Easter Highlights

Celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior for the first time as a new church was special to say the least. Over the past few weeks, God has been doing some remarkable things that led us to believe that even greater things were in store during Easter. Here are some highlights:

-On Saturday, we held our first annual Easter Egg Drop. We realize that there are very few churches in our community that do outreach events at Easter for children in the community, so we dropped thousands of prize filled eggs out of a hot air balloon onto the football field of Berea High School. We had a goal of having 500 people show up, and God multiply that by having over 1,000 people in attendance! Check out the video.
-We gave away over 600 drinks, 20 pizzas, 500 bags of chips, and 450 packs of Chicfila nuggets.
- We had 62 volunteers from OTHER churches come to help serve our community. A HUGE thank you to our partners at Renewal Church, Tapestry Church, Revolution Church, and Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church. It is awesome to see churches work TOGETHER as ONE BODY instead of competing against each other! When we become Kingdom-minded, we see Kingdom differences!
-We had 7 new families attend service at Radiant as a result of the Egg Drop.
- Easter Sunday was our highest attendance in the adult service with a total of 232. While that is a great number for a church that is only 7 months old, that still means that thousands of people in the 29617 zip code were not there. Keep inviting!
- We broke through our 60 barrier and finally had over 70 in Radiant Kids!
- More LIFE CHANGE took place! It is always good to see the prodigal son come home!
- We had baptism to celebrate the transformation of 4 more people!

Can you imagine what Easter 2011 will be like?

A New Home

As you read back on the blog from last summer, we had prayers about a specific piece of land that we wanted to purchase. (The property was not even for sale!) Our dream was that we would have a place to build a home for Radiant Church in the northwest area of Greenville between Berea and Travelers Rest. After our launch this fall, we were notified that the property had a "for sale" sign up. Our Senior Pastor told the leadership team that if the land was still for sale at the beginning of this year, we were going to pursue making the purchase. In January, Ricky and our CFO began meeting with the realtor. It was clear that God had His hand in this situation with the series of events that took place and this property was to be the home of our permanent facilities.

On Feb. 7th, we launched our Reality Campaign by announcing the location to our people, and we showed our dream. We needed $18,000 immediately for the down payment. Radiant Church showed their commitment to reaching our community through the work of our local church by giving sacrificially to raise that within two weeks! Needless to say, the 18.6 acres on N. Hwy 25 Bypass is currently under contract and will soon be owned by Radiant Church. We have met with the architects for the intial process of the building masterplan.

WHY BUILD A BUILDING?

We are blessed to have the facilities that we have at Berea High School. We have a wonderful relationship with the principal, and are truly thankful for his support and prayers. Because of state budget cuts and the need for additonal funding, the school district will be doubling the rent within the next year. There are many portable churches that reach thousands of people each week successfully, but being portable also has many challenges. We are 100% sure of the area to which we are called, and there are not many other options in the community where we need to serve.

This will not be just another church building that is non-functional six days a week. Our dream is to have a place that provides children, teenagers, and families an environment they can enjoy any day of the week while growing together. This will include meeting facilities and a fully operating café open to the public seven days a week. We believe in this dream, and hope you can help us make it a reality!

Year in Review

At the beginning of 2009, no one knew what God had in store for the people that make up Radiant Church. While the "idea" of Radiant Church was being formed, the vision was not alive and active as it is today. Only the Creator of the Universe could have designed the journey this year has been! Just looking back on all of the unbelievable events that have taken place since our launch on September 13, 2009 makes me stand in awe of His Power, Grace, and Mercy!
Here are some highlights of 2009-
-Our Vision meetings- looking back, those were precious moments in the development of our church. Gathering around with our core team and getting to form those bonds will forever be special memories!
-Launching with over 200 people and having the feeling of anticipation of dreams coming true.
- The salvation and/or baptisms of Liz, Kayla, John, John Walker, Jewell, James, Haley, Chandler, Chase, Steven, Brandi, Melanie, Cody, and Austin.

- Watching lives being changed and people recommitting their lives to the Lord week after week. - Forming the Life Group for Radiant Students and having Jonathan Garrett come on board as our Student Pastor. Having students SERVE at our church is such a blessing!
-Our first Fall Festival- even if it was rained out on the original date, it was awesome to get to have some of the neighbors from our community join us in the fun. Our games look AMAZING thanks to one of our awesome members.

-Our 1st Baby Dedication and committing to teach these precious children about Jesus.

-Having Radiant Kids beg to stay at church longer- we have AWESOME children that we get to love on, have fun with, and teach each week!
- Experiencing the miracle of Chris Hall's kidney transplant and how He has perfect timing.
- Radiant's 1st Wedding- having the privilege of seeing a man who was saved and baptized at our church remarry the mother of his children. A divorced couple restoring their marriage shows God's idea of Love!

-Giving away a car- Having a couple donate a car, repairmen donate labor to fix it up, being able to buy new brakes and tires, & see the appreciation from the wonderful couple who received it.
-Having a man visit Radiant from an invite card in his mailbox.
-Having a woman begin coming to Radiant because of a newspaper article on our Senior Pastor.
-Christmas Giveaways- being able to see TEENAGERS work and give their money to buy Christmas for a little boy that Santa wouldn't have been able to visit, giving gift cards to single moms, and helping families who were facing hard times reminded us of the root of Christmas.
-Donations from wonderful people who gave sacrificially and for God's provisions. God is faithful! -Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon- We have over 70 volunteers that serve in our various areas of ministry. We were able to honor them by going out to eat and giving away Walmart cards of $25, $50, and $100.
-Realizing that THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
Thank you Jesus for this incredible opportunity to make a difference in lives by being relevant, relational, and radical! If God can do all of this in 16 weeks of Radiant's existence, IMAGINE what He wants to do in the next 52 weeks! COME JOIN US!