A Big God with a Big Heart. — Hillcrest Church Medicine Hat

Giving God Room: Prayer Focus
Week #1.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NLT)

The work God is doing.
I’ve been thinking lately about the work God is doing in our city. Over the last few years, I have personally observed a shift in the heart of our city. There is a deeper heart for prayer. And, God seems to be moving in response to our pleas on behalf of the city. I know of many churches in our city experiencing growth. People are showing up in our churches with almost no church background or church history. They are looking for God in the midst of a troubled and troubling world. There are people, young and old, giving their lives to Jesus and seeking baptism as the beginning commitment of their newfound faith. It has been very encouraging for me, as a pastor, to observe the stirrings of a movement of God in this city I have called “home” for a few decades of my life. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about all of these things, and wondering where God wants to lead the people of Hillcrest Church in such a time.

Is there room for God to move?
One question I have been asking is this: “If God were to add two thousand adults to his kingdom in Medicine Hat over the next ten years, would our churches have enough room to contain the growth?” I’m thinking, in particular, of the churches actively participating in the Spirit-led, prayer-driven movement of God. I know that God would love to involve all of his faithful churches, but in particular, God seems to move in the churches where people are believing for, and praying into, a move of God in their midst. And, Hillcrest is one of those churches. So, my question is, “If God continued to move in our city over the next 5-10 years is there enough room to contain the growth?” And the answer I have to arrive at, as I do the math, and process what I see happening, is “No. We do not have enough room for God to move.”

At Hillcrest, we have seen a steady growth over the last few years. Our 10am service is consistently 80% full. Our 11:20 service is now growing more as people experience the fullness and are starting to move to a different time. Current projections show that in a few years we could see the 11:20 service filling up as well. And these observations lead me to wonder about the next step for our church family. With an eye to the future, and faith in a Great Big God who has a big heart for reaching lost people, what should we do

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. (Psalm 127:1, NLT)

Simple Renovations or Expansion?
A few years ago, Ministry Council heard reports from staff about the condition of our Sunday morning worship space. It is a 40-year-old space. Some pews are starting to show signs of wear. We are running out of “spare parts” to fix existing issues with certain pews. Council began to engage in a process of figuring out what our future maintenance plan should be. At the time, the concern was only about maintaining the current worship space. However, as God started to move and our congregation started to grow, the conversation shifted to the issue of opening up room for physical growth as well. We have all heard rumors of the original Hillcrest founders' vision to expand our current worship space. The church founders built with a vision and a plan for future growth. And, our architect, who happened to work on the original building as a new graduate, confirmed for us, “Yes,” the current worship space can be expanded to almost double our current worship capacity. And so, our thoughts turned from a simple renovation to the possibility of expanding our current facility.

Let’s pray for wisdom and discernment.
In future weeks, I want to give you a bit more of the story and the process, but for now, I would like to close this blog with a call to prayer. You’ve all seen the basics of the call to prayer in the weekly bulletin, or you have read about it here.

We genuinely don’t know how God wants us to proceed, and given the scope of a possible expansion, we felt it necessary to invite all of you to a process of prayer and fasting where we ask the Lord to lead us and guide us and give discernment.

A Call to Prayer and Fasting.
In light of the above, we invite you to pray and fast with us as we seek the Lord’s guidance for the future growth of our church family.