Dear Church Family,

By the time you’re reading this, it will be Holy Week. Holy Week is a week set aside during the year when we focus on the last week of Jesus’s life that culminates with his resurrection from the dead. It’s a time when we’re reminded of what Jesus has accomplished for us through his life, death, and resurrection.  On Palm Sunday we will focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem. On Maundy Thursday we will focus on Jesus gathering with his disciples in the upper room to share the Passover meal. On Good Friday we will focus on the crucifixion of Jesus. On Easter Sunday we will focus on the resurrection. I hope you’ll join us for each of these special services.

In each of these services, we’ll be reminded of what makes the good news good. We’ll be reminded of the grace and love of God. We’ll be reminded of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We all need to be reminded of these wonderful truths.

Also, the good news of Easter isn’t only for us but for everyone. I want to challenge you to invite those you know to join us for one or more of these services. Here are some ways you can extend the invite:

• Face-to-Face invitation - This is the most effective way to invite someone to come with you to one of these services. Remember, asking your friend to “come with me” is always better than simply saying, “You should come to this service.”

• Phone or Text - If you’re unable to see your friend face-to-face, this is another effective way to share with them that you would like for them to come with you to one or more of our services.

• Social Media - While not as effective as the previous methods, sharing the information about our services on your social media platforms helps to extend a broad invitation to those you are connected to.

I hope you will take a step of faith and extend an invitation! Remember, we can’t control how people respond but what we can do is take a step of faith and invite them to join us and trust God with the results! Let’s trust God together and take this step of faith!

In Christ,

Pastor Ron Jones

Dear Church Family,

As we move into the third month of the year I want to remind you of where we want to be by the end of 2021. We want to be a church and that is experiencing revitalization through:

• the measurable personal growth of our members,
• numerical growth in our worship services,
• the creation of an effective online presence, and
• the updating of the Sanctuary and Social Hall.

In order for this to happen, we must take steps of faith. We can’t do what we normally do and expect different results. We must trust God in new ways if we’re going to grow personally and as a church.

Here are some steps of faith you can take this month to help our 2021 vision become reality.

• Personal Growth
  • Participate in the Bible reading challenge in March. We’re going to read through the Gospel of Mark at least once.
  • Give. You should have received your giving statement for 2020. I want to challenge you to join me in increasing our giving for 2021.
• Numerical Growth - We want to have 100 people worshipping with us by the end of the year. In order for this to happen, we need to invite people to join us for worship in person or online. Nothing is more effective than a personal invitation. Prayerfully consider who you can invite each week to our worship service.
• Effective Online Presence
  • Share our content on your social media accounts. We regularly post on Facebook and Instagram. The more you share our posts the more people will be exposed to our ministry.
  • Another way you can help is by subscribing to our YouTube Channel. To subscribe you can go to our website (ww.thehillbaptist.com) and click on the tab “Online Service.” At the bottom of the page, it will say “Click HERE to watch past Worship Services.” Click “HERE” and it will take you to our YouTube Channel. Click “Subscribe.” The more subscribers we get the more options we will have to reach more people online.
• Updating the Sanctuary and Social Hall - At our March Church Conference, we will be discussing and voting on a motion to upgrade the sound system in the Sanctuary. Our current sound system is over 20 years old and is unable to handle our current needs. A new system will enhance both our in-person and online worship experience. Pray for wisdom as we move forward with this project.

I hope you will join me in taking these steps of faith in March as we trust God together to make our vision become a reality.

In Christ,

Pastor Ron Jones