Dear Friends
This past year has been a whirlwind of a year, and our team has had the greatest time. Here are some of the highlights of 2006.
- February '06 we survived our first Nor'easter of 18" of snow (although they say it was a mild one).
- February '06 also saw the start of our Launch Community gatherings.
- Late spring saw the first of our preview services.
- The summer saw 9 eager groups, from 4 states, visit Boston for a week of missions.
- 5 Community Groups were started in the summer of '06
- In late October we found the Back Bay Hilton Hotel as a temporary space for our Sunday gatherings.
- November 19 was the launch of REUNION Christian church with 87 people in attendance.
- November also saw the first of many "random acts of kindness" nights. We were encouraged to bring $5 and think of some way to be generous to those we met as we walked around Kenmore Square.
- Late November REUNION was able to help a community shelter by providing Thanksgiving meals for the people it served.
- In December the REUNION community was able to help two families with their Christmas as we participated in the "Giving Tree".
The list goes on and on, but hopefully you get a small glimpse at what has happened over the past year. We hope to continue to find ways to connect and give to the people of Boston.
We believe God has some great things in store in 2007.
The REUNION Team
RELaunch
So we're throwing around this term we are calling RELaunch. If you're wondering what we mean by it, that's ok, let us explain. Last November we launched REUNION Christian Church, and since that time (about 9 weeks) we have averaged 65 through the holidays, with our highest attendance being 87.
When we launched in November, due to trying to find a location, we could not print our marketing by November 19th. So our first launch was all relational (what we call a soft launch); people came because of personal invites and through other relational connections.
Now we are at a point where we can send out postcards and advertise on the subway and in the newspapers. We have had time to create four batches of postcards that will be sent out to 50,000 households per batch. That adds up to about 200,000 total postcards that will be sent out the 3 weeks leading up to February 18th. The picture to the right is of one of our postcards.
That being said, February 18th is a sort of RELaunch for REUNION. With our marketing in place we are treating this Sunday as another start to the church.
Our team is definitely excited about the next few weeks. While the journey to this point has been different than what we initially planned for, it has been worth the experience. Thank you so much for being there with us and encouraging us through the beginning stages of this church plant. And please continue to pray for us as we prepare for our RELaunch on February 18th.
Postcard back
For those of you who are curious, this is the back of the postcard in the previous section. All four cards have different pictures and stress one of the following:
- Faith
- Community
- Generosity
- REUNIONkids
These postcards have been under the microscope for the past few months, so if you spot a mistake please don't tell us. That would break our hearts. Just kidding of course!
Prayer
Please continue to pray for us as we approach RELaunch, here are ideas of what you can pray for.
- That our marketing would spark people's interest toward finding out more about REUNION.
- That God would bless our preparations for February 18th.
- That God would use our Sunday gatherings to make himself known to Boston.
- That people would feel welcome and part of something special at REUNION
- That the message of Jesus would change lives here in Boston.
