A Note from Pastor Bill

Dear Easter Saints,

As it turned out, the picketing from the Westboro Baptist Church was pretty much a non-event, but the anticipation of it prompted us to display two banners on campus, one of which was featured on Channel 6 on Wednesday night and Thursday morning last week. We used two verses from 1 John: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (vs. 7 & 8) We didn’t know where the picketers would be, but as it turned out, they were making their stance for hate DIRECTLY ACROSS from the sign placed at the Apopka-Vineland entrance. Perhaps the witness to love was as much for them as it was for anyone that day!

We had a wonderful day of worship at both the St. Luke’s and HopeSpring campuses. That leads me an exciting announcement. For the last few months the St. Luke’s Church Council, at the request of the HopeSpring Leadership Team, has been seeking to discern the best strategy for success and viability of our new church in the Horizon West area. With the significant decline in new home building in that area, and with our current location at Bridgewater Middle School feeling like it is out in the middle of nowhere, we had to re-think our first strategies regarding the planting of the HopeSpring church. Those strategies were appropriate five years ago when new home starts were high and potential new residents were lining up to buy lots. Now we see an indefinite period ahead when HopeSpring will be dependent on support from St. Luke’s before it can be chartered as an independent congregation. To that end, we have decided to embrace HopeSpring as an additional campus of a multi-site ministry. Lease negotiations are nearly finalized for an excellent location from which to build the congregation, and there has been renewed activity toward the securing of property. When we say that St. Luke’s is a multi-site church, it means that we will utilize the staff, budget, and leadership resources of one congregation of believers to facilitate worship and ministry at different locations.

This past week, in order to be faithful stewards, we made staff changes that now enable us to work as one. Up until this point we had been creating redundant staff positions anticipating separate churches. Now we will be operating as one church and one staff at two locations. This has necessitated some changes. Gary Shockley will remain the campus pastor for St. Luke’s at HopeSpring. Leah Bergstrom will serve on our Guide Mission team and as the Campus Coordinator at HopeSpring, and David Jans becomes the Associate Director of NexGen ministries. Kholter Hunt and Carol Glaros now leave our staff, and we give thanks for all they have done to help in “Build the Kingdom.” Steve MacKinnon joins the staff as the Director of Praise Team Ministries for the St. Luke’s campus, and we are also close to filling a similar part-time position for the HopeSpring site. As an indication of the ongoing growth at HopeSpring, even way out in the country, there were 250 people there for Easter worship! We are excited about the future, and will be giving you more information as we proceed.

Many of you have remarked about how beautiful the sanctuary and gym looked this year. I am pleased to tell you that the plants and flowers were specially selected to be placed at our Habitat for Humanity homes and around our campus this week. This is also a good stewardship decision, because in past years we were left with hundreds of tired lilies, and we had so few places to use them or give them.

Worship this week finds us on the road to Emmaus with two disciples and Jesus on the afternoon of resurrection Sunday. This is our starting point for our next sermon series, “Finding Yourself Again…at St. Luke’s.” Read Luke 24:13-34. And if you still want to make your gift for the “Dollar-a-Day” Lenten Mission offering, please do so this week.

With faith, hope, and love,
Bill