Light in the Darkness

Greetings from Utah!  Thanks so much for reading and praying along here! We feel so privileged to be a part of the work God is doing in this part of the country-an area that the North American Mission Board considers to be less than 2% reached for Jesus. Lifestone Church is truly a light in the darkness- a church plant here in Herriman, Utah, a city where there has never before been a Bible-based church.

We are loving our new facility (see previous post for details)! Thank you to everyone who prayed so faithfully as we sought God's provision for a larger facility in which to reach more of Herriman! Meeting at Providence Hall High School has been such a blessing! 


You'll notice in the pics below that we had to get creative one week and use the "Commons" area at the high school while the gym/ stage was being used for a high school theater production. We made it work and created great memories with our first Baptism Celebration in our new facility! We are seeing God do mighty, mighty things. We continue to have more individuals come to accept Jesus as their Savior and ask to "go public" in believer's baptism! Last month we baptized 6 new believers, bringing us to 44 total baptisms since we opened our doors in October 2013!

6 new believers rock their "GO PUBLIC" t-shirts!

We love to see parents baptize their children!

This past semester we had 6 small groups meet throughout the week to connect to each other and God's Word. We studied I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer and enjoyed discussing what the Bible has to say about our attitudes and responsibilities after we commit to a church family. A lot of learning took place as so many of our church family members were unfamiliar with Biblical concepts like "striving to be a source of unity in the church", "laying aside my own preferences and desires" and even "praying for my pastor every day". We thank God for our small groups and the way He uses us to teach one another how to do life His way! This past week, our small groups closed out an amazing semester with Christmas parties and enjoyed the fellowship of other believers.

Youth Christmas Bowling Party!

Please pray for Lifestone this Christmas season. Pray that He uses us to share His Son with those here who do not yet know Him as Savior and Lord. We are currently hanging door hangers at the homes of 2,500 of our neighbors to invite them to join us for our 3rd annual Community Christmas Eve Candlelight Service where we will sing traditional Christmas songs and close out our "The Light of Christmas" sermon series. We love this opportunity to share the Good News about what Jesus' birth really means and how His Light overcomes loneliness, conquers fear, removes shame, and offers hope! 

We look forward to all God has for us in 2016! In January, we'll kick off a church-wide campaign- Rick Warren's 40 Days in the Word. Our prayer is that our church will grasp the idea that we are to be "doers" of the Word, not just readers. We are also praying that new small groups start up as a result of this study and, ultimately, that many, many lives are changed for eternity as we begin to live out God's perfect Word!

Please continue to pray daily that Lifestone is a light in this dark place-this place that does not know grace-that God's light shines through the lives we live and our efforts here. Thank you for your prayers-and for being a light where YOU live!

"Providence"

 WE WENT OUT WITH A SPLASH!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! In August 2013, our family, along with 3 other families, moved from Weatherford, Texas here to Herriman, Utah to plant a Bible-teaching church in what was formerly the largest US city without one!  

On August 23rd, we celebrated our last Sunday Morning at Herriman's Recreation Center  and went out with a splash! We are so thankful for the opportunity to have baptized 10 new believers that day! Please join us in praising God for providing such a beautiful facility in which to reach so many in the past almost 2 years!

PROVIDENCE!

So many of you have prayed faithfully for over a year now that God would provide a larger facility for Lifestone to meet in on Sundays mornings-one that would provide more space as we work to reach the masses of Herriman with the Truth about Jesus' love for them! 

On Sunday, August 30th we met for the first time at Providence Hall High School where we have access to the gymnasium (which includes a really nice stage), cafeteria, band hall, and classroom.

We are using the gymnasium as both our 

Worship Center and as a lobby for 

Welcome Center, Kid's Life Registration, and Cafe.

We set up a nursery for Kid's Life 

Birth-Age 3  in the band hall.

The classroom across the hall from the band hall is being used for Kid's Life Age 4-Kindergarten.

Kid's Life 1st-5th Grade sets up "camp" in the cafeteria.

GRAND OPENING!

After 3 weeks of practicing setup/tear down and working out kinks in our new facility, we are excited and ready for our official Grand Opening this Sunday September 20th!  10,000 mailers have gone out to our community members and our Lifestone family has been inviting everyone we know to come check us out at PHHS!

We just had to share this pic of the extra help
we had tearing down this past Sunday!

Thank YOU!

Thank you for your constant prayers for our church plant. Because of your prayers, encouragement, and support, 30 individuals have come to know the Jesus of the Bible and shared their new faith publicly through Believer's Baptism! In a city that had never had a Bible based church 2 years ago, about 100 people gather weekly to worship God together, 5 groups of people meet in homes weekly to study His Word, and every day new believers are sharing their faith with friends, families, neighbors and co-workers. We believe His work here has only begun. We feel so privileged to be here and witness this amazing harvest!

Please pray that God continues the work He's begun here. Pray that the life change in our new believers is evident to everyone around them. Pray that they are able to share their new faith with confidence-but also with gentleness and patience as many here have never even heard the Good News of the Bible!

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." 1 Peter 3:15

Much to Celebrate!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! We hope your summer has been a good one! Ours has been busy- but we can't wait to tell you all about this summer at our church plant here in Herriman, Utah- and also our exciting news for this fall!

CAMP

In June, Lifestone sent 20 students to a camp near Park City, UT. The kids had a blast connecting with their peers from other churches and learning about God's love for them! Most of our students attend school and live in neighborhoods where they are the minority because of their faith, and so they found it especially encouraging to be at camp surrounded by tons of students their age who also follow the Jesus of the Bible!  Check out these pics from both the High School and Middle School camps!

We love the bungee swing!

Camp culminated on the last day with a hike and a mountain-top worship service! 

VOLUNTEER BASH

In July, we threw a Backyard Bash to celebrate and show appreciation to Lifestone's 60 Volunteers! Lifestone would not be making the impact it is here in Herriman without the faithful service of our amazing volunteers who greet, teach, set up, and tear down week after week! Check out these pics from the bash!

SUMMER LIFEGROUPS

This Summer, Lifestone facilitated 5 LifeGroups who met in homes throughout the week and participated in a study called Christianity Explored. Through this study, we have examined exactly who Jesus was and is by reading through the gospel of Mark. Life-long believers and skeptic seekers alike have enjoyed discovering the Jesus of the Bible, His humble heart, His sacrificial service, and how big His love is for us even today! 

BAPTISM CELEBRATION

On August 23rd, we will have another Baptism Celebration! Already, 7 new believers have asked to be baptized on this day to publicly share their decisions to allow Jesus to be Lord of their lives! Please join us in thanking God for the courage of these new believers, as Biblical baptism is a huge statement of faith in this area where Biblical Christianity is still very foreign. Please also pray that the hearts of these individuals' family members will be softened and that ultimately they, too, will come to trust in the Jesus of the Bible!

AN ANSWER TO PRAYER!

And now for our big announcement! We will meet at the local Recreation Center for only 3 more Sundays! Beginning on Sunday, August 30th, we will begin meeting at Providence Hall High School, a beautiful charter high school right here in Herriman! We will have access to the gymnasium-complete with a large stage, a cafeteria-where our elementary students will meet, a band hall-which we'll use for our nursery, and a large classroom where our 4 & 5 year olds will meet. We'll post pics of these amazing spaces soon! 

We are ecstatic about this opportunity to provide "more space for grace" as we seek to share the good news about Jesus with ALL of Herriman! This is such an answer to prayer! We know that many of you have prayed for more than a year now that God would provide more space for Lifestone to meet on Sunday mornings. Please pray that God uses Lifestone's new meeting place to reach this community with His awesome love!

Providence Hall High School
Herriman, Utah

Parade!

As promised, here are pics from this year's Herriman Days Parade Outreach Event...

The theme for our float was WE "MUSTACHE" YOU TO VISIT LIFESTONE!

Pastor Ben Helton rocking the biggest of mustaches...

but not the cutest!

We had 56 Lifestoners come out to represent! 

We handed out 1,500 pinwheels adorned 

with mustaches and Lifestone invite cards!

We also had tons of really cute kids on our float-

we figured that couldn't hurt!

We had such a blast hanging out with our church family and connecting with our community! Please pray that the outreach that took place, coupled with personal invites, will result in many visiting Lifestone to hear the Good News about Jesus!

Can't Wait for Saturday!

Welcome back to Texas Loves Utah! If you are new here, we are a group of Texans who moved to Herriman, Utah in Summer 2013 with the purpose of planting a Bible based church in a city where that has never happened before! Lifestone Church exists to "connect REAL people to REAL life-found only in Christ" -and because of YOUR faithful support, this mission is being fulfilled!

This past Sunday, we had the privilege of baptizing 2 new believers..a mother-daughter duo! The woman you see below has participated in our Journey of Grace ministry (see previous post) and has been super enthusiastic about beginning her new life in Christ and sharing that with her daughter as well! Check out these pics from our Baptism Celebration!

This coming weekend will be a big one for Lifestone Church! On Saturday morning, our church will be featured in the annual Herriman Days Parade! We have invited everyone to come out with their families, wear green Lifestone t-shirts, and hand out 1,500 pinwheels to kiddos! This is a HUGE opportunity to represent Lifestone Church to Herriman! 

After the parade, we'll continue our celebration of Herriman Days at one of Herriman's parks where there will be carnival rides, vendor booths, concessions...and.....Lifestone Church's Worship Team playing a 1 hour set! We are PUMPED about yet another opportunity to show Herriman some Lifestone Love as we give them a little taste of how Sunday morning sounds at Lifestone!

Please join us in praying that barriers will be broken this weekend as we go out into our community and show them that we are people just like them except for that we have a love like no other and a "peace that passes understanding"!

As always, thank you for praying and following along here at Texas Loves Utah. Because of your support, many are coming to know the Truth of the Bible and the Grace of Jesus for the first time in their lives. We'll be back soon with pics from Herriman Days! We look forward to partnering with you in the years to come as we share Jesus' Love where it is so very needed! Hugs from Utah!

Calling All Prayer Warriors!

Today we'd like to share with you about a new ministry here at Lifestone Church in Herriman, Utah. Our hope is that as you read,  your heart will break with ours for this specific group of people and that, above all else, you will pray.

Opportunity for Ministry

As we have mentioned here before, God has given us the opportunity to minister to a very unique people group. The North American Mission Board has deemed the state of Utah to be 2% "reached" for Jesus. But the friends we have made here are not strangers to church or even to the name of Jesus.  In the city where we live, about 80% claim the LDS faith. Most of our friends have spent the majority of their lives in church, many in church leadership,  and some have even served on missions. We live among an extremely "churched" demographic. However, more than ever before, one by one, these individuals are realizing a disconnect between the perfection their religion requires and the reality of even the best of their human efforts. At last, the need for a Savior and all-sufficient grace is piercing the hearts of the tired and heavy-laden. And so the journey begins.

The more we learn from our new friends, the more we realize that we are using the same vocabulary and at the same time speaking entirely different languages. Concepts like "grace", "atonement", "salvation", and even "Jesus" hold significantly different meanings to a Mormon and to a Bible-believing Christian. All this to say, as church planters in Herriman, Utah, we are not working with clean slates here. People who are leaving the LDS church and visiting Biblical churches like Lifestone are re-learning truths they have trusted their entire lives. They are re-learning who Jesus is and God's plan for salvation through Jesus. They are re-learning who they are in Christ, His purpose for their lives, and God's promise for their eternities! 

As if all this re-learning isn't difficult enough, our friends are also facing some additional challenges. Most are experiencing alienation from family and social circles because of their decision to walk away from the LDS church and are left feeling hopelessly betrayed. We also witness many who struggle with lost identity after leaving a religion that has been their everything. Mormonism isn't simply a faith practiced for a couple hours on Sunday mornings-LDS to so many is a way of life. It is family, heritage, marriage, neighborhoods, friends, standards and morals! LDS is their world. Worse yet, with a new distrust in religion, some have lost their ability to trust God or scripture of any form.

With this degree of faith and identity crisis, you can understand why so many here feel as if their foundations- on which they have built their marriages, families and lives- have crumbled completely. One day at a time, they are re-consructing every aspect of who they are. Like immigrants entering a new land, these Mormons have left what is comfortable and are charting new territory. Biblical Christianity is a complete mystery to them, a foreign place with its own language and customs.

What we do at Lifestone on Sunday mornings alone is not enough to minister to these needs. Outside of one-on-one conversations, the deep and healing ministry that it will take to mend these broken hearts simply cannot happen in a large group setting. These types of conversations are delicate. This kind of healing takes time. 

Journey of Grace

Shane and Dixie Wise, a couple at Lifestone who has recently stepped out of the LDS church and into Jesus' perfect grace, have played a crucial role in educating our team about the very specific challenges that accompany the transition out of LDS faith into Biblical Christianity. Together with Pastor Ben and his wife, Kristen, Shane and Dixie are a developing a ministry we are calling Journey of Grace. In this ministry, group members gather weekly for about 6 weeks to share common hurts, questions...and a glimmer of hope that God is in fact real and that He loves them in a way they never knew was possible.

Last week was Journey of Grace's first meeting. All adults with LDS backgrounds as well as their supporting spouses were invited to attend. One by one, 12 individuals shared their stories of heartache, confusion, and isolation. Although the details of these stories are confidential in that they are nameless, we can tell you that the group ranges from some who now know Jesus as their Savior to others who now wonder if there is a God at all. 

This week, the group met again and the topic was "Why can I trust the Bible?" In the coming weeks, the group will dialogue on the history of Mormonism and Joseph Smith and, finally, what the Bible has to say about sufficient grace, salvation, and believer's baptism.  

Please Pray

Pray that God will use Lifestone Church and Journey of Grace to give these 12 individuals and the countless many we will serve in the years to come reason to trust again. Pray that they continue to open up to one another in this safe place and that they find some solace in the common ground they share with their fellow group members. Pray that they can trust their new church leaders as we teach them Truth in love. Most of all, pray that God will show them that they can trust the Bible and that eventually relationships with the Healer Himself, Jesus Christ, begin. 

Before you bow your head in prayer, we ask that you listen and allow the powerful lyrics of Tenth Avenue North's "Healing Begins" remind you of the shame and hurt that living a life of religion brings-and the perfect healing and freedom that our Savior Jesus Christ offers! 

Click HERE to listen!

Easter 2015

Hello, Texas, and to our supporters around the globe! As you know, this past Sunday was Easter Sunday and, as you've read here before, the best opportunity we have all year to welcome non-believers into our midst! We are happy to report that 165 souls were present Sunday morning-many of whom have most likely never heard the message that Jesus loves them!

In anticipation of high attendance, we moved the service from our Worship Center across the hall to the gym!

Children in both the Preschool and Elementary rooms participated in fun activities that reinforced this encouraging message:  "God loves me, so He sent Jesus to rescue me!"

Kid's Life Volunteer David Ashford (of Aledo, TX)
led a "small" group of 17 Kindergarten & 1st Graders!

After the service, everyone headed outside where over 1,500 eggs were waiting to be found and the Easter Bunny was all set up for family photos!

Ashley Smith led the youngsters in stretches to 
         prepare for the big dash toward the eggs!

Pastor Ben Helton & his family with the Easter Bunny!

We are especially excited to share with you this special clip from Sunday morning's service. We believe that churches grow when they make it known that "life change happens here"! Click HERE to watch a video in which the people of Lifestone close Sunday's service by sharing how Jesus has changed their lives forever!

Still, our work here is not finished! We are confident "that He who began a good work...will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!" (Philippians 1:6) With this in mind, we ask that you pray in these specific ways...

...AS WE WELCOME.
Please continue to pray that God will guide us as we work to create room on Sunday mornings for all who come to hear about God's love! The gymnasium was available for our use this past Sunday only because the Rec Center was officially closed to the public in observance of the holiday. The gym will not work as a long-term solution to our space "problem", but we trust that God's got something great in mind!

...AS WE MAKE DISCIPLES.
Please pray that God will help us to connect each visitor to our church family. Our goal is to point as many of them as possible to our weekly small groups and to give them opportunities to serve in a ministry where they are passionate. We currently have 5 groups meeting in homes. Pray that God helps us train up new small group leaders as our church grows and our groups multiply! 

...AS WE BAPTIZE.
Be in prayer for our Baptism Celebration this Sunday, the 12th. Pray that these new believers are encouraged and discipled by our church family and that their Baptisms are a testimony to all in attendance of what Christ has already done in their lives!

...AS WE TEACH.
Pray for our new teaching series, "Once Upon a Marriage: Valuable Lessons from Biblical Couples". Pray that God will use these messages to restore marriages as well as other relationships in our lives. Pray that all who attend will have a renewed understanding of who God is, His love for us, and His beautiful design for our lives!

Thank you for following and praying along! 

Utah loves YOU, Texas!