Issue No.

31, March 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. God consistently provides opportunities for us to love and serve our city well through local projects and church partnerships. God continues to grow our adult, youth, student, and college ministries, as well as our small groups which meet weekly at various

locations across the city. God continues to bring new families and individuals to Renewal weekly, and we praise Him for the opportunity we had to baptize three more Renewal partners on Sunday, February 5th.

Renewal Church Prayer Needs:

Continue to pray for our elders, that He would guard and protect them as they shepherd well. Pray that local churches would continue to partner for the sake of His glory in our city. Pray that we would eagerly submit ourselves in humble obedience to live on mission for God. Pray God would continue to grow our families to love one another and serve as a reflection of His love for the Church. Pray for missions partnerships and opportunities, both locally and abroad, as we seek to multiply disciples for His glory. Pray that God would raise up missionaries among us.

Renewed Love for God

love them and God will show favor to you. However, God tells us in this passage that because He loves us, and because without Jesus 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of we were once poor, needy, marginalized, and God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and oppressed, we are to love others. When we acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the remember who we were without Christ we see renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what that loving others is our necessary, worshipful is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. response to God who first loved us. Leviticus 21(Romans 12:1-2) 22 continued this idea as God shows us the depth of our depravity as humans born under the curse. We continued our Blueprint series in Leviticus Sin is rampant in nature, in culture, and in our during February, observing God fulfilling the work own hearts because, sin came into the world He began in the Old Testament through Jesus. For through one man, and death through sin, and so many of us the Old Testament laws are either death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom. obsolete or they cause us to seek Gods favor 5:12). Praise be to God that God demonstrated through moralism. We continue to see that Gods His own love in this: while we were still sinners, design for the law was not only for our obedience, Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8). but mainly for us to see His unmerited favor upon us as He judges sin and gives us life through Jesus. Leviticus 23 impressed on our hearts Gods great love for us in that He would establish times of rest in Him, knowing that our hearts tendency is to forget about His goodness to us. Our thankfulness overflowed to Him for times where we can remember His salvation, bountiful provision, impending judgment of mankind, forgiveness and unmerited favor, and His imminent return to call His own to Himself. May we be faithful to remember this well and to respond with worship and devotion to Jesus.

us. When we give freely, joyfully, and with open hands, we see our love for ourselves and the world diminish while our love for God increases. To spur on our congregation in giving generously, we will be taking up a Firstfruits offering on April 1st, where 60% of all that is given will go towards missions and church plants in our city, country, and around the world. The remaining 40% will go to support the internal ministry needs of Renewal. We are excited to see how God prompts people to give and how He grows them in generosity. Please consider how you might be apart of this gift as well, to Renewal or to your home church as you ask God to grow you in generosity. If you would like to hear any of the sermons in the Blueprint series, you can visit our website at www.renewalchurch.cc and click Sermons, or subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

Leviticus 19 presented us with our necessary Staying in Leviticus 23, we focused more We will begin our next sermon series, Jonah: the obedience to love the poor, needy, marginalized, and specifically on the Feast of Firstfruits, seeing how Pitiless Prophet, on Sunday, February 11. oppressed. This could easily turn into moralism: God uses generosity in our own hearts to sanctify

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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)

personal reflection and prayer, making decisions about how they could best commit their family time and resources so as to honor God in all that they do as a family on mission for His glory.

wed ask that you would continue to pray for our elders and for these leaders, that we would each work to shepherd our church body well in the months and years to come.

Growing as One Together

Weve told you how God has consistently blessed us with opportunities to build deeper relationships with one another within the body at Renewal. In turn, weve seen great evidences of our peoples growth and desire to be obedient in sharing the gospel with others, inviting friends and co-workers to church, and committing to the process of disciple multiplication.

CD Release Celebration
On February 4th we hosted a CD release party for our very own Stephen Rutland, celebrating the release of Only for Your Glory. You can visit www.stephenrutland.com for details and more.

Renewed through Study

In the fall, we began a Study hour before our main service on Sunday mornings where our entire congregation gathers to hear in-depth teaching on a topic. Last semester, Hugh Carson walked us through Mission and the Glory of God as we studied scripture from Genesis to Revelation, looking at how God has been calling people to Himself from the beginning and how we can partner with Him in this ministry of reconciliation. This spring weve tackled Whats Trending Now, examining hot topics in the evangelical world and culture at large. Hugh and other Renewal leaders have done a great job of equipping the saints as theyve gone in-depth on teaching related to church leadership, homosexuality, divorce/remarriage, singleness/dating for Gods glory, and a general basis for ethics in worldview. Please continue to pray for us as we wrestle with applying this teaching in our own lives and in our interactions with others.

*NEW MAILING ADDRESS*

As weve moved to our new office space we now have a new address. Our mailing address is now:

4 Davis Keats Drive, Greenville, SC 29607

Following our baptism service on February 5 , each of our Small Groups hosted Super Bowl parties throughout the city. We took this opportunity to invite our neighbors, co-workers, and others to enjoy a great time of food, fun, football, and Christian fellowship.

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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)

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!

Renewal Couples Retreat

Our married couples had the opportunity to spend a couple of days together in Flat Rock, NC, examining Gods Word and design for biblical marriage. In addition to our group time and study, each couple had the opportunity to spend time in

Leadership Training Hugh has also continued to work closely with the young leaders God has entrusted to Renewal. Ongoing leadership training and development for Small Group leaders continues to be a top priority as we seek to honor God in multiplying disciples to His glory. By Gods grace weve seen the consistent growth and engagement of our people in theses areas, and

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