Resilient Turns 1!
The Fall semester is officially underway! Students are back, school is in session, and Vermillion has just bursted back to life. It has been an amazing first couple weeks into our fall, and there is so much to celebrate and praise the Lord for!
Resilient Turns 1
On August 27th, we celebrated our 1-year birthday as a church since launching weekly services! The video above highlights a bunch of clips from our first year, plus special notes of celebration from our church partners.
The sermon for our birthday service focused on what our mission statement is all about, and how people could get plugged in! We’ve seen our largest post-launch attendance to date, with 139 who gathered to worship with us. And I’d say that 85-90% of that was students! We had 29 people mark an interest in getting more involved with Resilient, and even had 1 person rededicate their life to Christ. It was an amazing Sunday! And we of course got to celebrate with pizza and cupcakes afterwards 😉
Sunday mornings have been such a blast. Check out these photos of the last couple weeks of services with students being back!
Supporting Local Charities Initiative
One other thing we got to announce on our birthday service is a new initiative we’re starting this year where we are committing to give $1000 to a local nonprofit or charity each month!
Our first partnership for the month of August was with Sesdac, Inc. Sesdac provides support for people with disabilities by developing social and job skills, and have helped hundreds of people move on to paid employment, independent living, and rich, well-rounded lives. They do amazing work here in Vermillion, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic to come alongside them and support what they do!
Resilient Students: Fall Kickoff
Further, the start of a new semester comes with the kickoff of our Resilient Students college ministry! We got to table in USD’s student center and the student org fair, and hosted an interest party for college students to hang out and learn more about Resilient.
But perhaps the funnest part of the kickoff was our first college worship night at the Danforth Chapel on USD’s campus. We had 48 students gather to sing, pray, and fellowship with one another!
Small Groups Begin
We also got to startup our small groups this last week! We have 6 small groups currently meeting, with a little over 50 people total who are plugged into a group. We’re continuing to pray for God to use these groups to grow us together in the study of his word and spiritual friendships with one another!
Prayer Requests
Pray for this month’s sermon series, “Overcoming Mental Hell(th).” The topic of mental health is so important and personal to everyone, and we want to make sure we address this with as much discernment as possible. Pray the Spirit works through Resilient and that we can see many people find mental freedom, wellness, and wholeness!
Pray for our missions trip to Juarez, Mexico coming up for USD’s spring break! We currently have a team of 15 people committed, with a few more who are very interested. Pray that God can begin working in this team, preparing them to build the home for a family in need in partnership with Casas Por Cristo, and that all the funds will come in to support these endeavors.
Pray for our outreach events that we’re brainstorming about for this next year. We are really passionate about getting outside our walls this year, and are needing to be strategic in what the best ways to serve our community looks like.
Pray for financial self-sustainability. We are still in a great spot financially, with $230,000 in savings. This is due in large part to the incredible generosity of our church partners and individuals who believe in what we’re doing. We are beginning to see our tithe & giving base start to grow, which is exciting! We’re currently averaging about $6000-$7000 a month in our own giving base, but we need to get between $10k-$11k per month for us to support 2/3s of our budget, as we wrap year 2 of our 3-year grants and partnerships. Pray for the Lord to continue to provide the resources, and for the discernment on how best to teach our young congregation about generosity towards the church and mission of God this Fall!
That’s everything for this month! Thanks for reading, thanks for praying, thanks for supporting. To God be the glory!
– Pastor Jake
