camp went off without a hitch.  The double rainbow seems like a visual confirmation of God’s blessing on our efforts.  After all, Jesus told us, “Whoever welcomes a little child in my name, welcomes me.”

Click the link below to see all the photos from camp on our Renaissance Church facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=91017415714&view=user#/photo_search.php?oid=91017415714&view=all

Last night was a great start to the MEGA Sports Camp. Basketball, soccer, and cheerleading were big hits with the kids.

4 more big nights!

Renaissance Church has been sending out teams into neighborhoods, hanging fliers door-by-door.  We’re inviting children to our Mega Sports Camp outreach next week.  It’s a sports-themed VBS which we are offering free of charge.

{Email us if you want volunteer to help out.  If you want to register your child, there are fliers and sign-up forms here.}

We think the best way to build a church is by reaching out to people, helping them as much as we can, building relationships, and helping them take steps towards God.  We want to let entire neighborhoods know that Renaissance Church cares – and that we want to help in every way we can.  We do it for Jesus, we do it in the name of Jesus, and we do it in the power of Jesus.  Our prayer is that He will transform entire neighborhoods.

Jesus said, whoever welcomes a little child in His name, welcomes Him.

That thought makes the whole thing more than worthwhile.

We’re looking forward to our monthly all-night prayer meeting tonight. We’re going to have some youth from the Vietnamese Christian Assembly of God visiting tonight. They are partnering with Renaissance to do a sports-themed VBS in August as an outreach to the community.

We’re going to pray for the VBS, and then Saturday, the youth will help us spread the word for the VBS by passing out fliers in strategic neighborhoods.

We got a good chuckle out of this yogurt we found for sale in Brazil.