God is with us!  What a great Sunday we had!

We arrived at San Pasqual High School @ 8:30 am and began putting up our banners which came out amazing.  We then had our school connections show up around 8:45 to open up the place and let us in to set up.  We quickly got everything we needed to done and were able to catch out breath for a moment.  Our only glitch the first Sunday was the front backdrop, but as you can see from the picture it turned out great as well.  People began to arrive around 10:25 and it was a great time of fellowship and anticipation.  Our worship team, Matt Thompson, Brandon Cuevas, and Anne Marie Pinkerton ran through the set list and we were ready to go.

We took a moment to pray together as a group.  This gave us a moment to catch our breath and focus on the One who had brought us here and that we were here to worship Him, not put on a show, and then we were off and running.  The Brandon and the worship team did a great job on With or Without You/We are Hungry at the 5 minute clock, we then read John 15:1-5 at the end of that piece.  We moved into more worship with Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone, Blessed Be Your Name, and Mighty to Save.  Kris did an amazing job with the message and challenged the people with the Word.  More worship with Center, Refiners Fire (Matt did an excellent job with this piece), and Our God.  It was then time for Pink to talk briefly about why we were in Escondido and then we were done.  It seemed like it ended as quickly as it started.  It was an incredible morning.

We had 86 people there which was a very good start!  Our next service will be on February 6th, 2011.

www.thebrancheschurch.com

We will probably be able to have a student from SP run their sound equipment for us, Praise God!  We were hoping that this would be possible, please pray that it becomes a reality!

The two classrooms we will be in are actually attached to the theater and sit between the parking area and the theater.  Plus there is a big “hang out area” right there that we will all be able to fellowship and have donuts and drinks at.

The school received our certificate of insurance and we are in the last steps of complete approval with the school district.

We will have a custodial staff member on duty with us during our service times at the school.  He will be there to unlock and lock up.  This is a huge blessing as well.

Please take time to pray today, maybe even on your knees, for the Branches Community Church that God would have His way with us and He will be honored and glorified in our steps!

Working with www.churchonwheels.com to potentially have a trailer custom made and filled with all of the things we will need to run a portable church.

Talking to Insurance companies and receiving quotes for liability insurance so that we can hold our services at San Pasqual High School.

Working on a marketing strategy so that people in Escondido actually know that we are going to be holding services.  Buying pens, cards, bottles, sweat shirts, etc.

Waiting for the State of California to officially make us a Corporation.  We have sent in our Articles of Incorporation and are waiting for them to approve them.  After approval we will be able file for tax exempt and nonprofit status.

Getting creative elements lined up for our worship services.

Going to be going door to door praying and making people aware of the fact that we will be holding services soon.

Speaking of services, at this time it looks like strategically it is best for us to hold preview services on December 5th, January 9th, and January 23rd, and then we will go to weekly services in February.

Kris is flying out to Indiana to speak at some churches and meet with other pastors during their mission weeks.  He will be speaking at Brookville Road Community Church on November 14th at both services.  He will also be speaking at Providence Christian Church on November 12th in the evening.

Our website will be up one way or another by November.  It is coming along and it’s looking great, thanks to Jonathan, we can’t wait for you to see it!

If you could take some time to pray even right now for the Branches Community Church that would be the BOMB!

After the game we approached a man who was “in charge” and asked him for some bags and gloves.  He looked at me and kind of ignored me at first.  Then I pulled out my card and told him we had talked to Mr. Gregory and that we were here to help out.  He asked if what we wanted was the plastic bottles and I said “no, we’re just here to help clean up.”  He looked at me and his demeanor really changed, almost a mix between shock and awe.  He said, “Great, here are the bags, gloves and brooms, you guys can work on the visitors side.”  We grabbed the stuff and got to work.  It only took us 45 minutes and then we came over to the home side to help the SP kids.  ”The Boss” came over to us and asked us what we were doing there and we were able to share with him about the church we were starting and the fact that we were going to have services at SP.  We then told him we’d be back for the rest of the home games, he was grateful.

I also overheard a parent who was there to help talking to a student and he said, “Well how about the visitors side?”  He turned to look and saw it was done and he said to the student, “That’s the fastest we’ve ever got this done!”

It sure feels great to help!  It sure feels great to Love SP with God’s Love!  I’m looking forward to building relationships with this community in the future evenings and hopefully mornings!  I’m also looking forward to making their community our community!

We have been having a men’s Bible study on Monday nights that tags along with football.  How it works is we eat, read and talk about the Bible for the first hour and a half or so and then we watch the Monday Night Football Game.  We have been reading through Luke for the past two months and are only in Luke 9 at the moment.  We are not rushing anything along.  We have lively discussion and that turns into more talk about God and His ways!  It is very exciting.  What’s also exciting is the fact that we had 10 men show up last Monday!  Three of those men were new and they really haven’t had any exposure to the Scripture before Monday night!  They read with us and told us that they would come again.  Actually the great thing is that we held the study in one of their homes.  He actually volunteered his home a few weeks earlier and he doesn’t even own a Bible.  Don’t worry we gave him one!  God is faithful.

Tonya is starting a Bible study tonight and it will be ongoing on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.  She will be doing something similar to what we are doing in the men’s and reading through a book of the Bible.

Tuesdays @ Round Table have been ongoing and that has been a great time of building community around the dinner table.

We started meeting on Sunday mornings up at Dixon Lake for a time of teaching and worship together.  We don’t really call it a service, just more of a time to grow in God together.  We are still looking at a December 5^th launch date at San Pasqual High School.  Kris has been teaching on the disciplines of the Christian life, so far we have covered Prayer, Meditation, and Study.  Matt Thompson has been leading in song and Pink has been helping out with that and a little speaking himself, surprise, surprise.  In the coming weeks we will have a few other men share a word or two from their hearts as we seek more leadership for the Branches.

We already have several service opportunities in the community.  San Pasqual has asked us if we would be willing to clean up the stadium after all of their home games.  We jumped at that opportunity!  How hard can it be to clean up trash?  Plus we will get into the games for free and be able to sit with people and build community with families who are there.

The California Center for the Arts has asked us to help them with their community theater by building up and tearing down of their presentation of Oliver.  We again have said yes and they have told us they want to give us a half page advertisement in their play-bill announcing the Branches Community Church!  We wouldn’t want to refuse their hospitality so we are working on the artwork for that ad.  As a matter of fact we may have a few of our kids in that production so it makes for a natural fit!

We also have another opportunity with the City of Escondido to help out in their youth court system.  This is a program for youth who have to go to a youth court for a trial by their peers.  Each youth is hooked up with an adult that is willing to follow through with them for a period of time.  We will be seeking any and all branches that will be willing to mentor a youth through this process.  Isn’t that what we came here for?!?  To let God’s love pour into us and out of us onto our community?  Or in other words:  To Love People With God’s Love!  Our Purpose!

Eventually we will add football to the mix as a community builder.  We will have a Bible study for the first hour and then we will be watching Monday night football together (with snacks, lol).  If you are a guy who wants to HEAR what God says and talk about it with other guys, and live in or around Escondido let us know, we’d love to have you.  Right now it looks like we have seven guys signed up.  We will be reading out of the ESV Bible.  If you’d like to come but don’t have one of these Bibles let us know, we’d be happy to make arrangements for you to have one.

We are about to start up Bible studies as well.  It looks like a men’s Bible Study will be starting up on Monday nights.  We are going to do nothing more than just read through books of the Bible together.  We will discuss and give each other our thoughts. We are really looking forward to growing together and expanding to be a group of men who are committed to the Word.

Pink will be starting up a new youth group in the next couple of weeks.  He is looking for a name for this group and believe he has found one with the mastermind this time being Pastor Kris.  But if you have a name you’d like to throw into the hat feel free to do so, who knows your name might be the next teshuva!  The new youth group will be watching the show Glee together and then discussing the Biblical ramifications to the questions posed by the show.  We started to get the word out last night and it looks like we already have about 20 students interested.  It would be very exciting to have a sizable youth group even before we get the church actually launched.

As you can see we are going to be quite busy.  Prayer for all of these things would be greatly appreciated.  As a matter of fact why don’t you just pray for these things right not that God would be in them.  Thanks!

I also saw this during their service and I want one for the Branches:

If you have one and want to donate it or just want to buy one for us let me know!  As a matter of fact there are all kinds of things we still need for the service itself, if you have any interest in purchasing something for the start of the Branches either comment on here and I’ll get back to you or you can email us at thebrancheschurch@gmail.com