Issue No.

32, April 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 church partnerships and events like Easter in the Park. God continues to grow our adult, youth, student, and college ministries, as well as our Small

Groups which meet weekly at various Renewal Church Prayer Needs: locations across the city. God continues raise up young leaders from Continue to pray for our elders, that He would within our Body who are committed to guard and protect them as they shepherd well. serving and seeking His glory. Pray that local churches would continue to partner for the sake of His glory in our city. Pray that we would eagerly submit ourselves to His Lordship in humble obedience. Pray God would continue to grow our people daily and that we would multiply disciples in our neighborhoods and communities. 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

1

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

of Jesus, who bore the curse of our sin for us, instead of putting our hope in our own goodness by trying to earn Gods favor. Praise God for the finished work of Jesus that rescues us from the curse!

As a church, we have now traveled through the last half of Exodus and the entire book of Leviticus during our Blueprint series. The design of this series was to help our congregation grasp how the concepts of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus in the New Testament, and it has accomplished its purpose. Many people either give up and skip over parts of the Old Testament, or read through it but see no application to their life today. Each sermon in our Blueprint series has helped our congregation view the Old Testament through the lens of how it points to Jesus and how it necessitates a response to Him on our lives. The blessings and curses listed in Leviticus 28 left us with an understanding of blessing (the undeserved favor of the Lord) and cursing (God letting sin run its course in our lives). We now have an even greater understanding of what Scripture means when it describes Jesus becoming a curse for us so that we can experience the blessings of undeserved favor from the Lord. We were encouraged to put our hope in the perfect obedience

beautiful picture of God lovingly pursuing Jonah for repentance, even while he was self-righteous, prideful, and hated Gods character and dealings with mankind. As Jonah spouted truth about God, he held onto pride and self-righteousness in his heart. Jesus tells us that we are not to be like Jonah and others whose lips praise God, but whose hearts are far away. Instead we should be like Jesus, who loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength even unto death. In Jonah 3, we see the beauty of Gods character and the power of His call as the hearts of Nineveh are softened to the word of God, they repent, and God grants them forgiveness and relents from sending disaster. He truly is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster! (Jonah 4:2)

For the last three weeks in March we turned our attention to the book of Jonah. Jonah may seem a strange book to lead up to Easter until you are reminded, as we were, that the whole book is about the lengths to which God will go to reconcile His people to Himself. Toby used Jonah 1 to push down on our hearts the truth that God is sovereign in every circumstance. He uses all of lifes circumstances to cause us to die to ourselves and to submit to His leading in our lives. In Jonahs life God used the city of Nineveh, a very strong storm, the casting of lots, and a big fish, all of which He sovereignly directed. Hugh preached from Jonah 2 and painted a

Beginning April 15th, we will begin a new series in Romans, entitled Killing Sin. We are looking forward to seeing how God uses His Word to further our sanctification as individuals and as a church.

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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)

Spring Break on Mission

Our college crew went to work over Spring Break, serving on mission in Alaska and right here in Greenville.

Foundations: Gender
On April 13th, we will host our next Foundations event, a five-hour teaching block during which we discuss a topic in depth from Scripture. This months topic is Gender. From all sides, discussions of gender issues abound, and there is likely no greater area where sin infects individual lives and societal issues. In this forum we will seek to address these cultural issues by teaching through Scripture on Gods plan for gender. If you would like to attend please register on our website. Please be in prayer for the speakers at this event and for the hearers that God would soften their hearts to His word and cause them to respond in obedience and greater love for God and His ways.

Celebrating Two Years

On Sunday, March 18th, we celebrated our 2nd birthday as a church! God has been so gracious to us through these first two years, and Hes consistently used the faithfulness of supporters and partners like you to build His church at Renewal.

Our Go Alaska team spent the week serving alongside our partner church, True North Church, in Anchorage, while our Love Greenville team spent the week serving here in our city and helping several other church plants in the Upstate. We are grateful to have so many students committed to serving and living on mission for God! We gathered that morning for a great time of study and worship, and several folks came forward to share testimonies of how God has used Renewal in their lives over the past two years.

Renewed through Study

We also held our second Small Group Leaders Huddle during the month of March. We gather to provide a platform for teaching and ongoing training, to give our leaders the chance to discuss challenges and victories with other group leaders, and to encourage one another along the way. This month Hugh took the time to again cast the vision for gospel-focused discipleship in the church, as our prayer and vision is to have an army of disciple-makers raised up to release in the city. Matt finished our time walking through some practical steps to "getting to the heart" in accountability relationships. The battle that we face is getting beyond the surface level issues and training ourselves to be conscious of "heart level" issues. This month has also been good for time spent in the Word outside of the corporate gathering. Our men's study on marriage concluded after finishing Tim Keller's book, "The Meaning of Marriage." It was an encouraging time as we had men married for 30 years all the way to singles in the room together, studying what it looks like to have a Christ-honoring marriage. We also completed the first three weeks of a look at Christian ethics of life in Study/Serve, tackling such issues as abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, capital punishment and contraception. It's encouraging to see our people wrestle through these difficult issues by bringing the Scriptures to bear.

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!

Immediately following our gathering we enjoyed a cookout to celebrate the special day. A group of Renewal partners did the cooking and everyone had a great time. Again, we thank you for allowing God to use you to build His church in Greenville, and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays in the years to come as we seek to be faithful to carry out the mission Hes given us.

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