This Sunday we’ll be starting a new sermon series on the Gospel of Mark. This series will take us through Easter Sunday, which is April 8th. We’re expecting to hear and see great things from God as we look into the first Gospel ever written. Come join us at 5pm on Sunday!

We will be celebrating our very first baptisms on New Year’s Day! What better way to start off the New Year than to be baptized? Baptism is an important milestone in the life of every believer, and it is the means by which we publicly identify ourselves as servants of the True King, Jesus Christ.

Baptism is also a picture of the way in which we die to our old selves (go under the water), and rise again with Christ to new life (come out of the water). Baptism is the symbol of our faith in Jesus and commitment to obey him in everything.

At Ember, we practice baptism by immersion for those who are able to articulate a firm understanding of the faith, and who have submitted themselves to Jesus as King. If you would like to be baptized, please contact Pastor Andy for more information.

It’s always interesting when Christmas falls on a Sunday. Pastors everywhere fret over the decision to hold services or to cancel them. For us the choice was easy: we’re canceling because hardly any of us will be in town! So remember, no service on Christmas Day! But we’ll be back ready to kick off the new year with an awesome service (with baptisms!) on New Year’s Day!

This week we will have our first Ember small group dinner! Small groups are a vital element of the church, and we are very excited to be launching them this week. Our small groups will start as one large group and meet for three weeks, then take a break for the Christmas season. When the new year starts, we hope that the one large group will split into two or three smaller groups, each meeting on different nights.

If you’ve never been to a small group before, here’s what you can expect:

• Food! We’ll typically have a potluck-style dinner together.
• Testimonies! These groups will start by getting to know each other, so we like to give each member of the group at least a full hour to share their story.
• Friends! This is where you’ll make lasting friendships in the church. Small groups are designed to live out the Gospel together.

Ember started as a small group several years ago. As we did life together for a couple of years, it became clear that God was leading some of us to plant this church, so we stepped out in obedient faith to turn the small group into a church!

If you’d like to be involved in the small group, please contact Andy for more information.