After almost 2 years of being without a permanent pastor, God has provided GRX SF with a wonderful shepherd to lead its growing flock. The GRX SF community welcomes its new senior pastor, Sean Curtis and his wife Kerry and daughter Meryn! Everyone is excited about having Pastor Sean on board and we can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for this community going forward.
"Broken and Beautiful. San Francisco is an incredible gathering place for so many seeking life, freedom, sanctuary, love, success, expression, and beauty. Over ten years ago, God began a work developing a deep sense of calling to church planting in cities like San Francisco, to come alongside such seekers to share the glorious life in Jesus that we have experienced through our own brokenness and God's redemption. When Pastor Dave invited us to visit, we immediately knew that God was up to something. When we met the GrX SF community, we began to see the possibilities unfolding. God is doing something special at GrX SF. God is doing something powerful in the City. Kerry and I are excited, humbled, and even a little nervous as we taste the weight of God's love for San Francisco and the community of GrX SF. Please pray with us and for us as we enter into this amazing call."
With the pastoral search finally over, Pastor Sean and church leaders will direct their efforts on providing a more focused vision and mission for the city of San Francisco.
In other news, GRX SF continues to thrive, especially in the area of community. GRX has always been a church of small groups and the growth in this area remains astounding. The small group “3:18” has once again multiplied. Due to growing numbers of active members, the small group has evolved into two separate groups. From “3:18”, we now have the co-ed small group “Bearfrut”, heading up by Jon Park , Malvin Chew, and Nebula Gu. Bearfruit’s mission is to create a genuine community of believers focused on fellowship, bible study, and service specifically for the city of San Francisco. 3:18 will remain as itself, but headed by facilitators Al Wong, Daniel Ong, Darren Chen, and Jeff Liao.
With the summer officially here, several small groups are on a break. “Cheese” and “1:13” will be on summer break from the end of June to mid-July. The purpose of these breaks are to promote fellowship and prayer time outside of a small group context.
With so much focus internally, the GRX SF community also will be supporting the campus wide GRX Kenya 2008 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament on July 19th. All proceeds from this event will go to the GRX orphanage and VBS mission teams serving with the House of Praise Deliverance Church and the Sanctuary of Hope Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Several teams from SF have already registered for this event!
-Mark your calendars! GRX SF is having another church-wide retreat at Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds for the weekend of August 22-24. Pastor Sean will be speaking and this will be a great opportunity for everyone to fellowship and to understand what GRX SF has in store for the next year. Please keep your calendars open for this exciting event!
~Update from 07-14-08
The month of February has been rather busy for GRX SF, marked with potential, change, and renewed focus. The church community is currently involved with the interviewing of potential senior pastoral candidate, Sean Curtis, who makes his way from Oregon. Sean made a trip to the bay area recently to preach at one of our Sunday services (Feb 24th). After receiving positive feedback from the SF leaders, Sunnyvale staff, and the Board in the south bay, GRX SF has requested Sean and his wife Kerry, for a return visit. Please pray for the church as it inches closer to finding the right Pastor for its growing community.
Due to limited visibility and awareness, the Unstoppable leadership team from South bay GRX decided to postpone the “Color of God’s Touch” production till June 14th. The name has also been changed to “Expressions” (the previous name was a mouth-full!). With the revised date, more time and planning can be given to the initiative, allowing for more members from all GRX campuses to participate and bring more creativity to the event. The focus of “Expressions” will remain as-is, with emphasis on how God has touched individual lives through the mix of dance, body worship, skits, music, and arts.
In addition to “Expressions”, GRX SF is busy with making preparations to this year’s Easter service. Easter service will be comprised primarily of skits, worship, and other creative elements driven from the Creative Arts Ministry (CAM). Easter service will be held this year at Dolores Park Church on March 23rd at 6 pm. Please pray for this event, as there will be opportunities for non-believers to experience God’s love and even accept Jesus into their life for the very first time!
After serving as small group facilitators for the past year, both David Roh and Ed Cho of “Sparks” small group are stepping down and handing over the reigns to Anthony Kim. David and Ed will remain active within the small group and will serve in other capacities within the SF community, as coaches or mentors for others.
~Update from 03-08-08
GRX SF has hit the road running in 2008. The church community is focused on bringing new ideas to sustain and rejuvenate some ministries/small groups. On March 1st, GRX SF will be participating with all of the other GRX communities in the production, “Color of God’s Touch”. This initiative gives those an opportunity from all campuses to get exposure on what’s been happening at all of the rest of the GRX campuses. “Color of God’s Touch” will allow participants to show how God has touched their lives over the past year through a mix of dance, body worship, skits, music, and arts.
While most ministries start the new year with the same convictions and passions that have carried over from last year, other ministries are in the process of reloading and finding new blood to help sustain the group in the new year. Both Al Wong of Dance Ministry and David Wong of Sports Ministry are stepping down from their respective roles as coordinators and are looking for any people who are interested in getting involved and taking over those facilitation responsibilities.
~Update from 02-02-08
As the year 2007 comes to a close, we are reminded of how God has been so gracious to his children up in San Francisco. While GRX SF continues to face challenges such as finding a lead pastor or trying to sustain the explosion of various ministries and small groups, we place our trust in Him knowing that He has come through for us time and time again. With all of these healthy challenges, the GRX SF community continues to thrive and be a place where people can experience God in a new light and be transformed by the gospel, while fellowshipping with other brothers and sisters. It is an exciting time for GRX SF and we look forward to communing with our Lord in 2008.
Ministry & Small Group Updates~Update from 12-30-07
I had the privilege of talking with a couple people from GRX SF and hearing about their celebrations and prayer requests. This campus is growing in numbers and commitment. The small groups are 318, Cheese, 113, 24/7, and Sparks. Several of them were formed in the past year and are set to multiply again in the fall due to their growth! A women's accountability group even started within a small group. People are praying about their roles and possibly stepping up to support the facilitators. Please pray for even more people to be led to facilitate the new groups in the fall.
There is much excitement for the SF retreat the weekend of 7/20 at Alliance Redwoods. A concern for the church is that people don't know each other outside their small groups and the hope is that the retreat will be the beginning of new relationships between the different small groups and that these relationships will continue after the retreat. The small groups are looking for continued interactions with each other such as mutual activities. They're also looking for ways to connect to the community around their church, possibly ways to serve their community.
An ongoing need is the search for a lead pastor. They're very grateful that they continue to have Pastor Dave and the other pastors leading them. However, there is a lot of anticipation in finding a pastor that will be based at SF and able to be more present for the church and its growth. Please pray for a pastor that will meet the needs of this campus.
SF members continue to participate in GRX missions. This summer, they have people going to Cambodia, London, and Kenya. Pray for safety, relationships among team members, and continued involvement between SF and the world mission fields.
~Update from 07-28-07
Pastor Dave will be serving as Lead Pastor of both SF and Sunnyvale churches until we find a Lead Pastor for GrX SF. Recently, Pastor Dave met with all the SF leaders and did a full assessment of all their ministries and established seven priorities for the new year. On July 20-21, they will be hosting their first church-wide retreat. Jeff Mazzarello is the guest speaker. Attendance continues to average between 150 and 170.
~Update from 07-15-07
