BACK TO THE BASICS: A Time for Remembering in order to Reset

For months now, we have been praying for and preparing to launch Emmaus Church in Georgetown. Well, we did that last Sunday morning in a Christ-exalting, church-edifying way. Now, Emmaus is formally covenanted as of Sunday night. And the question for High Pointe is, “What now?”

Well, the answer should be obvious – we keep doing what the Lord has called us to do as a church. We exist to see all peoples become whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ by reaching unbelievers with the gospel of Jesus Christ, gathering worshipers into the body of Christ, and making disciples to the glory of God. Still, this natural transition provides us with an opportunity to reset – that is, to remind ourselves of our mission and how we fulfill it. Allow me to share some ways we will do that:

• PRAYER
  • Pray for Emmaus Church – their first public service will be this Sunday, October 2.
    • Pray the Lord would grant them favor.
    • Pray for them as they have conversations with Terranova Church in Georgetown.
  • Pray for High Pointe
    • Pray that the Lord would continue to raise up more elders.
    • Pray that the Lord would continue to bring in new members.
    • Pray that the Lord would allow us to continue to be faithful in our giving.
    • Pray that we would be a church where all our members share the gospel.
    • Pray that we would be a church where all our members are involved in discipling relationships and are pursuing one another to help us all grow in Christlikeness.

• EXPOSITIONAL PREACHING
  • Our commitment is to work consecutively through the Old & New Testament Scriptures.
  • Lord willing, we will finish our sermon series on Esther on Sunday, October 30.
  • In the new year, we hope to begin working through Paul’s letter to the ROMANS.

• BACK TO THE BASICS
  • We have an opportunity to remind ourselves to continue in faithfulness.
  • In other words, like baseball’s spring training or football’s fall camp, we need to keep working on the fundamentals of being a church.
  • To refocus our attention on those basics, we will work through a four-part sermon series on the church's mission beginning November 13.

Closing Balcony beginning THIS Sunday
On Sunday, several people suggested we close the balcony for the immediate future. By my estimates, we have approximately 500 seats on the floor. While our present membership is 489, the sending of Emmaus freed about 50 seats. Additionally, as our elders care for the congregation, we count another 30-40 members who are not attending for a variety of reasons: out of the area, moved away, or in the process of joining another church.

To be sure, we have a good number of visitors each week, but we believe we can accommodate everyone on the main floor. So, we will close the balcony THIS Sunday, and we will assess our seating situation week by week. Our hope is that closing the balcony

1. ……will allow you to get to know one another better.
2. …will allow you to identify visitors and connect with them more easily.
3. …will encourage you to sit closer to the front and fill in the gaps that Emmaus leaves behind.
4. …will allow us to sing better as we hear one another. 

On Call Pastor
In an effort to better care for High Pointe, we have begun to identify an “on-call” pastor. The purpose of the on-call pastor is to have a pastor available for emergencies outside of office hours. We will announce each week who the on-call pastor is for the coming week and put it in the order of service card and in this e-news. Here is the upcoming schedule:

• 25 Sep – 01 Oct | Pastor Juan Sanchez
• 02 Oct – 08 Oct | Pastor Davey Davis
• 09 Oct – 15 Oct | Pastor Brady Bowman
• 16 Oct – 22 Oct | Pastor Davey Davis
• 23 Oct – 29 Oct | Pastor Juan Sanchez
• 30 Oct – 05 Nov | Pastor Robert Baldwin

FREE Missionary Biographies
As we seek to be more globally minded Christians so that the Lord may cultivate in our hearts a love for the nations, along with regularly reading the Bible, we want to encourage you to read missionary biographies. Here is a link to three missionary biographies collected together by John Piper. Read these yourself. Read them aloud to your children. Read and talk about them with other members.
https://www.desiringgod.org/books/filling-up-the-afflictions-of-christ

Preaching Schedule
October 2 | Esther 2:19-4:17, Pastor Juan Sanchez
October 9 | James 3:1-12, Pastor Davey Davis
October 16 | Acts 1:1-11, Pastor Brady Bowman
October 23 | Esther 5-7, Pastor Juan Sanchez
October 30 | Esther 8-10, Pastor Juan Sanchez
Love,