Equipping our next Generation

Dear Heartland Family,

One of the highlights of my year is when we gather as a church family on Christmas Eve and sing Silent Night. It’s a beautiful moment that reminds me of my own childhood. It’s also a shared worship experience that we are passing down to the next generation. The first line of that hymn is resonating with me this year:
“Silent night, Holy night. All is calm, all is bright.”

Our world has been a very loud and confusing place this year. It continues to change right before our eyes. Uncertainty about the future is weighing heavily upon many of our families and friends. This Christmas season, as we sing these words from Silent Night, let’s be reminded that the Presence of Jesus calms the chaos and brightens even the darkest of nights.

In the midst of a challenging year, Jesus has been so good to us as a church. We’ve seen Him work powerfully in the lives of people at Heartland as we continue to move forward in our mission. Our educational school, Streams of Hope, now in its second year, is growing and flourishing. The ministries flowing from Heartland are impacting our neighborhood, our city, and the nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though I don’t have adequate space in this letter to share with you all that God has done this year, I do want to highlight something special that I believe God is doing in our midst.

CHILDREN & YOUTH

One of the most powerful things about this year is how God is moving in the lives of our children and youth. We’ve seen friendships and community thrive during weekly youth group meetings and Sunday morning children’s ministry. We’ve watched as our kids embraced teamwork, faith, and challenges at Deer Run camp with Michael Gobert. A vibrancy in our kids’ faith was sparked as we held our first VBS in many years. The Holy Spirit has been moving powerfully as our youth are learning how to pray and prophesy over each other during youth group. And we’ve watched and cheered them on as they learned about the foundations of our faith in Jesus Christ during our last stretch of Midweek.

All that God has been doing really hit home with me just a couple of weeks ago when I had the privilege of baptizing nineteen Heartland kids on Sunday morning. God is moving in the lives of our children and youth.

I strongly believe that what He’s doing is unto something much more important than we realize. Not only is God’s hand on our own children and youth, we are also seeing God call forward this next generation all across the worldwide Church. Something very special is happening in the body of Christ.

EQUIPPING OUR NEXT GENERATION

At Heartland, one of our foundational values is training and equipping everyone for ministry. When we say everyone, we mean everyone! Our children and youth are not left out. The same Holy Spirit who lived in the Apostle Paul lives in them. As we often say, there’s no junior Holy Spirit.

We believe that the Lord is raising up the next generation of children and youth to demonstrate the love and power of Jesus Christ to a world in chaos. Many prophetic voices from around the world have also spoken about the same thing.

I believe this is the time to recognize what God is doing and renew our commitment to equip our next generation for ministry.

As we look ahead to 2022, we are excited to enter into a more intentional time of equipping our next generation. But we can’t do this alone. It takes all of us coming together as a church to sacrificially invest. In addition to making this a part of your prayer life, I want to invite you to participate in the following ways:

1. Volunteer
Pastor Liam has developed an incredible team who minister to our children and youth week after week. We are in need of more volunteers to help out in our children and youth ministries. This is a great opportunity to take an active role in equipping our next generation for ministry. To explore how you can volunteer, please contact Liam at: liam@heartlandfw.org.

2. Give
In addition to your normal tithe, I want to invite you to give a year end financial gift to help equip our next generation. Our year end giving will help provide our children and youth ministries the resources needed for:

• Extra investment in discipleship materials
• Cultivating a worship and arts community with our children and youth
• Updating and enhancing our children and youth rooms
• Developing a rhythm of mission opportunities, camps, and VBS
• Training events for youth, teachers, and volunteers

If you want to learn more details and stir your excitement, please have a conversation with Eliza Skaggs, Pastor Liam or myself.

There are many ways to make a year end financial gift; including Sunday mornings during worship, online at www.heartlandfw.org/giving, through our App or mailing in a check. Whichever way you decide to give, please write “Year end giving” in the memo section of your check, online form or envelope.

When we invest our time, money, and prayer together as a community, we can accomplish great things for the Kingdom of God! I can’t wait to see how God continues to move in the lives of our children and youth in 2022. Thank you all for your love, prayers and partnership.

Peace,
Pastor Dave