Jeremy McGarity
·
October 14, 2007

Preview #1



We've got preview service #1 under our belt! What a great feeling to see the people show up on October 7. 261 people made their way to Seven San Diego Church and we were thrilled to have them. All in all the service went extremely well. We certainly have things to improve on and things we missed but nothing glaring...just stuff someone as nit picky as me picked up. I am so proud of our team. Man, what a great group to serve with. Seriously, we had people ready to go at 6:30am and everthing was ready and set by 9:30am easily. We had time to grab donuts and coffee and welcome our guests at 10:00am.

So, with #1 behind us we've got a lot of work to get to Preview #2 on November 4. We will have our Kids Matter Safety Fair on October 27th. The CHP told us to expect 8,000 people.....Waaaaahhhhtttt??? Yep, our CHP rep said it could easily have to be closed down because of traffic issues within the first 30 minutes or so. They've done these before in other areas of town and seen an incredible response. We're excited...We're going to do this in the Wal-Mart // Home Depot parking lot about a mile from our church. Wal-Mart has been very supportive, they will be giving out flyers for the event with our name on them for the two weeks leading up to this event. The CHP, Fire Dept. and many other agencies are advertising this on radio, tv, flyers and our name is on all of it! We're glad to be making these inroads into the community and as we do we see the importance of being "relevant" to the community by serving the community we're in. It's real work, no question, but it's great work and we're thrilled to be doing it. There's more to do and the more we do the more we see we can do and need to do. We are just beginning. We had some great stories of people who came to our preview on October 7 because of the car wash, the doggie treat give away, and other servant evangelism projects we did.

We are also doing a block party on October 31st. We're renting out Santa Venetia park (down the street from our church) and having music, Trunk R' Treat, giveaways like glow sticks, flash lights, fun stuff for the kids, etc. The park is right in the center of a bunch of houses and of course there will be tons of activity on Halloween so we're looking forward to continuing to introduce ourselves to the community in this way.

Today, we took some of our team to a church plant in Corona called "Vantage Point." They are on essentially the same schedule as us doing previews leading up to their launch on February 10, 2008. It was good to be with them and see what they're doing and some stuff that worked and some stuff that hasn't worked for them. It's interesting, they are in a new area called "Eastvale" in Corona. Driving up to their location at an middle school I saw several signs for new churches! This is obviously a booming area but wow!~ On Cleveland Street they have a brand new...huge...elementary school, then on the same side of the street they have a brand new huge! Middle School, then BOOM! right next to it on the same side of the street is a HUGE!!! High School. There were two churches in the High School, Two churches in the elementary school (including Greg Laurie's Harvest video venue) and One church at the middle school (Vantage Point). That's FIVE churches on the same street!!!! all brand new AND I spoke with the pastor at Vantage Point and he said they are waiting for Saddleback to plant a church there too because they said they are coming soon. It's encouraging to see the Church stretching and trying to reach more people.

Office Space: Our office offer did not go through after all. However, tomorrow I am going with our broker to look at six different offices that fit our needs. We are looking forward to having a ministry center and a consistent place to hold our seminars, classes, and midweek meetings. At this point it looks like we'll have our choice as there are lots of offices on the market right now. However, I think that will change soon as the brand new 125 freeway is supposed to open in about a month and that's going to open up a whole new region with access from all over the county. Businesses are getting ready for the influx of people. Otay Ranch Town Center has just opened more stores (The Freeway runs right by it) and the freeway runs right by our church...it's great, just great. For my family coming from the East County the 125 is a huge blessing, cutting off 20-25 minutes of drive time.

I'm rambling now, thanks for reading, thanks for praying, thanks for giving.
2 comments

2 thoughts on “Preview #1”

  1. Hey, once that 125 opens, if you guys are able to see how long of a drive it is from Chulajuana to the Literacy First School. I am curious to see if it CAN be a quicker drive. Thanks for keeping us(the Lovett family) and us (the community) updated on everything. I appreciate being able to read your blog. Have a great week!

  2. Hi Candice, It looks like it’ll be a 20 minute drive to literacy first. Looking forward to having your family down here.

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