Exploring for 40 Days…

In February we turn 3 years old as a church and we are in a season of exploring. In the past 3 years we have seen our church grow with each year,. In the past 3 years we have seen God open up doors with the city and we’ve had the pleasure of serving alongside of them. In the past 3 years we have seen people get baptized, children have been dedicated and people are coming and/or returning to church who haven’t ever been or haven’t attended in a long time. In the past 3 years we have seen God move, seen people restored and families serving together. It’s been a great 3 years!

However we find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads and we believe it is this season we need to explore… Our hope, our mission is to be REAL People, who serve a REAL God, for a REAL Change. God is the change agent and we want to serve and love each one another and we believe the best way to do that is to get to know them, through relationships.

All that to say this… We are praying. Yes praying… For 40 Days we have decided to pray and see where God would have us go and who God would have us serve.

Why 40 Days? In Numbers 13 God gives Moses instructions to send out a team to explore the land that He is giving to the Israelites. The are given very specific instructions in Numbers 13:18-20 and then in verse 25 we read; “At the end of 40 Days they returned from exploring the land.” We believe God is calling us to “explore the land” and come back to give a report. We believe God honors those that seek Him and we believe that God will honor our prayers for His direction for His church.

Why now? Our current meeting space has it’s limits. One of which is the Childrens rooms we have. We currently serve about 50 kids and we are simply out of room, which makes it difficult to grow. In our adult space we could open up a wall and add more seats for adults, but in doing so we eliminate one of the Childrens rooms that we need, so that option isn’t the best… So we are praying.

One point of emphasis. This isn’t about simply getting bigger, it’s about reaching more people so they too can experience what we have experienced the past 3 years. We believe every number has a story, every story has a name and every name matters to God. We want to have room for people to invite their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to church and we believe our current location isn’t the best location to do that.

What does this mean for you? We covet your prayers as well… We have created an email 40days@blueashcc.com for you to email us what you believe God is saying to you over the next 40 Days. We will compile these emails, pray over them and see if there is a theme that God is revealing. We will not read these emails until the 40 Days has ended on November 27th. We will seek God for wisdom and share with Blue Ash Community Church where we believe God is leading us.

We don’t want to be the best church we can be, we want to be the best church God has called us to be… Will you join us in the exploration? If so please email us at 40days@blueashcc.com with what you hear/see in your prayer exploration of BACC’s next season of ministry.

We are excited about what God is doing in our church and we can’t wait to hear and see where God is leading us.

Thanks so much for reading and helping us explore the land though prayer.

-Andy Rainey