Our Own Little Christmas Miracles

I am so happy to report that 46 souls were present at Sunday's Lifestone worship service! This  was such a welcome surprise, as we have been averaging around 25 on Sunday mornings (which is still considered a huge success by church planters familiar with our region of the country)! We so enjoyed getting to meet 6 new families and 2 of them even joined us Wednesday evening for Bible study. What started out as a team of 11 has grown into a family of many. What a joy it has been to watch God weave us together with the precious people He has brought into our lives here. We are so PUMPED that God is showing His faithfulness and blessing the work we're doing here in Utah.

More good news...the Recreation Center where we meet on Sundays has agreed to stay open a little later than planned on Tuesday evening to facilitate our Christmas Eve service!!! This location really is ideal in that the people of Herriman already feel familiar and welcome in this facility (which is why we love it for Sundays) AND all who come will get to see exactly where and how we meet regularly. This could very potentially break down walls as many here have no idea what to expect from a Bible-based church and an untraditional meeting place. We handed out 1,000 Christmas CDs with enclosed invites to this special event, and it is our prayer that God uses our Candlelight Community Christmas Eve service as a beacon to His Son and to His church!

A million times thank you for praying along with us on this exciting journey. We invite you to continue to follow along and pray along in the New Year, as we are certain that God has even bigger things in store for His church in 2014!

We Made The News!

The following article on our new church plant recently appeared in the South Valley Journal. We are thrilled to have yet another avenue to help get our name out to the community! Plus-we could not be more pleased that the journalist chose to shine such a positive light on what we are doing here! God is certainly up to something! We have already been visited by families who heard about us because of this story. Pray that God uses it for His Glory and brings more to hear about His grace! 

Everyone is welcome at new Herriman church

By Sherry Smith

•                
  
  Pastor Ben Helton and his wife Kristen (far right)
  
  

There is a new church in Herriman. Lifestone Church has a mission to connect real people to real life found only in Christ.

“We are here to promote what we believe is possible. We’re here because we’re for somebody. We’re not here to be against someone or something,” Pastor Ben Helton said.
Since Oct. 6, the new church has met at J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center at 5350 West 12600 South in Herriman every Sunday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

They strive to provide a comfortable atmosphere for worship, relevant teaching, and a place where people can connect with other members of the community. Their door is open to all who wish to join them.

Lifestone also has big plans for the children who attend their services. Kid-friendly activities are planned for children to learn about God’s love in a fun, exciting way. Currently, they use the well-equipped nursery room at the rec center to serve as a very safe facility for babies to preschool age. The dance room is reserved for elementary age kids to receive age-appropriate instruction about God.

“For teenagers, we are working on developing our program. We will begin with monthly meetings, and then go to weekly. We hope to develop this into a group to participate in mission trips and youth camps,” Helton said.

At Lifestone Church, the hope is that all who visit feel extremely welcomed and accepted. The church encourages people to come as they are, and most in attendance even dress casually.  Lifestone Church stresses strongly that everyone is welcome.

“As far as we could find, Herriman is the largest city in the United States without a Bible-based church. One of our primary goals is to start churches in areas that don’t have them. I do have a Utah connection. My parents used to live here, and I have an older sister who was born here,” Helton said.

Helton has been in the vocational ministry for 15 years. He began as a youth pastor. Part of his training includes a bachelor’s degree in religion from Wayland Baptist in Plainview, Texas and a master’s from Rockbridge Seminary in Springfield, Miss.

“This is probably the last thing I’d ever thought I’d go into. I was on a baseball scholarship in college,” Helton said.
Helton shared this scripture, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV) 

“Because God has shown his overwhelming love and grace to me, my life is now full of hope. My desire is to share this hope with as many people as I can,” he said.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! It's snowing here in Herriman, Utah today and putting us all in the mood for the upcoming holiday season! When we meet new people here and tell them we're from Texas, they always comment on the fact that we probably love the sight of snow and have no idea what we're getting ourselves into as our first winter here approaches. And they could not be more right! We are enjoying being naive while we can and absolutely loving the white fluffy stuff!

We are all very much looking forward to Thanksgiving next week, which many of us will spend together as a church family. We are sure to have an interesting assortment of food as we all have somewhat varying ideas of what a real Thanksgiving feast should entail, but we're looking forward to spending it together. 

We are also gearing up for our big community wide Christmas Eve service. Ben is still working to nail down a facility to open up for us that evening, so PLEASE be in prayer that he is able to schedule the perfect time and place. Our plan is to hand out 1,000 free Holiday CDs with our invite card attached all over the community. This service will be an amazing opportunity for us to celebrate the holiday with our new friends and neighbors, and also share the good news about what the birth of Jesus really means in our lives. Pray that our first Christmas here is one we never forget-that God brings the masses to celebrate His Son with us!

Expect Big Things

Praise God! And thank you to all of you who have been praying that people will be reached for the Lord through our new church here. We had FOUR new families join us Sunday!!! Although we do our best to EXPECT big and great things, I have to admit that we were pleasantly surprised! What a great feeling to have to pull in extra chairs and use the “extra” supplies in our kids room. We are always prepared for God to bring the masses, but the joy and surprise on our faces must have been apparent. :)

If you've never heard the song “The Church” by Elevation Worship, you should definitely check it out! These lyrics are on my heart today:

“We're not afraid.

We will abandon all

To hear Your name

on lips across the world.

We will run

in the wake of your love!”

Charting New Territory

Planting a church in Herriman, Utah is much different than planting a church in Weatherford, Texas. In the Bible Belt, you open your doors and people come. Not necessarily in droves or anything... and I'm not saying it's easy. It takes time and work and prayer and patience, no doubt. But, generally speaking, people there are comfortable with the idea of visiting new churches and, again- generally speaking, have some familiarity with the Gospel of the Bible. If we have learned anything in the 3 months we've ministered here in Herriman, it is that God wants us to be PATIENT as He grows His new church here. Pastor Ben met with another pastor of a Bible-based church this week who after over 30 years of knowing in his heart that he was being called to seek the true Gospel, finally turned his life over to the Jesus of the Bible. In doing so, he lost the comfort of the life he had always known, a huge network of friends and neighbors...even his wife. The culture we are living in here offers a comfortable life surrounded by the camaraderie of an extended social circle, family and neighbors who share in a common faith. In doing God's work here, we must always be sensitive to the fact that asking people to pursue the true Gospel of Christ often means asking people to leave all this comfort behind. The transition cannot be rushed. Please pray that we are patient, empathetic even, as we invite people to leave the life they've always known for something that is extremely unfamiliar.

Tonight at our Lifegroup meeting, we were joined by a woman who just visited our church for the first time this past Sunday. She says she can't explain why, but for the past 4 months she has felt God calling her to seek Him and His word more than ever. Since then, she has been praying earnestly that God would give her clarity as she considers leaving the faith she's always known and seeks more of “the basics of the Bible and Jesus”. She confessed to all of us tonight that she was overwhelmed with comfort as Ben taught that salvation is not based on a list of good things we do, but instead on the perfect sacrifice we have in Jesus. And what a comfort she was to us! How encouraging! This is why we moved here! This is why we are doing everything we know to do to bring the Good News to where it is not known! Tonight, this woman, possibly for the first time in her life, began to understand the GRACE that Jesus died to bring her!

It is said that the native Asian grass, bamboo, shows little to no growth in its first 4 years, but then, almost miraculously, grows as much as 80 feet in its fifth year! This week Ben was encouraged by his mentor that in times when what seems like slow church growth might become frustrating, he should simply water his bamboo. Pray that we do not become frustrated as we bring the Gospel to a place where people find turning to it unfamiliar, scary even. Join us in thanking God that he has brought at least one new family to Lifestone to hear the Good News every week since we opened our doors. Pray that we are encouraged by the brave few who are first to chart this new territory, and praise God for the work He plans to do through them! 

WE HAVE LIFT OFF!

Hi! Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! We are so thankful that you, our supporters, our prayer warriors, have continued to read along and pray along as God takes us on this crazy, awesome journey of planting the first ever Evangelical Christian Church in Herriman, Utah!

Since moving here from Texas 2 months ago, we have been extremely busy preparing, and this past Sunday we finally had the opportunity to officially open our doors to the people of Herriman! Check out these pics from our exciting weekend...

We love Saturday night set up!

                                      

First official Lifestone Church service in Herriman, Utah!

 

 This week our team has been reflecting on this passage found in Colossians 1:15-18 (NIV) :

"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the Church..."

This scripture reminds us that we cannot take credit for the great things already accomplished here. It is also a relief to know that the future of this great work does not fall on our shoulders. He has simply asked us to be empty and willing vessels... to expect greatness... And He will surely finish what He has begun.

Snow!

We knew it wouldn't be long before our team experienced its first Utah snow, but we had no idea it would hit as soon as September!!!

We were in awe just seeing snow in the mountains...
We sure didn't expect it to  hit us in the foothills!

Helton kids NOT missing Texas
 (only kidding-Utah loves Texas, too! )

We lovingly refer to these as "our mountains",
the mountains of Herriman where copper is mined.

Snowy foothills behind neighborhood ward

Doesn't even look real, does it?!

It has been SUCH a fun week for our team here in Herriman. God has blessed us with our first snow and even MORE opportunities to tell His good news! The Helton family was excited to be invited to a block party- where they were the only Christian family present. Their hosts and the other families in attendance were super friendly- Ben, Kristen, and the kiddos were all able to begin new friendships. We trust that in time, God will use these friendships to demonstrate His love to our neighbors. We continue to meet new people everywhere who are open to the gospel. Just yesterday, Kristen and I were at Wal Mart shopping for supplies for Kid's Life and the teenage girl who checked us out agreed to join us for Sunday's service!

Continue to pray that God opens doors for us to share his love and goodness. We could not be more thrilled that He has chosen us to be a part of the great harvest here in Herriman, Utah. Our big launch has been re-set for Sunday, October 6th. Pray that our team is diligent and efficient as we finish gathering equipment, updating our webpage, and working out any kinks in our Sunday service...and at the same time that our eyes are AWLAYS open to any opportunities for new relationships and sharing the Good News!

Grace and Peace

Hey yall!

Hope all is well in Texas.. or wherever you may be reading this from. As Paul would write, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!" I always thought that was just a fancy, religious-sounding greeting Paul used as a standard phrase to open letters he wrote to the New Testament churches. This past Sunday, during our first worship service at the rec center here in Herriman, Utah, Pastor Ben Helton let us in on the significance of Paul's favorite greeting. Ben reminded us that "grace" is God's unmerited favor, and the "peace" Paul refers to is the peace we feel when we are confident in where we stand with God because we are His children. Ben explained that Paul was reminding his new church plants that God had given them a gift-a gift that was undeserved, and the peace that comes along with accepting that gift.  Ben went on to share and explain to us the purpose of our new church: To Reach Herriman with the GRACE and PEACE of Jesus at any cost! So far, God has begun a beautiful work here. There were 23 souls present Sunday at the first public Christian church service ever in Herriman, and we are trusting that each of those souls will be won to Christ.. and that He will continue to add to His new work here. 

I leave you with the gospel-drenched greeting from Paul's letter to the Church in Corinth found in 1 Corinthians 1:2-3. 

"To the Church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Rachel's Story

Praise God! We will be meeting at the Rec Center in just a little over a week! (More details about this awesome facility are on the previous post.) Until then, we'll continue to gather as a launch team and pray for our community, update the website, gather equipment, and do all we can to prepare for this exciting step in our church plant! 

God is also continuing to put people in our paths who we feel led to befriend and minister to! We've made friends with many non-believers who are open to hear the Good News as well as some believers in search of a Christian church to be part of. Each new contact we make is a reminder of why we moved here. This community is in desperate need of a local Christian church; they are in desperate need of Jesus.   

Check out this video with Pastor Ben's daughter, Rachel, as she gives her perspective on this new adventure!

Answered Prayer

Hi and welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! For those of you who are visiting for the first time, let me fill you in just a little. I am part of a team of people who have re-located from the Fort Worth, Texas area here to Herriman, Utah with the purpose of planting a Christian church and ministering to the lost here. I'd like to invite you to read the previous posts and commit to praying for the needs you read about here at Texas Loves Utah. We could not be doing what we are doing if it were not for our family of believers back in Texas and across the nation who have selflessly committed to sharing this journey with us through prayer and encouragement. Please be a part of that group of prayer warriors!

While we're on the topic of prayer, there is a huge answer to prayer we are celebrating this week! God has heard our prayer and provided a public meeting place for our Sunday services! Beginning September 15^th, we will be inviting the people God places in our lives to meet at the J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center! We could not be more thrilled about the opportunity to meet in this beautiful facility! We moved here in faith that God would provide a public facility ideal for reaching this community, and He has done just that. 

J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center in Herriman, Utah

What we love about J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center:

• This new, beautiful facility attracts residents from all over Salt Lake County and, therefore, is a place people are not only familiar with, but also a place where they already feel comfortable.

• The rec center is open on Sundays so we will have the opportunity to reach out to  customers and staff while we are there worshipping. 

• We will have access to 3 huge rooms including:

an adult meeting room complete with a projector screen, tables, and chairs

a dance/activity room perfect for elementary age students' Sunday School

a nursery/ pre-school room and access to child-size tables and chairs, nursery furniture, toys, television and more

Praise God for exceeding all we hoped for in a place to do His work! Both the low cost of rent and the supplies provided here will help in saving funds to be used for other aspects of our church plant. We really believe that the facility God is providing through this beautiful meeting place will be a wonderful tool in reaching the lost of Herriman, Utah. We cannot wait to begin meeting here and inviting new friends and neighbors to join us here in worship!

The Lord of the Harvest

We can't thank you enough for not only following this blog, but especially for praying for the needs you read about here. We believe that prayer can do anything God can do! This week we ask that you join us in praying for one of the biggest needs on our hearts, that God would add believers to our church planting team. Many of you are familiar with the story in the New Testament when Jesus responds to the crowds of people who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” with compassion, commanding his disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38) The harvest is certainly ripe here in our community, and we need help!

We're praising God that Karis' school teacher, the woman I wrote about in the last post, along with her husband and daughter, joined us for worship Sunday morning! They are precious people who love the Lord. Please pray that they make a commitment to help us start this new church! Also, there is a couple from our church back home who will be here visiting us this weekend. They are currently praying about whether or not they will move here and be part of the church plant later this year. Please pray that God makes it clear to them that they are, in fact, supposed to be here with us. ;)

We are all meeting so many people at work and in our neighborhoods. Many here are “churched”, but there is also a huge number of them who don't belong to any church at all. The reality is that they all need Jesus. Because we are all from Texas, we are so accustomed to assuming until told otherwise that most people we meet have at least heard the true gospel. But not here. There are SO many who are lost, “sheep without a shepherd”. Please answer Jesus' call to pray for laborers. There is much to be done here.

The team worshipping together in Ben's home-Please
be praying for the opportunity for us to begin meeting
in a public place! More on that soon! :)

Affirmation

God has a funny way of “sending” us out to do His work-and then coming along with us. Each of us on the church planting team has been called “brave” countless times. Many believers have told us, “I could never do what you are doing.” The truth is, though, that God doesn't really send us-He just allows us the opportunity to come along for the ride. Stepping out in faith is really just a matter of saying “yes”. After that, it's all pretty much downhill. I say this because ever since we all answered “yes” to God's call to move from Texas to Utah, He has put constant accounts of affirmation in each of our paths. It's His little way of saying, “I'm here. I've got you.” I could share dozens of examples with you, but today I'm praising God for one in particular.

One of the biggest fears the team had as we prepared to re-locate here was that of persecution. It was clear that we were not just moving to any other state in the US, but to one with a culture all its own. We spoke with many Christians who lived in the valley already and and received mixed responses to the question, “Will we be welcome there?” We knew well that it was very possible that we might be ostracized in our neighborhoods or in our workplaces because we do not belong to the religion that is so prevalent here. An even bigger fear was that our children would be made to feel left out. The Heltons- our lead pastor, Ben, and his wife, Kristen- have 3 school-aged children and made the prayerful decision to enroll them in public schools. Since making that decision, I know that they haven't for a second stopped praying that their children would be made to feel welcome-not only by their peers, but also by their teachers. Here's where this story gets good. On their first day of school, Ben and Kristen walked each of their children to their designated classroom. Karis, their middle daughter and arguably the most sensitive of the 3, was introduced to a smiling teacher who stood at her door to welcome students. As Karis' parents chatted with her new teacher, God was certainly present. Within seconds of ending that conversation, dozens of phones back in Texas received a message from Kristen, and I'll leave you with that text:

“God is so good. I have been continually praying for my kid's teachers. Today when I met Karis' teacher, we were talking and she mentioned that she was looking for a church. She is a Christian-one of only 4 teachers in the entire school. She was so excited to meet us and wanted to know all about the church. Please pray she and her husband join our team. She and I both got chills and had tears in our eyes that God had connected our paths!”

From left to right: Rachel, Jax, and Karis on their first day of school

Move In

The team at Ben's house... can you believe the view?!

Thanks for joining me back here at TexasLovesUtah! I hope you got a chance to check out my first post. It describes who we are and what we are doing here in Utah. Today, I want to share with you the how.

As many of you know, our last trip up here in June was intended to be a time of prayer as we sought out exactly which city in the valley God wanted to plant and subsequently jobs and homes near that city. And, of course, as life tends to happen, it wasn't until the evening before we flew out that God directed us here to Herriman. So, needless to say, our apartment hunting was all done online. As the team unloaded everything Cody and I own into our new little apartment here in Riverton (just outside of Herriman city limits), the first thing I noticed...I know...I'm such a girl... was a HUGE lack of closet space, and, I'll admit, I panicked.

After a couple days of showing Cody that although I really was willing to give away non-essentials AND store things creatively, and our things still wouldn't fit, he broke down and took me to IKEA. :) When we finally finished zigzagging our way through the maze like little mice and making our selections-f you've never been to IKEA, you ought to..it really is an experience- Cody ran home to trade the car for the truck (poor planning on our parts, I know). I was left to do the loading in the warehouse. So I did what any girl in my position would do...after changing Jaz's dirty diaper on the warehouse floor, I decided I needed some assistance and went over to the help desk to play the “I have a baby” card. While the sweet college kid helped me load up our new treasures, he asked the inevitable question, the one we've been asked a lot already and answering it has yet to become less uncomfortable, “What brings you to Utah?” I've gotten in the habit of taking a deep breath and praying the quickest of prayers before answering with a smile, “We've come here to start a Christian church!”. This IKEA guy's response has still been the most interesting to me. He replied with a grin, almost mischievously, “Oh!!! You're here to combat the LDS Church, huh?!” Without much thought, I told him, “in a nice way!”

The truth is, though, and we were reminded of this Sunday morning through Ben's “practice” sermon at our first official/unofficial service in his home, that God is doing the fighting for us! He has been fighting for His children since the beginning of time and won't stop until Jesus returns! The Heavenly realms are at war here and around the world! What is so cool about this truth as we move across the country in hopes to win lost souls for the Kingdom, is that the harvest is already ripe for picking! God has gone ahead of us to combat the Enemy on behalf of His children! So, our job, as His ambassadors, is simply to LOVE! Our plan before coming here was to build relationships..friendships even, to take our time to connect and intertwine our lives with new friends and neighbors..and to watch God love the people of Utah through us. Now, more than ever, we are seeing people DRAWN to us.. not because we are cool or nice or anything on our own...but because we have JESUS in us.. and because He is drawing people to Himself through us.

Pray that we continue to build relationships with neighbors and co-workers. Pray that God continues to remind us that He does that combating.. that He has sent us here to LOVE with His love! If we can do this, if we can be vessels ready and willing to have love poured out through us, then we will surely see souls saved and lives won for Jesus Christ!

Williams family's first hike together! Check out that wink face!

Another shout out to my baby girl Jaz who turns 5 months this week!

Welcome to Texas Loves Utah

Hi and welcome to Texas Loves Utah!

Thank you for joining me here and committing to walk alongside us on what is sure to be the adventure of our lives! As you may know, I am part of a church-planting team who has moved from Weatherford, Texas to Salt Lake County, Utah just this week! I can't believe how time has flown during the months of preparation and now we are finally here!

WHY UTAH?

For the past year or so God has been speaking to our pastor Ben Helton and his wife Kristen, and my husband Cody and I, about an opportunity to re-locate to Salt Lake County, Utah with the purpose of starting a new church and ministering to the lost here. God wants us to be a part of the work He is doing in a city that is less than 2% reached, a city where  almost 30, 000 people live without even 1 Christian church! After a year of prayer and consideration, we have answered “yes” to this call. We are here, together with a church planting team of 4 families, to bring the gospel where it is desperately needed!

 OUR HEARTS

          We want the people of Herriman, Utah to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to find freedom in His perfect grace and love. The culture we've joined is one of neighborly love, good deeds, and hard work. Still, so many here do not know the GRACE that Jesus died to bring us. Our prayer is that as we are meeting people and building friendships, God will use us to show HIS love- a love that is unconditional and perfect, a love that died on a cross and did ALL the work to make salvation FREE to us!

 JOIN US

The purpose of this blog is to connect you, our body of believers back in Texas and across the nation, with what God will be doing through us in here in Utah. So many of you have surpassed our highest hopes in your generous giving toward this mission. What a blessing it is to know that your hearts are not only to give, but to partner with us as we bring the life-changing gospel of Jesus to Utah! Our hope is that your next step will be to follow along with us via this blog and PRAY for the specific needs you read about here.

 MEET THE TEAM!

Lead Pastor Ben Helton, his wife Kristen, and their kiddos Rachel, Karis, and Jaxson

Adam and Rebecca Harris

Jessica Stephenson

My husband Cody and I, and our baby girl Jaz

Even though we are all super busy settling in right now, God is ALREADY bringing people into our paths that we feel certain we are meant to love and minister to! I want to invite you to follow this blog and see what God has in store for Utah! :)

Check out this video of our first visit to Herriman in Summer 2012. It features other church planters working in here the valley explaining why this is such a wide open mission field. 

http://vimeo.com/47873070