Calling All Prayer Warriors

WELCOME
Thank you for joining us back here at Texas Loves Utah! For those of you who are new to the blog, we are a team of 4 families who moved from Weatherford, Texas here to Herriman, Utah with the purpose of planting a new church and ministering to the lost here. Our new church, Lifestone is the first ever Bible-based church to be planted in this city, one that is considered by the North American Mission Board to be less than 2% reached for Jesus! With your support and prayers, and through the power and love of our Almighty God, we are here to change that statistic! Please check out the previous posts to learn all that God has been up to in the past 7 months since our move, and we invite you to follow along and pray along as God's plan for Herriman, Utah unfolds!

EASTER
We ask that you begin praying today for our Easter service on April 20th. As you all know, Easter Sunday is a huge opportunity to welcome families into your Sunday service who might not attend on any other Sunday. We have big plans for promoting Lifestone's first Easter service and for making it a day parents and kids will never forget! One of our new friends here has already agreed to dress up as the Easter Bunny for a funny promotional video that we plan to post on Facebook and other online outlets! I'll do my best to get that video posted here on the blog, too, so all of you back home can laugh along! Pray, pray, pray that God brings the masses to hear the TRUE message of Easter! So many here have never been introduced to the Jesus you and I know and love.

HUGE PRAISE REPORT!
Phil and Ashley Smith, our friends from Weatherford, are moving here this weekend to join in on the work God is doing through our church plant! We are so thankful that God has provided Phil a nursing job here, and we are trusting God to provide the Smiths a permanent home quickly!

THANK YOU
Thank you, Texas, and to our prayer warriors around the world. You are such a big part of the work God is doing here. PRAYER CAN DO ANYTHING GOD CAN DO!

Oh Happy Day!

This past Sunday was definitely a day Lifestone Church Herriman will never forget! We baptized our first new believer right in Salt Lake County's Recreation Center, and there were 56 witnesses for the special event! Testimony in baptism AND our highest attendance Sunday by 10... what else could we ask for!? God is certainly up to something big here in Herriman, Utah, where 7 months ago, there had never in history been a Bible-teaching church.

Enjoy the pics!

                                               

What will God do next?

Welcome back, Texas and all of our supporters and prayer warriors around the globe! We have reason to celebrate! This Sunday, Lifestone Church Herriman, Utah will baptize our first new believer!! (I promise to have some pics for you in my next post!) We are so thankful for this amazing opportunity to celebrate God's work here and also to testify to everyone present the amazing change that Jesus can bring to a life surrendered to Him!


Join us in praying that Lifestone- through God's power and for God's glory- will end 2014 with:

• an average of 100 people present at Sunday's services
• 10 new believers baptized
• 5 healthy Lifegroups (small groups)

To those of you who live in the Bible Belt, these numbers may look low. Remember that in the context we are living in, these are incredibly God-sized expectations and that this kind of growth is unheard of here. Our God is capable of much, so please pray!!!

Check out this powerful verse on Biblical expectancy...

"Yet I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living! "

Psalm 27:13 (NLT)

This is the Aquatics Center that we will use for baptisms at the Rec Center
 where we meet on Sundays. We joked about having people go down
the big blue slide as a method of immersion! ;)

A Little Love Goes A Long Way

We are only about 7 weeks into the new year, and already so many exciting things are happening here! If you are new to Texas Loves Utah, welcome, and thank you for choosing to follow along and pray along on this exciting adventure! We are a team of Texans who have relocated and planted the first ever Bible-teaching church in the beautiful city of Herriman, Utah. Our team of 11 has now grown into almost 40 regular attenders, with high attendance Sundays reaching almost 50. We are in awe of what God has started here in a city that is considered less than 1% reached for Jesus!



One of the initial challenges of planting a brand new church was simply creating awareness of our new church's existence. Through an article in a local newspaper, handing out invite cards and Christmas CDs, and simple word of mouth invites, we feel we have a pretty good start in making our presence known. We are really excited about our newest form of outreach, a new program called Lovestrong, whose purpose will be "to love our community one school at a time". Through Lovestrong, we will encourage teachers through events such as catered luncheons and provide school supplies, meals, and clothing for students in need. Lovestrong will serve to show God's love through us to the people of Herriman and hopefully work as a PR boost at the same time!  This past week, we kicked off Lovestrong with a luncheon for 60 faculty and staff at a local elementary school. We catered lunch and even pampered the teachers with a chocolate fountain. The response was amazing. Some teachers were even in tears as they thanked us for loving them in this way, and we were able to answer many questions about "the new church at the Rec Center"!

Check out these pics of what was an 
extremely successful outreach event!

A New Year, A New Hope

Hi and Happy New Year! God has so much in store for us here in Utah in the year ahead and we want to invite you along for the ride!  A great big THANK YOU to all of you who followed along and prayed along in 2013, and thank you in advance for your continued prayer and encouragement in 2014. The message of Jesus and His Grace is so very needed here, and our church planting team would be incomplete without you, our prayer warriors and supporters.

One final praise report for 2013: We had nearly 70 people in attendance at the first annual Lifestone Christmas Eve service! We had such a wonderful evening praising God together with our new neighbors and friends. Check out the following pics of what we consider a HUGE work of God!

 

 

Our God has certainly begun a good work here, and we are SO pumped to see Him continue it. Please be in prayer that God continues to grow our church here in Herriman, that we are able to serve and love more people in 2014 than any of us could ever expect. Pray that God raises up new leadership within our church as we begin to expand our lifegroups, that He continues to give Ben a clear vision for the future of Lifestone, and ultimately that God's perfect will is done here in Utah.

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.