Whether or not you are able to come, please know that we love and appreciate you and it fthere’s anything we can do to better support you in this season of our lives, please let me know!

Blessings~~

Pastor JB, Pat Garnes and Terry Rainvlle

This is typically the time of year when people are relocating into new neighborhoods in time to start school. A simple gesture of welcoming attention can go a long way.

Hundreds of students and their families within miles of the church are also stepping into new grade levels, new schools, new athletic teams, new clubs and organizations with all kinds of cultural confusion for them. What can you and I do to show the hospitable heart of Jesus? Let’s be alert and responsive.

We are still seeing a number of guests checking out our church. Even though this may feel like a “down season” in the church calendar, we need to keep our guest-friendly antennas up because they are coming.

This is also a season where the newly relocated have landed in new towns and are checking out churches (and the Lord Himself) in a potentially turbulent time in their lives…

With our senior pastor on leave, people may be in all kinds of emotional places with their connection and questioning. Feel free to take someone’s “temperature” this weekend, and let me know if I need to have a conversation with you or someone else :-)

Take the initiative to ask how another is doing, ask if they have any thoughts, questions , fears suggestions. Listen carefully, follow up with their questions and fears, pray for each other. If you or they don’t know an answer to a question, don’t listen to the enemy who will tell you it’s not an important question or perspective and that NO ONE else is thinking that. The truth is ANY question with the motivation of strengthening community and feeling closer to each other and the Lord is a GOOD question.

Let’s keep talking to each other and watching out for that tentative, deer-in-the-headlights look. We will all be better for it, and so will the Kingdom!

Welcome Team - “that each person who attends each Heritage-sponsored event would lavishly experience the radically welcoming heart of Jesus”.  

Serving – “that every HCC regular attender would know their God-designed SHAPE (spiritual gifts, heart (passion), abilities, personality and ordained experiences) and find their appropriate place(s) of service”.  Click here to navigate to the current serving opportunities.

Participating Membership – “that each HCC regular attender would embrace and be able to articulate the value of the role, rights, responsibilities, and tenets of HCC participating membership”

Connection Pastor John Buckles
614.898.9412x210

Generally speaking, studies show there are certain forces most often present if a person is going to feel connected. At the top of the list typically is some sense of “belonging” - that they really matter, are valuable and significant, and that they would be missed if they were not there.

Practically speaking, that often means they are “doing life” with others in some capacity and feel a sense of “ownership” in the mission and minsitry of the church. Being part of some group or larger entity than themselves is often critical, as is serving and investing in others. Membership and giving are often present in a feeling of community, but to a lesser degree.

So what? Here at Heritage, I hope we could strive for a culture where everyone is part of some group, and if they’re not — we help them find one. Also, that they find their unique place(s) of service, exhibiting their God-shaped design (Eph 2:10) and again if they’re not — let’s help them find that place of value and significance and affirm their gifts. And once they are where they are supposed to be, let’s continue to confirm their call and place, and encourage them about their impact.

If we feel fully “alive” in Christ and in a local faith community, it makes all the diiference in the world. Let’s each take some responsibility in assisting someone to their place of community, and watch them prosper inside and out!

As you come on the church property, what do you notice? Do you know where to go? What do the grounds loo like?

As you park your car, what comes into view? What questions do you have? What are you feeling?

As you enter the building…interact with the children’s desk…walk down the hall…pass the welcome desk.. enter the cafe area…stop in the restroom…walk the back auditorium hallway…go to the student desk…enter the auditorium…find a seat…look around…worship…listen…respond…exit? What do you notice? What ISN’T there that should be?

Your prespective, thoughts, reactions, emotions are likely going to replicated by perhaps hundreds of people a year. So let me hear from you. For the betterment of the Kingdom!

This might also be a sweet time to invite someone to your dinner table, so that no one is ‘alone” on the greatest day of the Christian calendar! As people take a step toward the Lord, let’s run and meet them.

Whether you have been at Heritage once, or are a founding member, your experiences and opinions are important, and you likely speak for several others who willl never communicate to us in this way. We know we can get better at modeling the hospitable heart of Christ. Tell us how :-)

If you would like to comment on any aspects of Heritage’s hospitality, please fill out our online HCC Guest Survey 

If you would like to help enhance the connection aspects of Heritage as a current or former attender, please fill out our online Connection Assessment Survey.