Issue No.

39, November 2012

Praise and Glory to God:

God continues to provide faithfully for Renewal in every way, encouraging us weekly as He continues to build our church body in number and spiritual growth. Praise God for opportunities to love, serve, and engage our city through events like our fall festival, DNA hunts, and school breakfasts. Praise God for the new families and individuals whove joined Renewals mission to make disciples in Greenville and around the world.

Praise God for the gospel partnerships He has provided and for their faithful support of Renewal and our people.

Renewal Church Prayer Needs:

Continue to pray for our elders, that God would guard and protect them, and that they would be encouraged daily in the Word. Pray for clarity, discernment, and wisdom as we continue to seek options for a larger space to serve as our permanent church home. Pray for our local schools, teachers, and students. Pray that God would continue to grow our people and families daily, and that our Small Groups and Clusters would serve well in this process. Pray for our church and missions partnerships, both locally and abroad, as we seek to spread the gospel and multiply disciples to the glory of God.

We began the month with Matt teaching in 1 Corinthians 4, seeing that the church is built through servants who fear God rather than man. 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of We learned that the best way to rid ourselves of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and the fear of man is to replace it with the fear of the acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the Lord, asking ourselves consistently if we are renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what being faithful to Him rather than growing is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. frustrated with someone else we should be loving.

Renewed Love for God

(Romans 12:1-2)

Our current series through 1 Corinthians, "Beautiful Chaos," continued to exhort and encourage our congregation this month as we see an "insider's view" of the reality of the Church in Corinth. They were not to be applauded or put on a pedestal for their pristine example of following Jesus. Instead they look much like the church that you and I are a part of: full of sinners who are in desperate need of God's grace to set and keep them on the path to holiness. Praise be to God that He pursued His church through Paul and continued to sanctify them through His Word.

repentance and faith. Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to be faithful in this pursuit of each other as we fear God and not man. When we fear God, we are freed to pursue others in their sin and call them to repentance, rather than fearing man and becoming frozen in our fear, unable to speak any truth into their lives. Paul then makes a bold statement, saying that we should be imitators of him as he imitates Christ. When we fear the Lord instead of people, we Toby then taught on servant leadership and Pauls are free to love and serve faithfully even when we example of living a cross-centered life. Paul mess up. All of the Christian life is repentance, and desired that the Corinthians live holy lives, as we continually repent of sin, put sin to death , and reflecting on Gods provision and not their own faithfully follow the Lord we can freely tell others to preferences. He encouraged them to follow his imitate us and do the same. Praise the Lord for our lead, urging them to be imitators of me (1 Cor. purpose in making disciples, and our help in God's 4:16). Spirit and others who make disciples of us! God expects the church to take sin among her members seriously, and the following week we looked at the necessity of the church to lovingly and graciously exhort one another to holiness. As Matt reminded us, the goal is that those trapped in enslavement to sin would turn from their sin and turn to Christ in repentance. Our prayer is that Renewal would be a church that does this well. We concluded the month with Hugh teaching from 1 Corinthians 6: 1-11 on the necessity of the church to live out the reality of our identity in During the holidays we will take a break from our Christ. teaching series on 1 Corinthians to take a five-week journey on the role of the church in Gods mission God has blessed the church by giving us each around the world. theCHURCH will address the other - our brothers and sisters in Christ whose way in which the church is commissioned to take the job it is to pursue us in our sin and call us to gospel to the nations.

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Renewed in Relationships

Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. (Acts 2:46)

Student Impact Weekend

Our students participated in Impact Weekend, October 12th-14th. The students, grades 6-12, spent the weekend in host homes studying the Word, getting to know one another, and having a great time in fellowship. The weekend concluded with our Sunday gathering. Praise God for these students and the work He is doing in and through them as we work to raise up young disciples.

Renewed through Community

Equipping and ongoing training is a high value in our small group ministry. This past month many of our group leaders gathered on a Saturday morning to discuss the importance of our groups living on mission together. We aim for each of our groups to have an ongoing local mission focus to proclaim the gospel in our city. For many of us, adding something new to our schedules isn't practical. We're too busy as it is, but we discussed changing how we do the things we're already doing for the sake of mission. We all eat. We recreate. We relax. Why not turn those things into avenues for developing relationships with unbelievers? The Lord continues to add to our body as twelve new Renewal Church partners were added this month. Were grateful to God for what He's doing to build His church. We have another Connections Class in November for individuals wanting to take next steps towards joining Renewal.

We had a great time and got to meet lots of new folks from the community, giving us an excellent opportunity to share more about Renewal and what God is doing in and through our church.

How You Can Give to Support What God's Doing at Renewal

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. (Acts 2:45)

Renewal Church Fall Festival

Dan and several of our partners have been able to share the gospel while providing meals and mentoring for young people through several DNR hunts this month. ATDO Ministries serves as our link to this initiative each year. We are responsible for raising all of the funding to pay for the meals and supplies for 15-18 of these hunts. We also put teams in place to serve and share at each hunt, and we are grateful for the opportunities God continues to provide through this ministry. Our church gathered at Chick-fil-A on Woodruff Road in Greenville for a fall festival on October 31st. The event was free to the community and we encouraged everyone to come out and join us. We set up lots of outdoor games and activities for the children, complete with lots of candy for everyone.

Thank you again for your commitment to give to Renewal Church! Your faithfulness has been a blessing to our church and our efforts in the city. See the following information on how to give: By check Place a check in the pre-labeled envelope along with a stamp, and mail to Renewal Church 4 Davis Keats Drive, Greenville, SC 29607 Online Go to www.renewalchurch.cc and click on Online Giving at the bottom of the home page. Click Register to give a one time gift. Automatic Draft Go to www.renewalchurch.cc and click on Online Giving at the bottom of the home page. Click Register to complete your automatic draft. A few reminders: All gifts are tax deductible Please make us aware of any address changes or changes to your giving so we can make the necessary adjustments. Send an email to church@renewalchurch.cc to update your information!

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