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Usually around late December each year, we encounter those op-ed pieces focusing on the year gone by. Sometimes, they write about the biggest hits or most popular pieces within a sector. Other times, they talk about the biggest headlines to hit a given area of interest. And still other times, they show a series of pictures chronicling the most influential highlights of the year gone by.

So I want to do our own year in review. I know, I know, we're on the opposite end of the calendar as December. But the end of June signals the end of a ministry year to me because the summer feels like a break with school being out and vacations increasing exponentially among us. So this is the time to do the year in review for the biggest headlines and biggest splashes of this past year!

One of the biggest highlights was our incorporation in May. Beyond all the legal recognitions, this marks a momentous occasion in the history of GracePoint as we clearly defined who we are (and more importantly, who we aren't) and established our independence. In the midst of all of the incorporation, my lingering memory of it all was how we did it together! We processed so much information and so many tedious details that there was every occasion for a fight, dispute or division to arise because these are easy things to fight about. But we didn't divide over them nor did we put down others and their ideas. In fact, since I met with all the Life Communities, ate lunch with those who couldn't make those fireside chats, and processed within a Town Hall meeting in April, I experienced a steely unity arise among us where we rallied around our incorporation, celebrated our transition, and looked forward to a new chapter together!

The second highlight was the lifeblood of GracePoint, our network of Life Communities. As a pure guestimation, well over 80% of the people who attend GracePoint have carved out a smaller community to meet with during the week. That means the vast majority of people at GracePoint meet as smaller bands of community to learn from God, encourage one another in their faith in Christ, grow into more passionate and mature followers of Christ, and refresh hope in Christ so that each band of community can reach people all around them with the gospel. Each community has their own flavor and each group has journeyed with each other through crisis, celebration, and everything in between.

The third highlight is our impact to the farthest reaches of the earth in Moldova and Uganda. I am blown away that we can have such a profound impact in these far off regions of the world, even though we are new and small. I can't believe we've adopted a children's home in Tocuz, Moldova that even has Outreach Magazine (visit www.outreachmagazine.com to get a taste for what they do) doing a profile article on what we've done in October (I think). I can't believe we've rescued a program in Northern Uganda to help emotionally and spiritually heal adolescents who were kidnapped for slavery and soldiering. I can't believe we sent one team to Moldova and Bob Givens to Uganda (our first missionary teams sent to the far reaches of the earth).

I could go on and on about the highlights from the music on Sunday mornings to the message series we've had this past year, from KidsTown that is crammed with so many pre-K children to the café serving to bolster community, from our emerging and strengthening spirit of prayer to the newly formed elder board. So what a year it has been!

And just think...if God can do such things through us this past year, just imagine what next year might hold! Imagine how God just might have orchestrated our unity and community to unleash us for the gospel so that so that the impact and influence we've had in Moldova and Uganda are brought close to our area with our neighbors, our friends, and our coworkers being influenced by Christ in us! God has already given us a taste of it this past year, so I look forward to a greater feast of it next year with you!

Grateful for our partnership this past year,

Steve's Signature