Happy New Year! What a year 2013 was! It was great—and more importantly, our God was great! He was and will continue to be faithful, trustworthy, and generous to us. He is the reason that Mars Hill exists. His name and renown are the desire of our hearts.
We have much to look forward to and prepare for in 2014—a year we are praying will be our most evangelistic year ever. This Sunday, we officially launched five new church plants into their new homes. They worked tirelessly to make these homes ready for this important day, when they opened their doors wide to people in the community, who will see the gospel of grace in the person of Christ clearly for the first time—or maybe the 501st time—and repent, be saved, and be baptized.
Volunteers at Mars Hill Tacoma work to refurbish the ceiling of their sanctuary.
Christmas Eve was an incredible night. We were able to celebrate Jesus’ birthday with over 9,549 people at our live services. And 5,226 people watched online from Tuesday through Friday of that week. We are now looking forward to Easter 2014, an amazing day of celebration and victory! It will be a day when believers can remember their Savior and non-believers can meet their Savior. Both are important; both are necessary. We are praying for 25,000 people to attend our live services, and 50,000 to watch online. It’s all about Jesus—he’s alive, he saves, and people need to hear that.
In August we have the Jesus Festival, an outdoor event in Seattle that will boldly proclaim the name of Jesus and clearly announce the good news of grace. We are praying for a work of the Spirit that would lead many, many people to Jesus that day.
We also have Mars Hill Schools launching in the fall, as we host Corban University and Western Seminary at Mars Hill Bellevue. We want to see many students of God’s Word become fully trained and equipped for the work of the ministry—no matter what that looks like for their individual calling. We are truly honored to be part of such a significant endeavor in people’s lives.
We are praying for Jesus to do so much more than we can ask or even imagine in 2014. It’s because of the faithful and generous members of the extended family of Mars Hill that all these things are possible. Through his people, Jesus provides all that we need in order to accomplish all that he has for us.
In the final weeks of 2013, we were asking God to provide $2 million above and beyond our normal tithes and offerings in order to accomplish these exciting endeavors in 2014. Guess what? HE DID IT! We received $2,991,852 above our budget by December 31st! In addition, during December and January, $300,000 was given to the Endowment Fund for Church Planting, which will help us plant more churches in 2014 and, Lord willing, for generations to come.
Thank you, Jesus. And thank you so much for partnering with us as we seek to fulfill the mission of Jesus at Mars Hill Church. You are an invaluable part of what he does here. He is doing innumerable things among our Mars Hill churches, in our cities, and across the world. We praise and honor him for all that he does through and for us, but . . .
Jesus himself is our inexpressible gift. Let’s make it all about him in 2014.
For a full report of what Jesus did at Mars Hill Church in 2013, watch this video.
