Dear South Family,
I hope you will have a wonderful holiday season celebrating with your family and friends. It’s hard to believe another year is coming to a close. As I reflect on the past twelve months, I’m exceedingly grateful to the Lord for his grace, presence, and provision in our lives. At South Fellowship we continue to get rooted in our mission of making disciples through gospel transformation, life-giving community, and visible faith and we are seeing Jesus work in and through the people of South. All praise to his great name! The partnership we share in the gospel continues to breath life into my soul. I’ve never been more excited or blessed to be your pastor.
The Lord continues to grow the Body of South in a myriad of different ways. We’ve seen over 30% growth in attendance at our Sunday morning worship services over last year. So far this year 24 people have taken the step of faith to follow Jesus into baptism, a number of different new ministries were launched (Celebrate Recovery and Financial Peace University just to name two), people were deployed into short-term mission trips, and children, student, and young adult ministries have continued to flourish. God is on the move!
One of the things that I love about being a pastor at South is this Body of believers understands God’s blessing is not to be stockpiled, but shared! We are blessed to be a blessing. So, once again, this past year South Fellowship gave over $100,000 to local and global missions and we had over 30 outside groups use our facility at no cost to them. In addition, we continue to run Solid Grounds Coffee Shop, the Early Learning Center, and the Food Bank as outreaches into our local community. We truly are a church that is making a difference for the name of Jesus in our back yard and around the globe.
While we have made a lot of progress and are seeing God do great things, we know that the work is just beginning. I’m more convinced than ever that the best is yet to come! Over the next year we plan on making a number of improvements to our aging facility, expanding our multi-media and internet capabilities to share the gospel and extending our mission field influence. Your partnership matters! South Fellowship would not be a church that is impacting our neighborhood and the world if it weren’t for your investment of your time, talents, and treasure. Thank you!
As you reflect on where you want to invest your money at the end of this year, we would be honored if you’d consider supporting the ministries of South Fellowship with a special year-end gift. We have enclosed a response card for your convenience. If you would like to give online, please visit www.southfellowship.org and follow the link on the home page.
Your generosity has astounded me from my first day at South. Thank you for the partnership we share in the gospel of our King, Jesus!
Grace + Peace,
Ryan Paulson, Lead Pastor
