After nearly 75 days on my new job as the Lead Pastor of Prayer and Teaching Ministries at Hope Church in Las Vegas, here are 12 significant observations of the church/church culture that I am so grateful for!

Staff is HUMBLE not pretentious.
Attitude is HUNGRY not complacent.
Mission is LOCAL and GLOBAL not confined.
Congregation is ETHNICALLY DIVERSE not homogenous.
Preaching is AUTHORITATIVE not apologetic.
Singing is GODWARD not man-centered.
Feel is INVITING not impersonal.
Decision-making is SPIRIT-LED not hurried.
Posture before God is DEPENDENT not demanding.
Resources are STEWARDED not mishandled.
Values are LIVED OUT not aspirational.
Vibe is ALIVE not dead!

I am so thankful for Senior Pastor Vance Pitman, his family, and the leadership teams/staffs that have labored alongside of him for the last 20 years to build such a life-giving community of faith. What God has done in and through Hope Church over the course of this church’s history is a modern-day miracle that I can’t believe I get to join in on!

The church, by no means, is perfect, but it is a perfectly imperfect church that I am grateful to now call my faith family!

Heavenly Father, for myself and anyone else who calls Hope Church home, may we forever be OVERWHELMED WITH GRATITUDE for what we get to be a part of. May we never grow overly familiar with your presence and activity amongst us to the point where we take for granted what we get to experience together as a community of faith. Help us to remember, always, that our time/involvement at Hope Church is a gift to be stewarded not an entitlement to be consumed. I pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.