Pastor Josh Update

As you can see above, we've become farmers now! Of course, not really. But we were able to visit a local pumpkin farm for a fun time of hayrides, a corn maze, and various other fall festival activities. 

This past month, I was able able to travel to the church replant we are overseeing (Redeeming Grace Church of Southgate, Michigan) in order to meet the people there and preach. They were very friendly and seemed eager to move forward. 

Speaking of moving forward, we're hoping to finally move into our church building on November 21! There are two things to keep in mind, though. First, we need to pass the inspection, which will likely take place early next week. Please pray that all goes smoothly. Also, we may need to vacate the building for a few weeks this winter in order to complete some key structural renovations. Please pray that vacating the building is not necessary. 

We currently have three people in baptismal counseling and are excited to see their eagerness to follow Jesus and the newfound joy they have now that they are Christians. Please pray that John, Marlene, and Nicole will grow in their faith and follow through with this important step of obedience to Jesus. 

We also have thirteen people in our latest Membership Information Class (which started October 16) and have been seeing a higher than usual number of new guests on Sundays this past month as well. Please pray that we'd be able to make a meaningful investment in those God brings us and that he would lead them to the church he wants them to be a part of. 

And finally, we were able to rejoice in God's goodness this past month as we celebrated our church's five year anniversary. On October 23, 2016, fourteen people covenanted together to form Redeeming Grace Church, and God has been so faithful to us and blessed us abundantly throughout these past five years. I preached a special sermon to mark the occasion (available here), acknowledging God's blessings and calling on the church to be good stewards of God's grace in the future. We also recited our entire membership covenant together as a church and recommitted ourselves to living out those covenant commitments. It was a wonderful time!

Of course, part of the reason for God's blessings that we've seen these past five years is your faithful prayers. Thank you! The fact that you are lifting up our requests before God means the world to us, and I don't believe we'd be where we are today apart from those prayers. 

Please continue to pray that God would bless this endeavor and that we'd see more and more open doors for the gospel. Please pray, as always, that those we're reaching out to would come to faith in Jesus. You might especially mention our new home daycare clients Tom and Lauren, who live within walking distance of our church building (which is quite amazing when you consider the fact that the church building is 15 minutes away from our house). Thank you!

Serving Him,
Josh & Becky Tancordo