Issue No.

28, December 2011

Praise and Glory to God:

God continues to provide faithfully for Renewal in every way. God has consistently provided opportunities for missional engagement in our city. God continues to grow our students and our College and Student Ministries. God continues to bring new families and individuals to Renewal weekly. God has graciously provided a new, much-needed office space for Renewal.

Renewal Church Prayer Needs:

Continue to pray for our elders, that He would guard and protect them as they shepherd well. Pray for our community and city during the holidays, that Gods name would be glorified and made known throughout. Pray that our people would continue to seek the Lord and be obedient to follow Him. Pray that the Holy Spirit would work in the lives of students during the upcoming Meltdown Student Conferences. Pray for upcoming missions opportunities, both locally and abroad, as we seek to multiply disciples for His glory.

Renewed Love for God

Our confidence in Jesus also motivates our desire and ability to fight for holiness as we discovered the following week in Bound to Fight (1 John 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of 5:1-5). A Christian can easily become God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and discouraged as we see the life of holiness were acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the called to in 1 John and realize that our lives do renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what not measure up. However, in these verses we is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. found hope as we examined the realities of (Romans 12:1-2) Christs past victory on the cross, His future victory in His triumphant return, and our confidence that we can experience victory in our fight against sin in the present.

Kingdom Life is a predominately African-American church that has been meeting for the last eight years and graciously agreed to sponsor Renewal in the South Carolina Baptist Convention. We greatly enjoyed our joint services and were blessed by the sermon, music, and fellowship with other believers who love the Lord and are seeking to reach Greenville and the nations with the gospel. If you would like to learn more about Kingdom Life, you can visit their website at www.kingdomlifecc.com.

If you would like to listen to any of the Bound series you can go to www.renewalchurch.cc and Our last sermon in the series, Bound to Believe, click on Sermons or download our podcasts on reminded us that believing on Jesus is not a one- iTunes. time event in the life of a believer. Instead, as John says, we are being saved by believing and, like Abraham, that belief is credited to us as righteousness. On the final Sunday of November we were blessed to join services with Kingdom Life Christian Center, our sponsoring church in Mauldin, SC.

We concluded our Bound series this month with 3 sermons expounding on the last verses of 1 John. In Bound to Confidence, our congregation was encouraged to place no confidence in ourselves, but to place all of our confidence in Jesus redemptive work on our behalf, which propels our obedience and gives us assurance in our relationship with Him. For those who believe, our justification establishes our confidence of salvation while our works validate that assurance. This rightly founded confidence works in us to promote lives characterized by peace, trust, joy, and faith.

Throughout December and January we will focus on family relationships in a series called, Home for the Holidays. Wed love for you to join us on this journey through the Psalms as we examine Gods heart for the family during this Holiday season.

www.renewalchurch.cc

Renewed in Relationships

Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. (Acts 2:46)

2nd Annual Turkey Bowl

Grassroots Mission Day

In early November, Renewal church scattered throughout our city for a Grassroots Mission Day. Our small groups chose sites to serve our city in various ways that best fit the nature of the group. We spent the day serving Little Steps, an organization that helps teen moms by teaching classes on budgeting, baby care, GED preparation and much more so that they can earn the life skills they will need to raise their children. Another group worked at the Boys Home of the South, painting and completing various needed projects.

As we look ahead to January we are excited about a new concept weve introduced for Study/Serve. Were calling it Whats Trending Now, and our aim is to answer the What does the Bible say about? questions that are on our peoples minds. Questions can be submitted on our website, Facebook and Twitter pages, or via email at trending@renewalchurch.cc. We believe this will be tremendously profitable as we seek Gods Word in response to these questions.

During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we held our 2nd Annual Turkey Bowl. We had a great time playing flag football together, and the kids had a blast playing in the bounce house. We consistently find that our fellowship together gets better each time that we have opportunity for our church body to gather outside of the corporate worship service. Though everyone was very sore the next day, we had a wonderful time together.

Elder Retreat and the South Carolina State Convention

This month Matt, Toby and Hugh had an opportunity to get away for a two-day "pray and play" retreat in Asheville. One of Renewal's members set the guys up in a beautiful rustic cabin which granted them valuable time to review the past six months and make plans for going forward. It was an especially sweet time as the guys were able to both encourage and challenge one another to excel in leading the church. They also really enjoyed some down time to be able to play golf together. The elders also got to the spend some time in Columbia this month at the state convention. Everyone is encouraged and excited by what is happening in the state in terms of church planting. The messengers of the state Baptist churches overwhelmingly voted to reallocate our funding system in order to get more money to church plants here and the foreign mission field. The guys were also granted time to care for some brothers that are discouraged in planting.

*Renewals NEW ADDRESS*

As weve moved to our new office space we now have a new address. Our mailing address is now:

4 Davis Keats Drive, Greenville, SC 29607

A third group took on several landscaping and cleaning projects at Mitchell Road Elementary School, while another of our groups spent the morning with a family in Simpsonville. This group was able to spend time praying, sharing the gospel, and providing for some of the familys physical needs such as groceries and clothing.

How You Can Give to Support What God's Doing at Renewal

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. (Acts 2:45)

Thank you again for your commitment to give to Renewal Church! Your faithfulness has been a blessing to our church and our efforts in the city. See the following information on how to give: By check Place a check in the pre-labeled envelope along with a stamp, and mail to Renewal Church 4 Davis Keats Drive, Greenville, SC 29607 Online Go to www.renewalchurch.cc and click on Online Giving at the bottom of the home page. Click Register to give a one time gift. Automatic Draft Go to www.renewalchurch.cc and click on Online Giving at the bottom of the home page. Click Register to complete your automatic draft. A few reminders: All gifts are tax deductible Please make us aware of any address changes or changes to your giving so we can make the necessary adjustments. Send an email to church@renewalchurch.cc to update your information!

Renewed Through Study

The turnout for our first Grassroots Mission Day was encouraging and the various projects allowed us to make an impact on our city. We are currently planning our next community service day for early in the new year, and we look forward to seeing how God will use these and other efforts for His glory in the weeks and months ahead. We continue to be excited about what God is doing in and through our Study/Serve classes that meet each week prior to our Sunday gathering, as well as our One2One discipleship meetings that are going on throughout the week. Weve continued this month in our study on "Missions and the Glory of God."

www.renewalchurch.cc