The Vegas Missional Outpost

Say What?

This has been a very interesting month for Vicky and I. Vicky has finally started her job at Norwalk Furniture after about two months of waiting. As for me, well, this month saw my departure from Grace Point Church.

To make a long story short, it was not a good fit for either myself or the church. There were no significant theological issues between the church and Vicky and I. There were, however, ministry philosophy differences that could not be reconciled. I was not able to give Grace Point what they wanted, neither were Vicky and I able to get started on the things we felt God has called us to.

I am currently sending out resumes and applications looking for a good full-time job here in Las Vegas, while hoping to start seminary classes through Regent College's distance learning program.

We are continuing to serve and attend Grace Point, and believe that God will continue to use it to reach many people in the North Las Vegas/Aliante area. If you still have an interest in being a part of what God is doing through Grace Point, the current associate and youth pastor IV Marsh is in need of support. IV is a great godly man who has moved his family of five to Las Vegas to help Grace Point bring people to Jesus. Please prayerfully consider supporting IV, his family, and his ministry.

Also, if you have not given in December, please send you last check in. We do not want to leave Grace Point with an account deficit.

So the obvious question: WHAT NOW?

Well, upon the advice of the lead pastor at Grace Point, and some other godly men, VICKY AND I ARE MOVING FORWARD WITH GOD'S CALL TO BUILD A COMMUNITY OF CHRIST FOLLOWERS IN LAS VEGAS.

So the obvious next question: WHAT, WHEN, WHERE?

Currently the plan is to start a mid-week gathering in SW Las Vegas starting this January, and see what God does from there. There will be more information on what this gathering will look like, and when and where it will be next week.

Thank you for all your love and support, if you have any questions please e-mail me.

Blessings,
Matt

November Newsletter/Updates

Here is a copy of the November newsletter for our ministry.

Download november_newsletter.doc

Things have been very exciting here at Grace Point the last few months. Here are a few things we've been doing that didn't make it into the newsletter:

- We are beginning to get many service oriented programs up and running.
- I am also in the works of creating an interesting volunteer partnership with the City of North Las Vegas.
- We were able to lead a young adults group for our PURPOSE series, and it went very well.
- Check out the PURE TUESDAYS post from a few days ago.
- Vicky got a job as a design consultant for Norwalk furniture. Please pray for one of her co-workers, whose niece just died after choking on a pretzel (she was two). Pray that we can be there for her and her husband, who recently stopped going to church after many years attending a Seventh-Day Adventist.
- Pray for Vicky's dad. He is in the hospital (about an hour away). Long story short is that he drank himself into a coma, and now we visit him once a week to read the bible to him and tell him about Jesus. I will write more about him this week.
- Pray for our families. They do not know Jesus, and we have shared the gospel with them many times. We feel like we are entering a different phase in regards to our families and the gospel. Long story short, we feel like with Vicky's parents and mine, we need to take different approaches in regards to living out the gospel with them. Please join us in praying for them.

Thank you so much for all of you who pray for us, and support us.

Love,

Matt and Vicky

Preaching Jesus

Tomorrow I will preach on my favorite Bible verse 2 Corinthians 5:21. For me, this has been the hardest sermon to ever prepare for. See, I had the coin drop in regards to preaching the gospel this past week. I heard two different gospel presentations within 2 days of each other, and had the, "Oh, wow. I GET IT!!!" Tim Keller says we don't really get the gospel when we get saved, and we only perpetually grow in our understanding of it. Every athelete gets this. The marathon trainer who can't seem to get past 8 miles, then one day is able to do 13, and never looks back. The hitter who is having a hard time figuring out the difference between a two-seam and four-seam fastball, and then one day in a Ted Williams way, sees the difference, and never looks back. Or like my wife, who is now at a level of decorating that she would have never thought possible, yet she stills laughs at pictures of our first apartment (we had a construction themed bathroom!). Well, I had a moment like that this week while hearing the two gospel presentations.

The first presentation was a simple, and excellent exegesis of Romans 6:23. It went over the wages of sin, and the gift of eternal life. It was written out and plain to see, arrows were drawn connecting sin to death and life to God. No one could walk out of that meeting without a clear understanding of what the gospel was. This education on the gospel was great, and I nodded my head many times. I was glad that many young Christians, and non-Christians were there to hear that.

The second presentation was audio, was far from simple. It was long and drawn out, and carried many facets. One struck me like a 2x4. The pastor started in to my favorite Bible verse about Jesus becoming sin on the cross in our place. I have loved this verse for so long because it is the essence of the cross, and reminds me of the lengths Jesus went to to save me. The night I heard this presentation I was saved again. To explain it in the simplest way possible, the pastor made sin personal. Not just personal to me in a Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing way. Instead he was sitting there Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing my sin: onto Jesus.

Am I being clear? In this gospel presentation, all my sin was named by the pastor (he tried to name as many in the audience as he could gather), and was thrown not at me, but at Jesus. This made me not only aware of how personal my sin is and how guilty I am, but it made me aware of how my sin personally affects God. It made me aware of how my sin personally affected Jesus on the cross. I walked around in a daze that night. Actually, Vicky and I were visiting her cousin at the club PURE at Cesar's Palace that night. There were girls dressed pretty scandalously that night, and my wife repeatedly asked me if I was doing okay with that. Honestly, I couldn't get my mind off the fact that Jesus became a pervert to God in my place. That Jesus became an arrogant jerk who is mean to his wife, in my place.

He did this so that I might become, in him, the righteousness of God. So that I could be clean, and right with God. The implications of this have left the gospel much more that a theory that floats above my head all day. For a while now I have understood that the gospel needs to be central to my daily life. Now, when temptation comes I am reminded of Christ's willingness to become my sin, and become guilty in my place. It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And at the end of the day, this gospel realization makes God's love much more personal to me. "Christ died for me" now produces emotion in me when I hear it. "God so loved the world" makes me more emotional and responsive than ever before.

This has made sermon preparation much harder becuase one doesn't just wake up and run 13 miles easily. In reality, I have been much more aware of my sin, and the battle of my flesh has seemed much more real in the past few weeks. I am only 25, and I want to preach like men who have walked with Jesus for 20-30 years. Men who have walked the darkside of their depravity, have learned to repent, and who are personally close to Jesus as a result. These men can preach Jesus personally becuase of the road they have walked. I have prepared my sermon this week in the midst of learning the gospel deeper, and deeper. I don't have 20 years of scars, I only have 7. Nevertheless, Jesus still became the sinner I am on the cross, and the tomb has been empty for 2000 years.

My prayer is that I would be able to preach the gospel tomorrow in a way that makes sin personal to my hearers. So that Jesus death on a cross in their place becomes more personal. So that God's love towards them becomes immensely personal. After all, Rick Warren says we are meant to be best friends with God. That's pretty personal.

Matt

A Church Planter's Heart

In January of this past year Lead Pastor of Grace Point wrote to one of his supporting churches in South Carolina. It was a great snapshot at the heart of the man leading Grace Point, and mentoring me!

Enjoy.

http://www.fbcflorence.org/article-1999914457.htm

Matt

Missions to Grace Point

First Baptist Church of Springdale recently completed a mission trip to Las Vegas! They came, served at Grace Point, shared the gospel with the city, and then blogged about it.

Check out what they had to say about Grace Point Church.

http://www.fbcs.net/worldmissions/blog/?cat=5

Matt

Grace Point

                                    
                  

Grace Point is a fairly new church plant in the North Las Vegas/Aliante area of Vegas. The church launched in Janurary of 2006, and is currently running an attendance of approximately 200 on Sundays. The lead Pastor is a stud, by the name of Devin Hudson, who has more degrees than a hot Vegas day (he has four degrees to be specific). Despite all these academic accomplishments, Devin still manages to be a very personal pastor, and desperaely desires to connect the gospel to the culture of Las Vegas.

Check out the Core Values, and other info about the church. Play around the site for awhile, hey, even visit us sometime. There is not much else to say about he church, that isn't covered in the website.

Enjoy. Matt