Family Meeting at CMU Chapel

Last Sunday we returned to the CMU campus for worship and our first family meeting of the year. We met for the first time, but not the last, in the Wright-Rogal Chapel in CMU's University Center. It was such an appropriate venue that many of us wondered why we hadn't met there before.

Another first, and hopefully not the last, was the accompaniment of Lauren Williams on flute during worship.

After worship, to start off our Family Meeting Eric Randall shared a vision statement the elders had been working on for sometime. There was surprisingly little discussion on the statement. Click here to view or print it. There was much more discussion regarding a proposal for New Hope to partner with the Orchard Group to plant a new Christian "full service" church in the Oakland area. Two of the chief concerns the congregation expressed were that we would maintain our identity and that the elders would prayerfully seek the leading of the Holy Spirit before making any decision. Toney Salva, a pastor from Discovery Christian Church, had spoken with the elders the previous week regarding this idea which the elders are at this time continuing to pray about. Note that Toney and some others from Discovery will be joining us at our February 12 service.

Click here to view the photos from our meeting and worship.

Meeting from House to House

Without a building and with the student centers closed for the holidays, our worship services have been more family-like than usual this Christmas season. The past four weeks we have been meeting in a few different homes of various NewHopers. It has been both a blessing and a reminder of how the early church in Acts often met. To view some photos of the gatherings at JoAnn and JoAlice's home the last couple of weeks, click on the links below.

• Jan 2 Photos
• Jan 8 Photos

Special thanks to Eric & Sue, Greg & Melanie and JoAnn & JoAlice for being gracious hosts to all of us during this time.