Happy New Year

Hello friends,

What a wonderful Christmas and Advent season it was at The Way. We enjoyed our very first season together, set some traditions for our church family to enjoy as we go forward, and focused on living the way of Jesus as we celebrated His birth. There was much to celebrate over these past few weeks. The joy of new faces, the welcoming nature of our church family, and a record attendance at our Christmas Eve worship gathering are just a few of the joys that the past month has brought. In retrospect, it feels a little weird to think that this church is only 4 months old. It feels so comfortable and exciting that I'm more inclined to think that this church has a much longer history.

As we move forward there is much to do. Our intent is to hit the ground running to start off the New Year. With that in mind, here are a few items worth discussing:

-DON'T MISS THIS SUNDAY!!!! We have a surprise waiting for everyone who attends our worship gathering this Sunday morning. Don't try to figure it out. Just be sure to come. And if you have any unchurched friends that you could bring to church with you this weekend, DO IT. I promise you this is the Sunday to go the extra mile and have them attend. Neither you nor they will be disappointed.

-Our graphics/web designer is working hard on overhauling our website (www.thewayministries.info). Over the next month our website will be seeing some exciting upgrades. Our goal is to build a web presence that both engages people who are new to The Way in a manner that gets them the info that they need as well as serving some of the basic needs of our congregation. Do you have any recommendations that would help us fulfill that goal? If so, please tell us. We'd love to hear your input.

-Also pertaining to our new website, the designer would like to receive some quotes from the people of The Way to incorporate into the new design. Could you provide us with one? It could be anything that you feel is note-worthy regarding what you feel is unique about The Way or what you love about The Way. If you have something along those lines that you'd like to share, please email it to me at pm@thewayministries.info.

-We are prayerfully considering a facility change. This should not be any cause for alarm. And we may not actually ever change the venue. However, it is important to us at The Way to be able to invest as much money as possible back into the mission based needs that are brought to our attention as a church. In short, we believe that the church's money is better spent on people's needs than on our church's venue. Therefore, as we go about living into our financial commitments to stewarding our money in 2010 freeing up every possible dollar to be spent on "helping people", we are considering our options. Do you know of a venue in the local Greensburg/Latrobe area that can supply us a regular meeting space for up to 150 people with chairs and parking? If so, I'd love to talk with you about it.

I'm so excited about this church, and I'm so excited about seeing what God has in store for us in this New Year. Keep in mind, this Sunday is one that you don't want to miss. I hope to see you there!

Grace and Peace be with you.