Believers Church Making Jesus #1, one person at a t ime!

Letter from Pastor Jamey 4

We’re All About the Numbers 5

Impacting Believers 6

Impacting Believers Kids 8

Impacting 4REAL 10

Impacting Our Community 12

Impacting Our World 13

Impacting Our Future 14

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

From Pastor Jamey Every week at Believers, God shows up and does something miraculous! Sometimes that something is a child understanding that Jesus loves them and their faith becomes their very own that day. There are other days that the miracle is a couple who is able to sit and worship together for the first time in years because they found a church (Believers!) that loves their special needs child and has a place to serve them! Then there are the miracles of changed lives, and hurts that are healed. God is doing GREAT things at Believers every single week! What you are looking at now will give you a chance to understand, in just a moment or two, WHAT God is doing at Believers. As you read, be sure to praise God for all that He is doing here. Things as big as these must be acknowledged and collectively we need to give God praise for all that He has done! Also, take a moment and reflect on the part that YOU are playing in this story. Can you believe that God is using your serving, your inviting, your giving in such incredible ways? As good as this last year has been, God is not done with us. Let’s do all that we can to continue to make Jesus #1, one person at a time in our church, community, and around the world. As we do, I am convinced that God will continue to bless us in ways that we cannot even imagine (Ephesians 3:20)! Blessings, Pastor Jamey

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We’re All About the Numbers!

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FIRST TIME GUESTS We have seen 2,103 VIPs walk through our doors for the first time! That’s an average of 25 adults, 7 students, and 18 kids...EVERY WEEK!

SECOND TIME GUESTS 533 adults came back for a second time!

GIVE-A-WAYS 700 people stopped by the big blue tent for a guest packet and 400 have received a Believers Bible!

WE ARE GROWING One of Believers’ core values is growing ~

we want people to grow in their relationship with Jesus through their

involvement at Believers. This year, 26,484 next step blocks

were checked on the back of Communication Cards!

Check Out THESE Numbers: 259 Salvations

115 Baptisms 121 New Members

Next Steps

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? OUR AVERAGE SUNDAY ATTENDANCE HAS

INCREASED BY NEARLY 20% THIS YEAR!

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I M PA C T I N G A YEAR IN REVIEW: Together, we have: grown in our understanding of The Greatness Principle; defined what healthy, Biblical relationships look like; had a challenging and fun look at some of our favorite Christmas movies; discovered ways to transform our physical and spiritual bodies; dealt with the ugliness that can lurk under our masks; found the truth of God’s unconditional love for us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus; realized that we don’t need to be walking zombies, we can live a life to the full; identified ways to follow Him more closely; and uncovered our inner super heroes by living by the Spirit’s power! Now, that’s a pretty great year!

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B E L I E V E R S DID YOU KNOW? BeGroup Participation has been BIGGER & BETTER than EVER!

With 36 NEW BeGroup leaders, we were able to see: 525 of you participate in a Fall 2013 BeGroup 550 participated in the Spring 2014 Session

We’ve had a 15% increase in our Tech Arts Volunteer Teams! The dedication of these team members has allowed some pretty amazing things to happen, all over the world:

There have been 10,300 views of our services online 5,300 via our website, most notably from places like: Saudi Arabia, Italy, Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands 5,000 via our church app

We’ve produced 69 in-house video projects 10 of those have been testimonies shared of real, life-change

Worship Arts Team is E X PAN D I N G ! This team has accomplished so much this year:

Lead 4 services every Sunday 10 new artists joined the team Team members are rising to leadership positions Vocal tutorials and song writing continues to develop

Through a BeGroup study they’ve done together: Unity has been strengthened Spiritual growth has increased 7

IMPACTING BE

God has done some amazing things in Believers Kids this year, enough for all of us to want to jump up and celebrate! In the fall, we launched our BK Champions Club, with the purpose of reaching families that have kids with special needs from ADD/ADHD to Autism and Down Syndrome. Because very few churches have ministries like this, we are reaching a demographic in our community that often feels forgotten! Every week, these families get to hear about Jesus on their level. Since September, our volunteer numbers for BKCC, allowing us to share Jesus with an average of 20 kids per week! With growth comes challenges. This year, we have tackled our growth giant in two ways. First, we moved our previously known Adventureland (now called The Spot) to what was our 1st grade room, which increased our space significantly! Second, in the spring we made a decision to begin implementing a teacher to student ratio system which helped us accomplish growth in three of our core values:

Safety - equipped to safely handle any emergency situation

Creative Bible Teaching - smaller groups of kids allows more creativity in sharing the gospel.

Relationships - more one on one opportunities between team members and kids.

As a result of this implementation, many families have been impacted. Our teams have had the opportunity to walk children and families through hard life situations like bullying, divorce, abuse and deployment. They’ve also been able to attend kids' special moments including sporting events and birthday parties. Relationships have been built with families of newborns and we’ve been able to ensure an easy transition for their baby into BK. Speaking of babies...This year our nursery department has added what we call

ELIEVERS KIDS

My Day in Believers Kids cards. This has made a huge impact on first time guests and new parents. Before service begins, parents fill out all the information on their child such as: feeding, diapering, naps, etc. During the service, BK team members fill out the other side of the card reporting the child's actual experience. They even send a text to parents with the status of how their baby is doing. Between the card and the text, parents have been able to relax and enjoy the service. Partnering with parents in this way has brought more families to Believers! One of the biggest wins for us, was implementing the Gospel Project Curriculum. It has had a tremendous spiritual impact not only on our kids, but our teams as well. Through a chronological adventure in the Old Testament, we’ve watched God's Amazing Rescue Plan

revealed from it's foundation. With a clear, weekly Christ connection, we’ve seen kids make Jesus #1 and be baptized in greater numbers this year than ever before! We have even celebrated with team members getting baptized and experiencing heart change through the week to week study of God's word. We have been called by God to not only share the gospel with kids but to disciple others to do the same. Over the past 12 months we have watched our BK Youth transition from being helpers in small groups to leading their own. Some of them lead our kids in worship on our new worship team called The Crew. Many have expressed interest in pursuing Children's and Youth Ministry as a profession. We have watched these students grow from being a Believers Kid to being a leader in BK. This is discipleship in action, and the next generation of BK leaders! What God has accomplished in BK is no credit to any one of us, but simply the willingness of a team to say "yes" to the call and be obedient to His direction.

““...we have

seen kids make

Jesus #1 and

be baptized in

greater

numbers this

year than ever

before!”

IMPACTING 4R

NEW NIGHT EXCITEMENT: With 4real moving to Wednesday nights we have seen a huge boost to our weekly attendance. The awesome thing is we are reaching students who don’t attend church. They aren’t youth group hopping and they aren’t there just so their parents can attend a church service. These students are growing up in a culture that is unchurched and have little to no knowledge of God and the Bible. Wednesday have truly become an outreach night with 117 first time guests since our move (in APRIL) and many of these students are hearing about Jesus for the 1st time! One huge reason we are reaching out to so many students each week are because of boldness of the 4real students who attend regularly. They are actively reaching out to their friends at school and neighborhoods to tell them how awesome God is. I love reading parent’s responses to how their students are on fire for God and are willing to invite their friends to church. 4real has excitement and it’s because students are realizing how incredible God is and they are willing to share it!

LIVES ARE CHANGING! Weekly, students are making decisions to make Jesus #1 in their lives. Many of thgeneration is hungry for truth and so many of them are seeking purpose in their lives. and learn what true worship is all about! Here are just a few of the many stories of life

Kyle Pinto: He encountered a very difficult loss about a year ago. Looking for answenow interning during the summer and is looking into Student Ministry as a career choic

Josh Wynn: After going on multiple missions trips to Nicaragua, he reand his purpose is to be an example of Jesus by serving others. This around him with encouragement and prayer!

Gabriel Alvarado: After camp last summer he realized that he wanteand has been a motivator for his family and their commitment to foothers to follow God!

EAL STUDENTS

THE GAUNTLET: Last year we rebranded our Youth Quest weekend as The Gauntlet. The idea was that life is tough and it is going to be a fight but God is right there with us through it all. Many students realized how they can rely on God in new ways. That weekend, a group of girls who used to be close friends were there. Some big mistakes were made by a few of them and it really hurt the group as a whole. They were splintered and some of them almost skipped The Gauntlet due to the conflict going on. After the 2nd night, God started speaking to them and showed them that they needed to forgive. Not only did they forgive each other but they were made stronger than ever. They are now following God together and helping each other through difficult areas in life. This year, The Gauntlet, is going to be even more powerful and we are expecting God to do some awesome things in the lives of the junior high and high school students.

hese students have never been to church and the idea of worship is foreign. Their 4real is a great place for them to build lasting friendships, keep growing in their faith,

e-change we’ve seen at 4real this year:

rs, a friend invited him to 4real and God really spoke to him. He trusted in Jesus and is ce.

ally felt the call to an extended stay over the summer. His trip is about 2 months long was a huge step of faith on his part and it was really exciting to see Believers rally

ed to make Jesus #1 in his life. He was baptized as soon as we got back from camp ollow God as well. It’s incredible to see someone so young inspiring his family and

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IMPACTING OUR COMMUNITY We have lived out our mission of making Jesus #1,

one person at a time! Since September, Believers has:

Made over 20,000 touches through SE Projects

Prepared and served lunch at Oasis Social Ministry 6 times

Donated 2 tons of food and clothing to Oasis

Raised $3,475 through the Giving Tree Donated 65 holiday food baskets Given $12,000 to the HER Shelter for monthly

food expenses and provided a monthly meal and worship service for the residence

Raised $2,508 for the Crisis Pregnancy Center at this year’s Walk for Life PLUS, through your consistent giving, we’ve given a total of benevolence care to the tune of $14,973.85 to 24 families! Also, we’ve added 2 new coaches to our Financial Coaching Team. Those 14 folks have equipped and resourced more than 40 families, helping them become financially

successful!

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IMPACTING OUR WORLD In partnership with our missionaries around the world, the message of Jesus is being made known! Here are some of their many highlights: The Reimers in Sau Paulo, Brazil

Through youth and family camps thousands have come to faith in Christ! Preparations are being made to open the 8th Word of Life campus in Minas Gerais!

The Stauffers in Lyon, France

The church plant that began last year is off to a great start! Plans are in the works to start 2 more church plants!

The Bowies in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua

100% of eligible students graduated from high school (in a country where only 50% reach the 6th grade)! In 2011, malnourishment rates were 26%, today they are 12%!

The Renaults in Nepal

We were blessed to have them visit Believers this spring. Church plants continue to grow even while the family has been in The States and Canada on furlough!

It is our great privilege as a church to partner with each of these families and their ministries!

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IMPACTING OUR FUTURE NOTJUSTABUILDING In November 2013, we celebrated the half-way mark of the Not Just a Building Project! Currently, we are awaiting the closing on our land in Harbour View! To date, $1,101,654.13 has come in toward our 1.7 million dollar goal. There are just a few months left in the NJAB Project, so continue taking those steps of faith to follow through on your commitments. We’re excited to watch the next phase of the project to begin, momentum build and our bigger and better space become a reality!

Community Church Builder (CCB) Since launching our new database, CCB, we’ve been able to follow-up with guests more effectively, help people get plugged into ministry more efficiently, and made giving easy! We’ve seen our automated giving participation increase to 20% this year; and nearly 40% of our weekly giving is done through an online donation. Thank you for your generosity ~ YOU have helped make all of this (and MORE) possible!