What’s Happening at The Link
by Mike Green, Senior Pastor

The Link had what is called a “soft launch” January 25th. A soft launch is a scaled back launch, with scaled back children’s programs, worship music and promotions. This was to allow us to grow a core team more slowly in the smaller space of Chick-fil-a (which would have limited us to about 50 people.). The week of the launch Chick-fil-a called to tell us they had rethought the arrangement and asked us not to meet there. We made alternative arrangements and had 51 show up at the new location, the Holiday Inn, and this was despite the short notice. We are glad to be at the Holiday Inn and have made more permanent arrangements there. We have now been meeting for 10 weeks. Here are the highlights and insights so far:

The people we thought would attend, those who we worked so hard to build relationships with, have not attended. The learned lesson is it takes time to go from relationship to church visit. We have to be patient and give these relationships more time. But the pleasant surprise was all the people who have come that we did not expect. It is amazing how God has brought so many our way and through unique channels. There has not been a magic bullet or best approach. Many different things have worked together to allow us to more than quadruple in size in such a short time. Our group of 13 has grown to 63 this past week. God is good! He allowed us to reap a harvest in fields we did not plant.

With all of this my greatest joy these last weeks has actually been a new ministry we started at Port Royal’s Skateboard Park. This past year we have made large investments of time at the Skateboard Park and had finally come to the point where we believed we had enough relational clout to start something overtly Christian. So we started “Burgers and Bibles.” On Saturdays at lunch time we come to the park with bags of burgers and cases of Bibles. Those interested gather at the gazebo and we eat lunch and study the Bible. More than 20 have been attending. What is so amazing is to see them respond when we arrive. They drop whatever they are doing and run to the gazebo to get a spot. We do not even need to spread the word when we arrive, they do it for us. Their excitement and enthusiasm is absolutely wonderful to see. Pray for these kids and the wisdom on how best to use this privilege we have with them. What is also so exciting is kids ask to keep the Bibles and of course we let them, plus the parents who have interacted with us so far, thank us for what we are doing. God is good!

This is actually a snap shot of who we are, a church that does meet on Sunday but is vitally involved in the community during the week. Our services and the launch have been exciting and lives have been changed, but that was never the vision of The Link. We are here for the community, to make a difference outside the walls. And to see it happening on Sundays is great, but to see it happening on Saturdays is even better. I have never had more fun!

Out there,

Mike