Dear Hope Family,
I write to highlight an exciting way God is at work at Hope.
On Sunday, November 12th, as an extension of our corporate worship service, we will convene at Emmanuel Baptist Church (just further up Peace Haven Road across from Mount Tabor High School) to celebrate the sacrament of baptism for Nate Fye, who along with his wife, Sarah, is joining Hope. Nate has been through the Hope Church Discovering Hope class, met with church elders to put his faith into his own words, and now desires to publicly profess his faith and receive the sign and seal of God’s covenant through the sacrament of baptism. We will celebrate with Nate, Sarah, and their family and friends at 1:00 pm the Sunday after next.
Why, though, are we meeting at Emmanuel Baptist? Nate desires for the mode of his baptism to be immersion. That is a perfectly acceptable mode of baptism within our church standards – the other two modes being sprinkling (which we most often practice at Hope) and pouring. Since we are not equipped for immersion baptisms, our neighbor church – Emmanuel Baptist – is graciously allowing us to use their space and their baptistery.
I invite you to help Nate celebrate becoming an official, communing member of Hope Church and marking that occasion by receiving the sign of baptism. Please pray for this special day, and please plan to make room to join with this wonderful family on that Sunday afternoon. Although it will be a quick service (20 minutes?), it will be an enduring grace to Nate, Sarah, and to Hope Church.
We pray that God’s word will continue to increase and the number of disciples will continue to multiply as Jesus builds his church by his Gospel! Isn’t it a joy to be a witness of all that he’s doing?
Grace and peace,
David