Meisha Barnes

‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, 

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

“Their colour is a diabolic die.”

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train.

~ Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784, 

“On Being Brought from Africa to America”

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Phillis Wheatley was an African slave who gained notoriety through her poems and her firm belief that black people could be artistic and intellectual. She was one of the pioneers who served as a catalyst for the growing antislavery movement. 

‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land…

While reading this specific poem, I was reminded of my own life. More specifically, I was reminded of my life in the church. Singing praises to God was something I was very familiar with, and I had grown comfortable in my position. As a result of this, my spiritual walk plateaued, and my desire to seek God waned greatly. This was the comfort of my Pagan land. It took my life falling completely apart for me to see God’s mercy bring me from that land. 

Some view our sable race with scornful eye…

As a black woman, Living Hope was very unfamiliar and uncomfortable initially. I was taught to be cautious and apprehensive, expecting the worst, so nothing could take me by surprise. I realize now that this was a shallow form of racism, and it’s often used against my race as well. I never took the time to consider that I was being taught to fight fire with fire, which is the exact opposite of what Christ teaches. Blatant racism still runs rampant today, arising from our deeply rooted sin of pride and fear. How can we truly love one another if we are looking at each other through these eyes?

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train.

Wheatley speaks of the bible character Cain, who some say was cursed with black skin, using this to justify their racism. The imagery also brings to mind the sugar trade, in which “cane” was burned black as it was refined. My previous church culture was much different than the culture of Living Hope. Church often included loud wails of worship, and dancing of praise. This is common in a lot of black churches and has been viewed as uncivilized or unrefined, even. It is not my culture or my race that cause me to be unrefined, however, it is my sin. We are all in need of a savior. Wheatley reminds us that we all, black and white alike, can be refined through Christ. Who the Son sets free, is free indeed! I’m a child of God, YES I AM!!

Disaster Relief

A Paradise California resident woke up on Nov 8th to violent knocking on her front door. A frantic neighbor was yelling “You gotta get out!” The air was filled with smoke and neighbors were scrambling to leave. She gathered up family, pets and a few valuables for a quick evacuation. The explosion of propane tanks grew louder as the fire approached. Less than 10 minutes later, her house was gone. 

Category 4 Hurricane Michael made landfall on Mexico Beach, Florida, as the most powerful hurricane in recorded history to strike the Florida Panhandle. Packing sustained winds of 155 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to 14 feet, it devastated communities. Businesses damaged or destroyed by the hurricane shut down or cut staff to stay afloat. People lost homes, family members, and their jobs. Countless numbers became homeless with some forced to live in tents.  

2 years ago South-central Louisiana was battered with unprecedented rainfall–some areas receiving more than 2 feet of rain. The storms killed several people and caused widespread damage. Very few residents had flood insurance–after all, they weren’t in a flood zone. Today there are STILL people in East Baton Rouge Parish who are living in FEMA trailers because they don’t have the ability to repair their homes. 

Natural disasters such as these are nothing short of tragic. Unless you are directly affected by a fire, or flood or hurricane/tornado, it is almost impossible to imagine the feeling of loss and hopelessness victims experience. One day you have a home, a bed, a dog, a family…and in the blink of an eye it is all gone. But, in the midst of tragedy GOD gives us the opportunity to share His love with those in need…to be his hands and feet to someone who is down and out. That is what a Disaster Response ministry is all about…being hope to the hopeless. I personally have never felt so close to my Lord as when I answer His call to show up at a disaster site to assist families who have experienced loss. It has been my experience that when I answer the call to be a blessing to someone in need, I am the one who is blessed.  

Do you feel called to minister to brothers and sisters who have been victims of natural disasters?  Would you like to be part of a team going out to show God’s love to those who feel hopeless?  If you would like to be contacted when we have a disaster relief opportunity, please contact Tee Meeks at teemeeks21@gmail.com.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10

We Go With Full Hearts

My mama taught me two words to always keep on my lips, thank you; especially when receiving a gift or words of affirmation, or acts of kindness. To be honest if we said thank you each and every time it was appropriate the last two weeks those two words would be the only ones we would have spoken! 

All that you’ve done for us as I move towards retirement overwhelms us. The gifts received, the cards written, the delicious food served, the words spoken, the times of laughter, tears, and prayers will always be remembered. And we can’t forget the hugs . . . how we cherished each and every hug!

We are so excited about the tangible reminders of our time at Living Hope. The painting from the kids of Hope Park, the cookbook signed by so many of you, the drawing of Memphis, the photo book and the scripture blanket all will give us many opportunities to share the Gospel by telling of a community that loves extravagantly because they, too, are loved by the Father of love.

When I, (Anita), came to Living Hope in August 2006 I came to serve and establish a children’s ministry at a new church start. I came because I felt God calling me to Living Hope. What I didn’t realize then, but clearly see now is that God called me to Living Hope not so much to shape the children’s ministry, but to shape me! As all of us together grew the children’s program, God grew me in His love, in His goodness, and in His faithfulness. And, God used YOU as part of His honing process in my life. I know more of Him because of each of you. Richard and I have often talked about how we are forever changed because of our time at LHC. You have become friends, co-laborers and family. 

Thank you. Those two words don’t seem to carry the weight we want to express for our gratitude and appreciation for all Living Hope has done for us not only in the past two weeks, but the previous 12 years. They aren’t weighty enough, but they are what we have to offer so we say again, Thank You. We love you and take you with us as we go. 

- Anita & Richard Sisk

Step into the Boat

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” - Psalm 133:1

 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” - Hebrews 3:12-13

 Vulnerability, weakness ... risk. Why do I choose these words?

Why do we, as men, too often think if something or someone is broken, within or around us and those we love, that we can just find a manual or a YouTube video and fix it?

How hard is it to admit we are vulnerable? Do we fear we do not quite measure up to our own expectations ... or those of our family, our workplace ... our Lord? Do we lead our families, have a full prayer life, spend time in His word? How many of us can name one or two male friends to whom we can lay bare our souls? Do we even risk looking that deeply and insightfully?

I was convicted when I asked these difficult questions of myself during and after last year’s LH Men’s Retreat. I have yet to find a video on YouTube that will fix what is broken in me. I fall short, too often, of who and where I think I should be in this life. That’s where His rescuing grace and mercy arrive.

We’re often together in the same boat as the disciples were in a storm-tossed Galilee, as related in the Gospels. This life is oftentimes storm-tossed. They were anxious and imperiled, afraid and uncertain. Christ awoke from sleep, questioned them of their faith, and spoke calm to the raging waves. He is there for us today as He was for his disciples.

Reach out to your brother, take a risk and be vulnerable, admit your weakness. Trust. I did and began to share my brokenness and lostness with a buddy of mine. It wasn’t easy. He didn’t duck or judge. And our friendship since has truly deepened, becoming what it could not have been prior.

 Have faith ...  exhort one another ... dwell in unity …  

Step into the boat at the LH Men’s Retreat. Look to Him, and each other, for strength and calm.

- Scott Lageman

Women's Bible Study

We often use the end of one year and the beginning of the next as a time to reflect, and I find myself reflecting on one of my favorite things at Living Hope this last year! In the fall of 2018, over one-hundred women from Living Hope gathered in various locations and at various times throughout the Memphis metro area to dig into God’s word through a study of 1 John. At the end of our study, we had a dinner with all of the participants where each group presented a creative project to display what they’d learned during the study. Each group contained women of different ages and talents - and together we had such a camaraderie that came from us all studying the same thing. Being a “non-creative” person, it was inspiring to see the many ways God has gifted the women of LH. 

Some of the thoughts and reflections after the study from various women who participated include:

“To lead and be part of a group of women who studied the Bible together was one of my highlights from last semester. I loved the in depth preparation we had to do for the study, and the new insight into God’s Word that it brought; I was happy to see how the women participated, and how the Word convicted and brought about change in their thinking. I also enjoyed seeing the bond and relationships that formed between the women in the group.”

“Our small group came together as some friends and some strangers and came away bonded through the knowledge of the concept that Jesus loves us unconditionally. Because of this example of unconditional love, being honest about our weaknesses was not only easier but freeing.”

“Meeting together each week to study and discuss God’s Word together was the perfect opportunity to (finally) get to know other women at LH! Also, I was very pleased with how our ladies handled differences in opinion about Scripture when it came up. The ladies discussed politely and allowed one another to share their thoughts, but they did not let it hurt our fellowship and friendship. We were able to get right back on track with the lesson”

“I loved the connection knowing we were all studying the same thing and the friendships that came out of our group. I have continued to be convicted and encouraged from the things we studied and learned from 1 John!”

“Now I will see so many familiar faces at church!”

We are gearing up for a study through Judges starting the evening of January 15th with a large group kickoff! Again, there will be various groups at various times throughout the metro area and at LH:Piperton. We want to make it as easy as possible for every lady to be involved! I am very excited to see what the Lord has in store for us and hope many more LH women will join us!

Debbie Mills

Bryan Paul Jett

Susan Land

Meisha Barnes

Memphis Family Connection Center

Adoption is a beautiful thing, so much so that our salvation is described this way:

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.  - Galatians 4:4-7 (NIV)

We are not just saved, we are adopted as sons; this makes us heirs of God’s blessings today, tomorrow, and for eternity. Out of gratefulness for such undeserved favor, we who follow Christ seek to live our lives the way He taught us and exemplified for us – we do what He does. This desire has led many of us to foster or adopt children. In an ideal world, no child would need to be fostered or adopted, but our world is fallen, far from ideal. Every adoption starts with a tragedy and some degree of trauma. But a family is forged out of that fallen place. Even on strictly human terms, adoption is a redemptive act. We who call Jesus our Lord should take adoption seriously, whether we bring children into our families or support those who do. In so doing, we will experience the beauty of adoption first hand, but we will also come to learn that adoption is complicated. Consider the following:

A married couple adopted a child at birth 6 years ago, and the child has begun to exhibit emotional and behavioral problems at home and at school.

A single mom, recently divorced, is having difficulty with her teenage son as he struggles with the loss of his family the way he has always known it. 

An older married couple has recently gained custody of their grandchild, and their daughter, the child’s mother, is trying to maintain a relationship with them and her child.

A young adult adoptee with a wife and baby is starting to process his relationship with his birthparents at a deeper level.

These are just a few examples of the many individuals and families who have received counseling and support at Memphis Family Connection Center, located on the Harding Academy Cordova campus. The center officially opened its doors over two years ago and continues to add services and staff. Living Hope supports the center financially, and this support has allowed me to join the MFCC staff full time as of September 1. In addition to counseling, MFCC also offers psychological evaluation services, speech therapy, and occupational therapy (for children with sensory motor problems).  Parenting classes and in-home parent mentoring are also available. The center seeks to apply cutting-edge research on attachment and trauma to all of its operations, including relationships between staff members. For more information visit, www.memphisfamilycc.org or call 901-614-1902.

Matt Smith is a psychologist, adoptive parent, and member of Living Hope.

The Butler Family

The Banker Family

Our foster story started almost two years ago. After we had our son, Benaiah, we felt the Lord put a desire of fostering to adopt on our hearts. We started the long process of learning how to be patient and content right where we were while the Lord worked in us and through us to prepare us to love those precious children of God. He wasn’t just shaping and molding our hearts, but our families and those close to us as well. We all needed the time to prepare to love them. It was difficult to lay our desires down and let the Lord lead because we wanted that precious baby or child right then. 

For a year we searched for the perfect organization for our family. We desired a Christian based organization that would provide us the support network that would rally around us and that also gave us the opportunity to love the parents of the children as well. We didn’t want to just focus on the kids because parents need to be built up and encouraged to be the best parents they can be. After the disappointments of not meeting the age requirements to the organization we found and the internal structure changes in another organization caused things to come to a halt. It took us being content where the Lord had us for the amazing door to open with our organization, Safe Families For Children. It moved SO FAST from there. We completed the application, background checks, fingerprinting, interview, and a home visit within two weeks and had our first baby 5 days after approval. 

Our precious Kyrie was 3 months when we started “hosting” him and our relationship with his mom and dad blossomed right along with our love for him. We struggled with understanding the “whys” behind things and with wanting to help with whatever resources we had that they did not. It took months with continuous learning to find our happy balance between loving them well and enabling unhealthy behaviors. It’s heart breaking, frustrating, emotionally taxing, but absolutely amazing and glorifying to God all in one. God worked on us, through us, and continues to do just that. We were not put in this place with this desire on our hearts to judge them or fix them. We are here to rally around them and love those kiddos with every inch of our beings showing God’s love, grace, and mercy. We do not want to be the quick fix; we want to be the permanent mark on a family we may never have met otherwise. We want to grieve with them and hope with them. 

We want to raise Benaiah and our future children with an understanding of what it means to live by faith regardless of the fears we encounter along the way. Francis Chan said it best, but to summarize: Our mission with the Lord doesn’t end or pause when you get married, have young kids, or after your kids grow older. It’s about going out into the harvest and being a worker. It’s about being vulnerable and allowing God to use you in unexpected ways to further His Kingdom. We want to be missionaries here in our city ready to be blown away by the Lord’s work with one “host” baby at a time.  

- Savannah Banker

The Edwards Family

The Murray Family

A superhero, or maybe it was Simba in The Lion King, once said, “I laugh in the face of danger.” To that, I say you have never met Child Protective Services. All joking aside, I do feel like God tells us “I laugh in the face of your plans.” One of the most important lessons among the multitude taught this year, were that our minute insignificant plans pale in comparison to God’s majestic ones. 

In May 2017, Ben and I became licensed resource parents. After years of battling the Lord, we begrudgingly caved to His call for us to foster a child. That’s about the time our world started spiraling out of our control. We entered foster care with our plan to foster only. The Lord laughed and within the first 30 seconds of meeting our son, changed our hearts to His plan for adoption.  Adoption is beautiful. It’s messy. It’s complicated. It’s a miracle.  It’s a clear depiction of the Lord’s love for us, his adopted children.

I fail to find adequate words to express how evident the Lord has been on this journey. Over the past summer, we faced a Goliath. CPS became like the terrified Israelites refusing to fight on our behalf.  We felt like we were abandoned and left paralyzed in fear-only we were never alone. The Lord faithfully moved mountain after mountain and defeated the giant on our son’s behalf. 

In the quiet hours of the night, as I rock my precious son to sleep, I am always reminded that in God’s perfect plan, she would be here loving him and raising him. Because of God’s redemptive plan though, I get to love him and raise him. What an undeserved honor. When our son was just a few weeks old, we hung a blanket over his crib with Isaiah 49:16 printed on it. Every night since, before I lay him down for the night, I whisper to him, “Rhodes, the Lord has you in the palm of His hand.”  Adoption is beautiful. It’s messy and yes, it’s complicated. But the Lord’s plan for it is perfect and good.  

We are anxiously anticipating December. After 16 months in foster care, our youngest will become our forever son!  

- Joanna Murray

Children & The Gospel

One of my greatest joys is talking to a child about the Gospel. It never gets old hearing a child, sometimes in the simplest of terms, express their recognition of their need of a Savior. Often, I get a glimpse of how God has gifted a child for His Kingdom’s advancement. I can’t help but get excited as I anticipate how God is going to continue to grow and mature this young believer on their journey with Him! 

As exciting as it is for me to talk with kids about Jesus I don’t want to rob parents of the chance to lead their child to Christ. In fact Scripture makes it clear that parents are to be the first and primary spiritual teacher/resource for their kids. I’ve never met a Christian parent who doesn’t want their child to come to Christ. However, I’ve found many who are hesitant to discuss the Gospel with their kids. Their reluctance lies in an understanding of the gravity of the decision. They want to “get it right.”

Parents, take the pressure off! Remember, sharing the Gospel with your child is not a one-time event/discussion, but a day in and day out, on-going conversation. It is pointing your kids to the truth of the Gospel in the everyday mundane as well as in the clearly Spiritual moments that present themselves in a family’s life. 

A few cautions; don’t expect your child to have a deep theological understanding. A child needs to understand:

• He/she is a sinner unable to do anything about their sin on their own. 

• God can’t be around sin. 

• Sin deserves to be punished. 

• God sent Jesus to take the punishment we deserve. 

• Jesus never sinned, lived a perfect life, and accepted our punishment. 

• We can trust Jesus to rescue us from our sin and be our Lord and Savior. 

I have a simple Gospel outline and resources you may borrow so that when your child asks about salvation you will be prepared. Parents, consider practicing sharing the Gospel with each other or with friends. Perhaps start with your own story. Pray and trust Jesus to give you the words. Finally, remember your child’s salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit and not a work of yours. 

- Anita Sisk, Children’s Pastor

Neighborhood Christian Center - Collierville

Living Hope is partnering with St. Patrick Presbyterian Church in Collierville to bring Neighborhood Christian Center (NCC) out to our area. As of August, Michelle Green is working daily in Collierville to help our community connect with and served the under-resourced people among us in the name of Christ. She agreed to answer a few questions for us. Be looking for opportunities to meet and serve with Michelle and NCC. 

Tell some of your story. How did you get to NCC and to this role in Collierville?

NCC was always a part of my life as a child. I was a part of all of the youth programs and even volunteered afterwards. After graduating from college, I realized that I wanted to be a part of something that made my hometown strive to be better. I started teaching for a while but realized that God had a different purpose for me - to work in my community through a non-profit ministry. I prayed about it and trusted that God would lead me in the right direction because I knew that this was His plan for my life. I applied for a Case Manager position with NCC and it was the beginning of a new world that I enjoy. I love what I did in that position but I also knew I wanted a larger responsibility. When the opportunity presented itself, I was chosen for Collierville as the Site Director because I am passionate about what I do and because it was what I had always wanted to do.

Tell some of your vision for NCC’s work in our area. 

Our vision is to provide assistance to neighbors in need in hopes to provide evangelism and Christ-centered services that foster stability and sustainability to the families we have the honor to serve, understanding that success looks different for each person or family we serve. Our goal is to meet individuals and families where they are, adapting existing program and service models and developing other services and programs that would best serve our neighbors in need. Our areas of service include: Compassionate Ministries, Adult & Families and Youth Empowerment to Succeed. 

How will churches, including Living Hope, be able to partner with you in your work? 

-Partner churches will share information about our resources with their neighbors. 

-Church members will be utilized as volunteers.

-Churches will host our Couples Programs to build strong marriages and family relationship. 

-Participate in Summer and afterschool initiatives. 

-Participate in the development of job fairs and empowerment programs. 

Other areas of participation will be developed as we learn more about the needs of our target communities. 

An Exciting Season for the Women of Living Hope

As I write this, we are halfway through a fantastic eight week study on the book of 1 John and we are in awe of what God is doing. This Fall, we have a record number of women--more than one hundred!--digging into God’s Word together from about ten different locations--homes in Collierville, Olive Branch, Germantown, East Memphis, Arlington, and at LH Piperton--at different days and times throughout the week.

This new study that we call “Deeper”, written by Jen Wilkin, launched a few weeks ago with a special night of celebration at Living Hope which included worship and teaching that was led by women and for women. Rhe Janse helped prepare our hearts to dive in to our study by sharing some of her own personal testimony as well as important background information on the book of 1 John and its author, the “beloved disciple” John. 

Rhe encouraged us by explaining that studying John’s letter would sharpen our theological understanding and challenge us to increase our love for and devotion to Jesus Christ while reminding us of the importance of being able to defend what we believe, discern false doctrine, and know truth. 

Rhe also discussed—especially through her testimony—that knowledge alone does not necessarily bring about change. It must be applied.

As the evening came to a close, Anita Sisk explained how “Deeper” is an important and very intentional step in a new direction for our women’s ministry that she had prayed about. She asked God specifically what He wanted for the women at LH and she believed that His answer was “to know Him more”. 

Anita formed a vision team and they decided on not only a name change (from “She” ministry to LH Women) but also a change in HOW we do Bible study. With Biblical literacy as their goal for our women, the vision team prayerfully decided that doing inductive study through books of the Bible would better equip us than topical studies done in previous years.

To conclude the evening, the Bible study leaders were introduced so we could pray for them and for their groups. It was truly a night of celebration! 

I’m so grateful for a church that recognizes, encourages, and communicates to its women the priority of knowing God more through the study and 

application of His Word. I’m already looking forward to our next celebration at the end of our study when we all come together again to share what God has done!  

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3

- Amy Hale

LH MEN: Making Disciples

As men, our culture tells us that we are called to be breadwinners. Our Creator calls us to something much more. He calls us to be disciple makers. But, as men we often struggle to create the kind of community and connectedness that makes this work seem natural and, ultimately, fruitful. We see it Sunday after Sunday at Living Hope where men attend and consume the Word, but miss opportunities to strengthen one another through meaningful relationships. 

The heartbeat of LH MEN, the new men’s ministry at Living Hope is to see men lead other men – to take up the call of our Savior to make disciples. The good news is that we have a strong foundation of men who are equipped to start this process. We have men at Living Hope who are being transformed by the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. The next step is to simply build opportunities for our men to connect and share with one another what God is doing or what they are hungry for God to do in their lives.

That’s the place where LH MEN plans to stand in the gap. Through a regular, monthly series of events, we want to foster community for men where none may currently exist. We want to provide a forum where men can hear from other men and be challenged and mentored to live out God’s purpose for us as husbands and fathers and friends. The focus through it all will be creating a cycle of personal discipleship – growing leaders to invest in younger believers who, ultimately, become leaders themselves.

Even now, the process is taking shape. Events are being planned. Leaders are being identified. Our desire is that this mission becomes a movement of men that does more than impact our church. We want to be used in Gospel Communities to serve as a foundation for drawing those outside our family to Him. 

To be successful, we will need men who are open to this challenge – who are vulnerable to God’s calling. Most importantly, we will need men who want to step out of isolation and into accountability. Growth flourishes in the light of healthy relationships.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. - 1 John 1:7

Living Hope, please pray that God will raise up men in our church who seek the light and seek to share the light with the world around them.

- Brad Young, Ministry Lead, LH MEN

Singing a New Song

Yo soy quien dices que soy, soy hijo de Dios, sí lo soy. (I am who you say I am, I’m a child of God, yes I am).

This last weekend, nine people from the worship teams of Living Hope Piperton and Vollintine-Evergreen traveled to Querétaro, Mexico to conduct a worship conference with our church plant partners there. Worship teams from the churches of Lumina, Conexión Vertical, and Esperanza Viva joined with our team to worship and learn from each other about how we can more faithfully serve our churches as we lead in worship. 

Over the last few years, a close partnership has developed with three different church planters and their churches in the area surrounding Querétaro. Living Hope has sent several mission teams to the area, and we have hosted them here in Memphis. On their last visit, as we discussed how Living Hope could further minister to their churches, they asked us to come and do some teaching in the area of worship. 

We spent the last few months building a team and preparing to lead a mini-conference for everyone involved in their worship ministry. Since their teams are usually the ones serving everyone else in the church, on Friday night, our team led them in a worship service, so that they could have a time to sit back and enjoy worshipping Jesus together. I was especially proud of all the hard work our team put into learning all the songs in Spanish so that we could minister to them in a way they could most clearly understand. On Saturday, we met with worship leaders, planners, musicians, audio engineers, and technicians to teach on both the theology and practice of leading others in worship. Each member of our team was able to share from their experience and engaged in teaching and Q&A with their team members. On Sunday, we split up and joined their worship teams and preached in their churches to serve their congregations as well. Pablo DiGilio, one of the planters, sent us this encouraging email this week: “Thank you again for all the effort and thought you put into the conference, our team is already talking about working on the vision, values and objectives, and we are going to spend some time on the worksheets you gave us. You guys have such an important part in everything we do here.” 

This trip was beneficial for our team as well. The time we had serving and growing together, in both the preparation and the execution of the trip will continue to reap benefits for our worship team (and our church) for years to come. We made friendships and built relationships that will be lifelong. 

I am so grateful to be a part of a church that realizes, as the redeemed children of God, we must take church planting seriously, and be willing to give time, money, and energy so that others can know our Father. Please continue to pray for Pablo, Alex, Juan, and their families and churches as they labor in Querétaro, and continue to seek God in how you might be involved in going, praying, or sending others out for the sake of the Gospel.

- David Lewis, Worship Pastor/Elder

The Dream that Will Inspire Us

Living Hope is sending out the Jackson’s (Greg, Brienne, Ada and Lyla) to plant a new church in East Memphis. If you want to hear more, visit eastmemphischurch.com and fill out a Connect form. Also, watch for dates for upcoming interest meetings. 

Below, Greg shares a little about the mission and vision for this new church.  

Our family has lived in East Memphis for 6 years, and in our current house off Walnut Grove, near Richland Elementary, for 4 years. Feeling compelled to live in a particular neighborhood, near Brienne’s work and walking distance to the school where our girls will attend, God blessed us with a home. Over the subsequent years, we have developed a love for our neighbors and our community. We love Living Hope dearly, but the longing to worship in our part of the city has grown each year, along with the dream of seeing a certain type of church in our area. The mission, or the engine that will drive us as a new church, is this: we exist to seek out new friends where we live and work, welcoming them into our lives and into God’s family through Christ.  The vision, or the dream that will inspire us, is this: we believe that God is preparing people in our neighborhoods to trust Christ and enter His family. Increasingly, many in Memphis have never experienced life inside of the church, or at least not since they were children or teens. And when you ask those who are not a part of the church what goes on inside the church, the answers are often the same – hypocrisy, judgment, rules-focused, harsh, etc. We envision a growing number of churches that change people’s perspective of what Christians are like and what life inside the church is like. We will be a community that loves, encourages, serves one another, bears each other’s burdens; rejoices and mourns with each other. We will see our homes in a new way – no longer only as a refuge for me, but also a refuge for others. The light of Christ is glowing within our homes as our families and Gospel Communities share life.  The Spirit is at work in living rooms. The Good News is celebrated and applied to each other’s lives around the kitchen table.  Christ is present on the back porch.  There is a refuge from the rushing waters that many around us are struggling through, in danger of being swept away.  But how will people know this unless they are invited in? How can we change people’s perspective of what Christians are like and what life inside the church is like? We dream of a church in East Memphis where new people are encountering our community every month; where gatherings and open conversations with believers and non-believers are commonplace; where new Christ followers are joining God’s family. This new church will emphasize practicing Biblical hospitality, driven by God’s grace toward us. In the Old Testament, hospitality is defined as “welcoming the stranger”. The strategy is to open our circles, inviting “outsiders” (Colossians 4:5-6) into our homes, our world, and our hearts; serving, eating and partying with no strings attached – welcoming people because of love and with joy. And speaking often about the most important, life-giving things in our lives, including what Christ has done for us and in us. As God’s family, we will urge each other to be who Jesus says we are - the light of the world…a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14).