1000 people streamed into our new worship center on Easter! It is an exciting time for our church. We gave, worked, prayed, sweated, bled, and even cried to make it happen…and it was GLORIOUS! It was glorious not because of us but because of what GOD DID THROUGH US TOGETHER.
When we began as Forest Pointe Church in the spring of 2001, we envisaged a church where “the unchurched could turn to Christ and become His fully devoted followers.” We believed that going where God told us to go while loving others the way God wants us to love would cause His kingdom to grow. We called this new ministry “Forest Pointe Church” for several reasons:
1. We wanted to be located in the greater Gaston and Mecklenburg region without being tied to a specific city.
2. We were situated at the Stowe YMCA surrounded by lush forests.
3. We used “The Pointe” due to the fact that this area is filled with rolling hills and locales named with them in mind. For instance, “Mt. Holly” means “Holy Mountain” and Belmont means “Beautiful Mountain”.
On April 20, 2014, God’s kingdom came in a visual, tangible way. We moved in! But before the day ended, the ultimate purpose of God’s coming kingdom was to take place as 30 people prayed to enter into His forever family. All the while, we grew deeper in our faith remembering that God is always looking for lost things. So should we. We rejoice that lost people have found Him. We rejoice as well that we keep finding Him by listening to what He says and doing what He did. It would be tragic if we just view God’s coming kingdom solely in the “then and there” of the future. God wants his kingdom to come “here and now”-NOW!…ON EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN.
We rebranded as “The Pointe” for several key reasons:
1. A deep impression in my heart after extended prayer time with God. To begin with, “The Pointe is JESUS.” Jesus did not come to make a pointe. He came to BE THE POINTE.
2.The Pointe has been a shortened form of what we called our meeting spaces outside of Sunday morning in rented physical locations at Main Street Crossings and then 26 North Main Street in Belmont. It began as “Pointe 24/7” and then was shortened through our cultural communication as “The Pointe”. It continued to grow traction when we purchased our new facility at 6700 Wilkinson Boulevard.
3. It is simple to say and easy to pass on to others as we communicate in various ways.
4. The geographical area in which we reside combining properties that begin in Belmont, Mount Holly, Cramerton, Lowell, and McAdenville as the South Fork and Catawba Rivers rush to meet at the end of the famed Peninsula. Interestingly, the first name for this area is “The Point”, a shortened form of “The Fort At The Point.”
5. The timing of moving into our first permanent facility on Easter.
As we begin our ministry as “The Pointe”, extraordinary things are already happening! Dozens of our students and student leaders just finished RENOVATE where they reached into the community on their spring break to make an IMPACT in soup kitchens, residential neighborhoods, and even praying with business executives in downtown Charlotte as they walked to and from work. Clayton King preached for as part of our brand new series “Future Family”. And EVEN MORE people made 1st time professions of faith in Jesus Christ on the 27th.
The Pointe Church has as our mission “To LEAD people to take their NEXT STEP on their JOURNEY WITH CHRIST by LOVING, BECOMING LIKE, and SHARING JESUS.”
In the words of Bach and Handel, who wrote these words on their musical compositions- “SOLE DEO GLORIA”, to God alone be the glory!
“And The BEST is YET TO COME- GOD’S KINGDOM”
Thanking God that we get to “BRING IT!”
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