Jack Brown, director of Grow New England, the Charis Fellowship church planting ministry in the northeast United States, has sent his March update. Here are some excerpts.
It’s been a good start to 2020. On January 19, 2020, we had the joy of installing Phil Shearer as our new lead pastor. Phil will be overseeing our campus in Essex. He is also working closely with Nathan Bryant and Assist Church Expansion on refreshing the vision of NSBC. We see this process as being beneficial for both campuses of NSBC and the ministry of Grow New England and future church planting. Pray for Phil as he leads our vision team in this process.
Our new format in Danvers has been good. We’ve definitely seen a stabilization in our attendance in 2020 and we have even welcomed a few visitors. Our average attendance in January and February is 25. Last Sunday we had our highest attendance of 2020, 31. Praise God for His faithfulness. Continue to pray for “Brunch and the Bible” on Sunday mornings at 10:00 am.
On February 16, we started a new outreach from our NSBC Danvers campus, “Board Gaming.” Brandon and Joelle Haun and Jason and Staci Schaum are hosting a monthly Game Boarding meet-up group on the third Sunday of the month. At their first event there were 12 in attendance, which included 2 people from outside the church. By the way, we are super excited to have Jason and Staci as part of our team at NSBC Danvers. Jason and Staci relocated back to the north shore in 2019 and have decided to call NSBC Danvers their home.
In April of this year NSBC will be celebrating 20 years of ministry on the north shore. Pray for us as we continue to reach out to our communities with the gospel. Pray for our vision team as we refresh our vision for the next 20 years of ministry. Pray that we will be a light in the midst of darkness and we would see many disciples made to the Glory of God.