Incredible Building Campaign Story

Today, I received this word of encouragement from an NEHBC family who pledged in our building campaign:

"I wanted to update you on our family blessings. We pledged a scary (in our opinion) amount to the Glory to God campaign. God provided the funds with the sale of stock options earlier this year. Our earthly plan was to use those options for retirement. We got a notice in the mail last week from my company stock broker concerning an account that had been set up on behalf of me. When I got logged into the account, there had been two share "deposits", both of which I was unaware. The current value of the newly discovered shares is over DOUBLE what we pledged! Need I say more, GLORY TO GOD!"

God is growing the faith of the families who are sacrificing to fund the expansion of our facility. Our expansion is not just for making disciples of more people, it's an opportunity for us to grow in our understanding of Christ. If you are not yet participating in the building campaign, jump in with us by emailing our Church Administrator, Bill Campbell, at bcampbell@nehbc.com.

a friend of mine shares about his recent mission trip to Africa

"Our Motivation" for NEHBC's Glory to God vision is the call of God to go and the cry of the lost to come. I pray that this brief article will develop "our motivation", NEHBCers.

NEHBC's Vision

"Our Identity: A Living Community of God". Biblical community means we serve each other, minister to one another, support each other, pray for one another, care for each other, consider each other to be more significant than ourselves, forgive each other, love each other, and provide biblical accountability.

"Our Purpose: Making Disciples". From the Great Commission, Matt 28:18-20, we understand that we exist to make disciples. We believe that leading the lost to Christ and teaching the entire counsel of God's Word to Christ followers are equal halves of the Great Commission. We believe the standard of salvation is clear: 1. Jesus is Lord 2. Man has rejected Him. 3. Man must repent (change his mind about Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Savior.)

"Our Scope: Love our City, Love the World". We are to make disciples from our city to the ends of the earth simultaneously and with equal fervor.

"Our Strategy: Church Planting". We believe from Scripture that God's primary methodology for making disciples is the local church. The gospel advances when local churches plant local churches. Thus, our primary methodology for making disciples from our city to the ends of the earth is church planting. We have an aggressive plan for planting significant local churches in Houston and we desire for our plethora of international missions work to primarily be church planting.

"Our Motivation: The Call of God and the Cry of the Lost". Romans 10:13ff: For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

"Our First Step: Building Expansion". The NEHBC family has run out of disciple making room. We need to more space in order to make more disciples. On April 1, we will break ground on our building expansion. As the Lord lets us make even more disciples, our resource base will expand and allow us to plant even more churches in Houston and around the world. As people give money toward NEHBC's expansion, they are investing in a biblical vision that comes straight out of God's Word.

Our objective is simple: to bring glory to God. Thus, we call our six part vision, Glory to God.

daily bible reading response

In our read through the New Testament commitment, we are currently in the book of Acts. This morning, a man in our church forwarded me his thoughts from today’s reading. In light of our February emphasis on the “Our Purpose: Make Disciples” aspect of our Glory to God vision, I thought it would be really good to share his email here:

"Ok – humor me a bit – but in today’s reading (Acts 4) it just seemed like a cool picture of our mission trips:

V1-7 – Peter and John are sharing the gospel to the point of being arrested. They are faithful to share the news – like we should be on a trip. Upon arrest – they are grilled by high level authorities – the ones who sentenced Jesus to death. They are severely questioned by the world – like we will be when we share the gospel.

V8-12 – What do they do? Shrink like Joel Osteen on Larry King Live? NO! First they are filled with the Spirit (prepared) and they tell the whole truth – willing to speak the truth no matter what. Just like we are to be when we are confronted – don’t sugar-coat it. Speak the whole truth.

V13-18 – We see the world rationalize its response to the truth – in this case they tell them to zip it up – no more talk of this. Who knows what response we may get when we proclaim the truth?

V19-20 – What do they do? No shrinkage here. They hold fast to the truth and their faith. So should we – never compromise the gospel message.

V21-22 – In the end, God’s movement/actions will rule/prevail and He will be glorified – wherever we have been.

V23 – Then we come back and tell our congregation everything that happened and what God did on the trip.

V24-31 – And then the church rejoices over what they’ve heard. We worship God, give Him praise, tell of His greatness and pray…and God moves again – within us being filled with the Spirit and speaking the Word of God boldly.

Why? Because two believers stood their ground and told the truth.

That was the thought that came to me as I read today’s reading.”

Glory to God.

February: Our Purpose: Making Disciples

It's time to flip the page on your Glory to God vision calendar. Our February emphasis is on the "Our Purpose" aspect of our vision. NEHBC's purpose is to make disciples through evangelism, bible teaching, and prayer.

My prayer is not just that we make disciples at NEHBC, but that we make disciple making disciples.