Dear Heritage Family,
We want to let you know that we have been prayerfully and diligently monitoring the public health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. The Elder Team has made the decision to suspend on-site services for Sunday, March 15th and March 22nd. This decision is not made out of fear, but with wisdom, discernment and in the spirit of loving our community and honoring our Governor’s requests to temporarily cease large gatherings. The health and safety of you and your loved ones during this time is very important to us, and so in lieu of meeting in person, we will instead live stream services on www.heritagefellowship.us. During this time of unrest, we will continue to reach out and share the power and love of Jesus and are so thankful to have you as part of our community. If there are physical, financial, or spiritual needs, please reach out. Let’s be attentive to ways we can help one another and be family.
Let us continue to pray for peace, protection and wisdom for our community, government officials and the medical teams on the ground. We will post future updates by email, on our website and social media pages. We will also be providing additional information during our online service tomorrow, March 15. Remember: We are salt and light! "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 In Christ, Heritage Fellowship Leadership Team
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Dear Heritage Family,
In 2014, the leadership of Heritage Fellowship began implementing a plan for the future that we felt the Lord impressed on our hearts. The plan which was set into motion was to disciple and pass the love and care of the Heritage family to the next generation. We have served Heritage Fellowship as Senior Pastors since the birth of the church in 1997. It is vital to the future of Heritage to have a plan for succession of leadership. Mission + Vision + Culture + Strategic planning ensures the future and forward growth of any church, organization or business. We have witnessed too many churches and ministries fail to create the opportunity for the transfer of leadership. We love you enough to recognize the need for a plan, and we are grateful for the opportunity to share how this plan is going and how it is taking the next step forward. In sharing this, we want to make it clear that we are NOT leaving Heritage, and we will still be here loving and serving this church family. We will be walking alongside the present and future leaders of Heritage as long as we are capable of doing so, trusting the Lord will grant us many more years of health and wholeness. HIGHLIGHT 1 (FOUNDING PASTORS’ ROLE) During this season, Heritage Fellowship is transitioning from a “Senior Pastor” paradigm of church leadership to a “Team Led” approach to church life. We will no longer be serving as Senior Pastors, but will be functioning alongside a team. Instead of us carrying the title of Senior Pastors, we will be referred to as Founding Pastors. We will continue serve, carrying the following responsibilities: • We will be serving, along with Keith Yoder and Dale Fife, on the Apostolic Team. This is a team that gives encouragement, support and counsel to the Elder Team, as well as conducts periodic evaluations of all ministries. • We will remain on the Elder Team, which is the governing board of the church. Casey Moss presently presides as Chair of that board. Although we have functioned in a Senior Pastor role by name and cultural perspective, we have, in reality, been operating as a team for many years. • We will continue empowering, in multiple ways, the DNA of Heritage Fellowship - “Encountering God - Touching Lives - Impacting Nations.” We are passionate about pursuing God’s presence and allowing all we do to be from that foundation. • We will continue to nurture the fathering and mothering heart of this church family through our relationships with staff and ministry teams, through our teaching and sharing and through modeling a heart for others. • We will be more involved in mentoring and leadership training of the next generation. • We will continue in different aspects of service and ministry as the needs are recognized. • We will continue to be involved in blessing and serving different ministries located in Jefferson City and the Lakeway area, as well as internationally as the Lord opens those doors. • Legacy Theatre, a ministry of Heritage Fellowship, will continue moving forward under Peggy’s leadership as she builds a team of people, positioning Legacy for the future. She will continue to serve as Worship Arts Pastor. • Jim will continue to serve as one of the facilitators that serve during our corporate gatherings, as well as continue to develop a facilitating team. _________________________________________________________ During the last several years we have implemented, and taken several steps toward setting in place, next-generation leadership: • Jared and Lanae Boyd became leaders of Heritage Student Ministries. • Jonathan Price was set in as the Executive Pastor, serving the Elder Team, ministry leaders and the church family. • Casey Moss was appointed as chairman of the Elder Team and in 2017 was asked to serve as the Teaching Pastor forming and guiding a teaching team. • Bryan Stiles was set in as an elder and his wife Shannon share with us during our elder meetings. • Recently, Lanae was set in as the Operations Director. • Bill Conrad graciously walked us through some much needed financial transitions, and added new members, Allen Welch & Greg Sexton to the Finance Team. As we begin 2020, we are finalizing the organizational structure that supports the “Team” approach to ministry rather than the individual Senior Pastor paradigm. It is our heart that the church family be positioned for future growth while holding true to our DNA as a church family and our mission to see lives changed, people discipled, and millions around the world impacted by the outreach of this local church. We are shifting to a partly bi-vocational team of servants who lead the body, rather than just one pastor. HIGHLIGHT 2 (LEADERSHIP TEAM) One new layer of the structure is what we are calling a Leadership Team. Two years ago, the Apostolic Team encouraged the Elder Team to consider another layer of organizational structure to assist with the future growth of the church. The purpose of this team is to serve under the direction of the Elder Team in capacities of visioning with the Elder Team, activating and implementing visionary directives from the Elder Team, and creating a flow of support to all ministries of Heritage Fellowship, in house, locally and around the world. Those appointed to the Leadership Team by the Elders are Jonathan and Lisa Price, Casey and Kara Moss, Ben and MacKenzie Myers and Jared and Lanae Boyd. We are also serving alongside this team at present. We do realize this team is primarily our family. For that, we are honored, blessed and thankful, even beyond what we could have imagined. God could have called our kids anywhere in the world to serve, raise their families, work, and do life. To have them close, all within six miles, is such a treasure to us and a gift that we give to you. To have them close, means a strength and blessing for the Heritage family, we pray for many years to come. At some point waaaaaaayyyyyyy in the future, we will be worshiping with you from heaven, and our desire is to leave you with our heart, our passions, and our DNA. Casey and Kara Moss serve on the Elder Team, oversee Family Life Ministries and Casey leads theTeaching Team. Jonathan serves as the Executive Pastor. Jonathan & Lisa have been serving alongside the Elder Team for 5 years. Ben and MacKenzie, serve as Worship Pastors, and have given oversight and leadership to the Worship Team for the past 10 years. Jared and Lanae serve as Heritage Student Ministries pastors, having done so for the past 5 years. Lanae served for two years as Communications Manager before accepting her present role as Operations Director in October of 2019. Each of these couples embrace a great vision and heart for the church family. They have sacrificed, invested themselves, and immersed themselves into the life of this church family. We, with the agreement of the Elder Team, personally invited them to serve on the Leadership Team because regularly, they began meeting with us, saying “What about this ministry or that ministry? How can we support and empower those leading it? Have we thought about doing this as a way to promote growth? What do we want our culture to look like?” They think deeply and look to the future and they have these discussions with a heart for the future growth of this church family. HIGHLIGHT 3 (HERITAGE STRUCTURE) I would like to introduce to you the organizational ministries of Heritage Fellowship Church. What are the ministries and who are the people that make up the big picture and keep Heritage moving forward? This structure includes the following: • Apostolic Team: Keith Yoder and Dale Fife serve the church family in an advisory capacity, sharing counsel and wisdom and giving us objective evaluations. We are now being added to this team. • Elder Team: Casey and Kara Moss, Jim and Peggy Price, Bryan and Shannon Stiles, Bill and Judy Conrad and Jerry and Donna Lawson. ( Casey Moss, Chair) • Leadership Team: Jim and Peggy Price - Jonathan and Lisa Price - Casey and Kara Moss - Ben and MacKenzie Myers - Jared and Lanae Boyd. (Jonathan Price, Chair.) • Administrative Team: Jonathan Price, Executive Pastor, Lanae Boyd, Operations Director, Kim Fuerst, Operations Assistant and Bookkeeper, Linda Quesenberry, Secretary • Financial Team: Allen Welch, Bill Conrad, Greg Sexton (Allen Welch, Chair) MINISTRY TEAMS: Prayer Ministry: Linda Quesenberry Heritage Worship: Ben & MacKenzie Myers Media: Evan & Leia McNair Heritage Student Ministries: Jared and Lanae Boyd, (6.8, 9.12, Young Adult) Creative Arts/Legacy Theatre: Peggy Price First Impressions: Allen and Lisa Welch Hospitality: Paula Moss Heritage Kids!: Mona Abdullayev Global Connect/Destiny School of Ministry: Greg & Debby Wiley Decor: Becca Oakes & Anna Myers Special Building Project Manager: Jimmy Miller Security: Edwin Clapp Meals Ministry: Kimberley McConkey Heritage Family Ministries: Casey & Kara Moss Small Groups: Jared Boyd & Jim Price Heritage Women’s Ministry: Shannon Stiles Heritage Men’s Ministry: Bryan Stiles Community Christian Academy: Jared Boyd, Jim Price, Mona Abdullayev Teaching: Casey Moss, Jim Price, Jared Boyd We are honored and privileged to serve such an amazing church family. Twenty-three years have gone by so quickly, and we look forward to the next 23! We have seen another whole new generation step into adulthood. Such a joy! Our desire and heart has been to nurture generational continuity. This is how we move forward: generation to generation. Love and Blessings, Jim and Peggy Price During the Sunday morning service on December 30, Pastor Jim sensed the Holy Spirit giving our church family a direction regarding Fasting during the month of January. He encouraged those present and watching by livestream to participate in a Fast with a “RE” focus. As you begin the new year, what “RE” word would the Holy Spirit have you focus on? When the Holy Spirit gives a direction, it is for a purpose and for our good. Please join with us as we each seek our “RE” word. What would the Holy Spirit have you add after the prefix “RE.” Be encouraged by what the Lord spoke to one of the Heritage members, Denise Walker about her "Re" word for 2019 below. Last week we studied Ephesians 3 together! If you missed last week's message “Give Me Vision”, below are some of the highlights from the word. Watch the full message here. Ephesians is filled with revelation on the nature and role of “the church” in God’s eternal plan. Ephesians 3 specifically describes Paul’s heart for the gentiles to understand the “Mystery” of Christ. The Mystery is that we are one body and heirs together with Israel through work of Christ on the cross. Thank you to Debby, Denise, Mike and Mark for representing Jewish, Arab, German and Irish heritage. Together, they stood hand-in-hand bringing us the visual of one body through our faith in Jesus. The revelation of this "Mystery" releases the manifold wisdom of God which is the multi colored, multifaceted light shining within hearts - Christ within us! The light on display to every principality, power on earth and in heavenly realms. Thank you to Mercy Jones who stood in the light Sunday while Jimmy, Jimmy and Allen represented the principalities and powers behind her. Points of Prayer
Color Blind Video Sometimes a season of waiting and conditioning can look like this scene from Zootopia. Sunday, January 15th, Peggy Price, our Worship Arts Pastor, released a prayer over us comprised of verses from Ephesians chapter 1. Every day, the leadership team of Heritage Fellowship has been praying these verses over the body corporately and the members individually. Join with us and pray this over our church and your family. My heart is full of thanks to You, God, for our Heritage family, and I pray continually that You Father of Glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would unveil in them the riches of the Spirit of Wisdom and the Spirit of revelation through the fullness of being one with Christ. I pray that the light of You will illuminate the eyes of their imagination, flooding each one with light, until they experience the full revelation of our great hope of glory. We know that this is the reason You call them to Yourself. I pray that they explore and experience, for themselves, all the riches of this wealth that has been freely given to all His holy ones, for they are Your true inheritance! My prayer for each one of the church family is that, every moment, they will experience the measureless power of You, God made available to them through faith. Then, their lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through them, and this will encourage fellow brothers and sisters, and draw our community to a knowledge of Him! We declare that Jesus is exalted higher than all the thrones and principalities, above every ruler and authority, and above every realm of power there is. He is gloriously enthroned over every name that is ever praised, not only in this age, but in the age that is coming! May we all discover more deeply that everything finds its essence in Jesus, and He alone is the Leader and Source of everything needed in the church. We declare that we, His church, are His body on the earth and the completion of Him that fills all things with His presence flowing through us! Taken from Ephesians 1:15-23 1. Commit to be even more radical for Jesus.
Be radical regardless of the circumstaces in your life. God is good. He is sovereign and worthy of worship. 2. Kick it up a notch loving your family. Husbands, loves your wives as Christ loved The Church; and wives honor and respect your husbands. Die to self and serve your marriage partner in love. Go to another level of biblically parenting your children. Do more to love your family well. 3. Do all you can do to be healthy: Diet, Rest, and Exercise. Diet, rest and exercise is a triple braided cord for health. Start this year and make whatever commitments you need to make to walk in physical health. But, also walk in spiritual health. Diet, rest, and exercise in spiritual health. What diet are you eating? Are you resting in his presence? Are you exercising your faith? Let's grow in our physical health and let's grow in our spiritual health. 4. Work to get your financial picture in order. Put your finances in a place of organization and simplicity. If you are the individual who handles the finances at home, is it such so that if you were incapacitated for a period of time, someone could step in very easy to take care of the finances? 5. Be careful not to judge. Let's realize that everyone has a story, and you may not know their story. You may not be seeing accurately what needs to be seen, or seeing the total picture. Let's make it a priority to commit to honor and value one another. Be loving and caring. Don't be quick to judge. 6. Be more aware of how to bless people. How does God want you to sow blessings into the lives of other people? 7. Be Intentional Have inentionality; be deliberate, calculated and consious. Plan, study out, and be willful and purposeful. It's important to take on the character trait of intentionality, because God is an intentional God. God has been intentional with his grace and mercy. Let's live intentionally towards life, and the Lord, towards our families and towards others. Let's be intentional about building the Kingdom of God. Let's be intentional about our Goals. Dear friends and family,
This morning, Pastor Jim is still at full oxygen support with his O2 levels averaging between 90-95. Please continue to pray for his O2 saturation to increase and that his need to be on this degree of respiratory support would end quickly. This is the most urgent and specific prayer need at this time. We are seeing improvements with most other levels and the kidney doctor shared this morning that he was pleased with his progress. Praise God! We started a Caring Bridge site that contains all of Pastor Jim's medical updates that we have posted. You can easily follow the Caring Bridge site to stay updated and get instant notifications. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jimprice Lastly, we have created a link where you can make a tax deductible, financial gift, to assist Jim and Peggy with forthcoming medical expenses. https://heritagefellowship.churchapp.co.uk/donate/fund/9 We can't thank you enough for the continued love and support. God is good all the time. Love to you all, The Family Monday Evening December 5th Pastor Jim Update:
Tonight we thank God for all of the victories within Pastor Jim's body. We have seen some amazing miracles with so much of his blood work and now we long to see a work done in his lungs! This afternoon, he started having trouble breathing and is currently on max oxygen. The Doctors believe it could be caused by an infection beginning. Let's agree together that he will quickly be able to breathe easily without assistance. Below is a dream that Jackie Rutherford shared with us early this morning before the lung issue started. What an amazing encouragement by His spirit! "While praying for Pastor Jim last night I had the image of him in bed. The Holy Spirit was hovering over him as if waiting for something. Then from the other side of the room Christ appeared with outstretched arms. He pulled aside his robe and exposed one of the wounds he suffered for us. The Spirit encompassed im, slowly swirling in a clockwise direction and I remember almost seeing Christ speak to the Spirit, and in a flash, the Spirit was hovering one again over Pastor Jim. Christ was still in the room and now had his hands folded at his waist and appeared to be praying. He then raised and stretched out his hands once more and in a flash of light was gone and at the same instance, the Holy Spirit descended from above and not onto, but into your dad. He was in the form of a white mist and entered into your father’s body like breath. From here I saw just several images of organs...lungs that were filled to the point of bursting, a heart went from what looked like a dull form into a vibrant pulsating, beating organ, a liver that went from hardened and dry to healthy and beautifully colored, kidneys that looked drawn up like raisins to plump perfectly healthy and beautifully colored filters from which flowed crystal clear liquid in abundance. I then was returned to my former view of your dad, and his color went from a grayish yellow to beautifully colored radiant pink flesh and his eyes lit up and almost twinkled with the life within." The Price Family Dear Church Family, Evaluations are good. Evaluate yourself and say "Holy Spirit, what is it in my life that is stealing, and taking from me my God-given destiny?" We do not use evaluations to feel hopeless or to be depressed, but to be impressed with who Jesus is, and who he wants to you to be. Whatever you've gone through, Jesus can fix, heal and make your identity whole. The answer to a healthy identity is always Jesus. Using this Self-Evaluation, commit to spending time with God this week
Use the self-evaluation table below to determine if your identity is healthy. The left side shows false identities you may have aligned yourself with, while the right side is what God says about you. Discontent | Content Philippians 4:12, Hebrews 13:5 Radical Shifts in Beliefs | Unwavering Faith Hebrews 11, John 4:4 Bored and Restless | Resting Exodus 33:14, Hebrews 4:9 Relationships are Shallow | Meaningful Relationships Ephesians 4:2, Romans 12:10 Poor Academic/ | Excellence Work Performance Titus 2:7, II Corinthians 8:7 Disregard for Authority | Honors Authority Romans 13:1-7, I Timothy 2:1-3 Co-dependent on Others | Dependent on God I Samuel 30:6, Psalm 62:5-6 Ungrateful | Grateful I Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:6 Negative Outlook | Positive Outlook Philippians 4:8, Psalm 118:24 Harboring Bitterness/ | Forgiving Resentment I Corinthians 13:4-6, Acts 7:49-60 Victim | Victor I John 5:4, I Corinthians 10:13 That One Thing | Total Freedom Galatians 5:1, I Corinthians 6:12 Alter Egos | Altar Ego Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24 FORGIVENESS Hatred will not heal your pain. Anger and rage will not lift the shame. Revenge will not remove the deep well of grief. A bitterness that longs to punish will only cause your own soul to die within. Hanging on to your perception of your abuser, based on the abuse, only crystalizes your forever view of who they are. When, in reality, God’s grace can change that person into a new creation. Even if the abusing or offending person doesn’t change and never asks you for forgiveness for the wrongs they have done – your personal freedom is discovered in praying, “Father forgive them for they didn’t really know what they were doing.” Don’t let the abuser or the abuse be a thief that steals your destiny. The only path to freedom is the one modeled by Jesus, which is forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean a wrong was not done, but it does release you from being the final pronouncement of judgment. Forgiveness is about your liberation and removing yourself as judge. Let God be the judge of the other person. |
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