Every so often, I look back and give the congregation of Good News Church a report of what took place during the previous year. Here is a review of 2023:
COMMUNITY GROUPS: This year Good News helped facilitate over 20 community groups and Bible studies. We’ve also inspired a number of accountability groups that are more unofficial (as in, we know that they exist, but we don’t track their attendance.) I recently wrote an email to our group leaders that included these sentences:
‘What you are doing isn’t just important; it’s indispensable. You guys and gals aren’t just one of many programs at our church for relational ministry – you’re it! You guys are all of the programs that we have dedicated to this. Without you, Good News Church would mostly be a Sunday morning service where Christians sing to God and get taught His word. That stuff is important, to be sure. But that stuff, on its own, does not accomplish the mission of Good News Church. So, thank you.”
If you are in a group, and it has been good for you, consider thanking the leaders who care for you and keep these groups going.
BIBLE TEACHING: This was our twelfth year as a church, and we now have over 450 of our sermons available in audio on our website. We began videoing sermons in 2020, and have over 100 sermon videos available as well. Between these recordings, and the fact that most people are actually hearing these teachings live on Sunday mornings, we are reaching around 700 adults each week with our Bible-teaching. In addition to that, we’ve got at least another 150 children and youth being taught the Bible at our KidZone and Youth Bible Study programs. So, that’s exciting.
This year we spent 17 weeks finishing up the Life of Paul (a journey we began back in 2022) where we learned about the extraordinary events chronicled in between Acts 18:23 and Acts 28:31. Additionally, we covered a lot of important topics like prayer, marriage and singleness, spiritual gifts, and how God uses difficult circumstances for good. We ended the year with a series on Christology (though we didn’t use that word at the time) covering seven different titles for Jesus Christ and what those titles teach about Him and us.
MINISTRIES WE SUPPORTED: This year, Good News was able to give away more money than ever before to support missionaries and/or compassion to those in need – a little over $100,000! We supported these ministries monthly: Interfaith Emergency Services, Share the Love Ocala, Wear Gloves, Young Life (Marion County), Unlimited Discipleship, International Muslim Outreach, Barnabas Aid, Acts 29, and Reciprocal Ministries International. We were also able to send several one-time gifts to support other missionaries and ministries as needs arose.
We also voted to increase the money we give away in 2024. For a decade now, Good News has given away 11% of all donations to other ministries who are accomplishing other things than we are doing, or that are doing it in a different place than we are. The elder board recently bumped that number up to 12%.
SHARE THE LOVE: This was the eleventh summer that we have been the sponsor church for Share the Love Ocala, a ministry that puts on summer camps for kids who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. Between both camps, they ministered to 118 children. They also host a school-year-round mentorship program for the older kids (it’s called TRAC Life) and there a dozen kids being helped there. Our church is not the only church who assists in these important ministries, but we did provide them with 65 of their volunteers this past year.
HIRING A TECH DIRECTOR: We brought on Dianne Phipps as a Tech Director for our Sunday morning services. After 12 years of Kennon Bickhart attempting to be in two places at once (on stage and back in the booth) we finally found a very knowledgeable and competent person who could supervise the back booth so that Kennon can focus on the worship music (and the hundred other techy things he does for us throughout the week.)
TRAINING FOR STAFF AND ELDERS: Over the past year or so, both the elders and the staff read books together as a part of staff and elder meetings. The elders have read and discussed Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne, as well as Leadership and Church Size Dynamics by Tim Keller. The staff went over Intentional Church by Randy Pope and Sticky Church by Larry Osborne. These discussions have been a helpful tool for keeping us all on the same page.
LIFE CHANGE: This final category is one of the most important things that we experience as a church, but it is the most difficult to quantify. There is no way we can list the number of prayers prayed or the number of sins repented of. Every year, the Spirit of God works through congregations like Good News to save marriages, prevent suicides, battle anxiety, increase kindness, improve parenting, fight porn addiction, and a thousand other things. As you hear about these things happening, it is important to celebrate them, and to praise God for them. But it’s impossible to keep track of them all. Especially, because some of what God graciously does in our life comes in the form of helping us not do destructive things we used to do. And there’s no way to know just how many things we didn’t do in 2023 because we had Him and His church helping us along.
Even though it’s not possible to track them all, feel free to enjoy this video, which we showed on a Sunday morning this past year (during the Open House series.) It shows the stories of 11 people whose lives were impacted by Good News Church. It’s encouraging to watch.
COMMUNITY GROUPS: This year Good News helped facilitate over 20 community groups and Bible studies. We’ve also inspired a number of accountability groups that are more unofficial (as in, we know that they exist, but we don’t track their attendance.) I recently wrote an email to our group leaders that included these sentences:
‘What you are doing isn’t just important; it’s indispensable. You guys and gals aren’t just one of many programs at our church for relational ministry – you’re it! You guys are all of the programs that we have dedicated to this. Without you, Good News Church would mostly be a Sunday morning service where Christians sing to God and get taught His word. That stuff is important, to be sure. But that stuff, on its own, does not accomplish the mission of Good News Church. So, thank you.”
If you are in a group, and it has been good for you, consider thanking the leaders who care for you and keep these groups going.
BIBLE TEACHING: This was our twelfth year as a church, and we now have over 450 of our sermons available in audio on our website. We began videoing sermons in 2020, and have over 100 sermon videos available as well. Between these recordings, and the fact that most people are actually hearing these teachings live on Sunday mornings, we are reaching around 700 adults each week with our Bible-teaching. In addition to that, we’ve got at least another 150 children and youth being taught the Bible at our KidZone and Youth Bible Study programs. So, that’s exciting.
This year we spent 17 weeks finishing up the Life of Paul (a journey we began back in 2022) where we learned about the extraordinary events chronicled in between Acts 18:23 and Acts 28:31. Additionally, we covered a lot of important topics like prayer, marriage and singleness, spiritual gifts, and how God uses difficult circumstances for good. We ended the year with a series on Christology (though we didn’t use that word at the time) covering seven different titles for Jesus Christ and what those titles teach about Him and us.
MINISTRIES WE SUPPORTED: This year, Good News was able to give away more money than ever before to support missionaries and/or compassion to those in need – a little over $100,000! We supported these ministries monthly: Interfaith Emergency Services, Share the Love Ocala, Wear Gloves, Young Life (Marion County), Unlimited Discipleship, International Muslim Outreach, Barnabas Aid, Acts 29, and Reciprocal Ministries International. We were also able to send several one-time gifts to support other missionaries and ministries as needs arose.
We also voted to increase the money we give away in 2024. For a decade now, Good News has given away 11% of all donations to other ministries who are accomplishing other things than we are doing, or that are doing it in a different place than we are. The elder board recently bumped that number up to 12%.
SHARE THE LOVE: This was the eleventh summer that we have been the sponsor church for Share the Love Ocala, a ministry that puts on summer camps for kids who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. Between both camps, they ministered to 118 children. They also host a school-year-round mentorship program for the older kids (it’s called TRAC Life) and there a dozen kids being helped there. Our church is not the only church who assists in these important ministries, but we did provide them with 65 of their volunteers this past year.
HIRING A TECH DIRECTOR: We brought on Dianne Phipps as a Tech Director for our Sunday morning services. After 12 years of Kennon Bickhart attempting to be in two places at once (on stage and back in the booth) we finally found a very knowledgeable and competent person who could supervise the back booth so that Kennon can focus on the worship music (and the hundred other techy things he does for us throughout the week.)
TRAINING FOR STAFF AND ELDERS: Over the past year or so, both the elders and the staff read books together as a part of staff and elder meetings. The elders have read and discussed Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne, as well as Leadership and Church Size Dynamics by Tim Keller. The staff went over Intentional Church by Randy Pope and Sticky Church by Larry Osborne. These discussions have been a helpful tool for keeping us all on the same page.
LIFE CHANGE: This final category is one of the most important things that we experience as a church, but it is the most difficult to quantify. There is no way we can list the number of prayers prayed or the number of sins repented of. Every year, the Spirit of God works through congregations like Good News to save marriages, prevent suicides, battle anxiety, increase kindness, improve parenting, fight porn addiction, and a thousand other things. As you hear about these things happening, it is important to celebrate them, and to praise God for them. But it’s impossible to keep track of them all. Especially, because some of what God graciously does in our life comes in the form of helping us not do destructive things we used to do. And there’s no way to know just how many things we didn’t do in 2023 because we had Him and His church helping us along.
Even though it’s not possible to track them all, feel free to enjoy this video, which we showed on a Sunday morning this past year (during the Open House series.) It shows the stories of 11 people whose lives were impacted by Good News Church. It’s encouraging to watch.
