Dear Church Family,

Our children and teens are the church of both today and tomorrow, and I am so thankful for the many opportunities God has given us to reach the next generation. Here are five of those opportunities that are happening right now:

Embrace Grace is adding Embrace Life group to support new single moms, our Preschool is wrapping up registration this week, we are offering a free Love Languages of Children class, we have a weekend retreat planned for our teens, and we are hosting a Suicide Prevention Seminar. You can find all the details below.

It was so great to have the children in worship for our Family 5th Sunday! The Kids Worship Team led us in song and the children brought their offerings. You can find out more below about how our kids are helping others around the world.

In worship, we talked about easy it is to make idols out of things that bring us pleasure. We also discussed how idolatry is generational and how important it is to dethrone the things that have taken our focus off God. You can watch the services here. We have another Break Free Class coming up on February 26, you can register here.

This week we will be talking about the idol of love. The problem is not with loving others too much, it is with not loving God enough. By loving God more, we will love our family in more fruitful ways. The Bible Reading Plan is here.

See you Sunday,

Pastor Jon

Please take time this week to look at the final drafts of documents to be voted on at the Annual Church Business Meeting this Sunday, February 5 after the 11 am services. We will have a light lunch in the Atrium (you can also take food into the Worship Center) and then move into the Sanctuary for the meeting. We will adopt our new bylaws and elect leaders from within our church to serve on the Church Council and other supporting committees.

Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting, but only members can vote. Proxy votes are not possible because the bylaws could be amended during the discussion at this meeting. We don't currently have a way to vote securely while attending the meeting online, so members must be present to vote.

Since we released the initial drafts of these documents last year, we've made some adjustments based on your feedback and the Council's ongoing work to refine the documents. The final drafts of these documents can all be found here.

Children's Ministry Offering

Children gave their offering in our Worship Services on Family 5th Sunday. The kids donate offering each Sunday. Here is where their offering goes every month.



Our TreeHouse (3-year-olds - Kindergarten) offering goes to our IHN/Found House Ministry right here in Cincinnati

Our Kids Rock (1st - 4th grades) offering goes to multiple missions now! 

• 1st Sunday offering supports our missionary friend Sarah Putman and the community in Comsesti, Romania
• 2nd Sunday offering supports our missionary friend Brittany Boles and the community in Côte d'ivory, Africa
• 3rd Sunday offering supports our missionary friend Ashley Brodbeck who is currently in South Africa but has traveled all around the world and will be in Antigua, Guatemala in March! 

Our 4th Sunday offering spot is open as we seek God for another place in the world to partner with. Until then, that Sunday is divided evenly among the current other three groups. 

Our Cafe (5th & 6th grades) offering goes to our Back to Back missionary friends in Mexico!