Psalm 142:1-3

Psalm 142:1-3 (New International Version)

Psalm 142

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

¹ I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.

² I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble.

³ When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way.

Celebration and Transition

Dear Evident,

This is a great time of year and a great time in the life of Evident Church! I'm excited to be sharing a few things with you...

1) If you weren't able to be at Evident this past Sunday (Dec 6), please take a few minutes to listen to this audio clip from during the service (Evident Updates - 12/6/2009). In it, Matt and I share some very important information regarding Evident and Matt & Katie's transition. You can also read more at www.voxchurch.tv. We will be having a celebration and commissioning for Matt & Katie Sunday, December 20 during the morning service.

2) Evident is doing a lot of great things this holiday season to help others. First, I'd encourage you to listen to this message from Sunday to hear more about it (www.EvidentChurch.com click on "media", click to open message player, "Light Up the World" 12/06/2009), but second here's a quick snapshot.

- We've established a Benevolent Fund at Evident that you can give to that will be set aside to help anyone in need.

- The rest of December we'll be collecting food, clothing, and toys that we will give to families at Evident or in the community that need encouragement this Christmas season (if you are aware of anyone in need please let us know info@evidentchurch.com).

- We're working with Orchards Community Church in Romeo, MI and planning a time to serve at Detroit Rescue Mission (Dec 22, around 1pm, more details will be coming).

- God has also begun laying a burden on my heart to do something through this organization. As I shared it with the church on Sunday, my goal was to just express my heart and then receive your feedback. So far, I've had a lot of very positive feedback and would still love to hear from you!

3) This coming Sunday we're going to be celebrating baptisms! Join us Sunday, December 13, 10am, at Seneca Middle School for this baptism celebration! We'll also be kicking off a great new teaching series through the book of Matthew (desktop wallpaper attached).

We love you guys and appreciate your involvement and care for the Kingdom!

Josh Hossler

www.EvidentChurch.com

http://joshhossler.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/joshhossler

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test - I'm having trouble with Feedblitz again, just trying to figure a few things out...

Big News

Yesterday was about as interesting as they get for church planters. What I mean by that is that yesterday we started talking to Evident about the plans for Matt & Katie Woodburn (see this post). It is amazing to see the way God has worked over the past year and a half since Matt and Katie have been up here. The areas and ways in which God has used them at Evident is immeasurable. And I have personally been blessed so much from connecting with Matt (and Katie) in ministry and in life. They are a one of a kind couple and I look forward to what God's going to do in their lives and through them.

What's great is that Matt & Katie will be partnering with Colonial Woods Missionary Church to help start a new work in the Chesterfield/New Baltimore area of Michigan. What's really exciting about this for me is that it has been part of the vision of Evident from the beginning to be a multiplying church and see more and more churches planted. Beyond that, I get extremely geeked to talk about one day seeing a network of churches throughout the metro area uniquely connected to reach the city (Detroit) and surrounding communities.

It's not everyday that a year-old church plant is not only talking about stuff like this but is actually a part of it. This is big news to be a part of multiplication like this and we think the Kingdom wins big-time in all of this. We are excited to partner with Matt & Katie to help reach the Macomb and Chesterfield communities. Should be awesome!

- Please commit with us to praying for Matt & Katie as they transition over the next few months (they will be transitioning in January 2010).

- Please commit with us to praying for Evident as we continue to reach new people and grow during this fall.

- Please continue to pray for God's Spirit and work to be poured out in our lives and ministries.

Thank you for all you do and all your prayers. I'll post more later this week.

For fun.... a few images of my ladies (AvaRae & AdaLyn (Raelyn, my wife not pictured :) )!

I Want a New Marriage

That's the gist and title for the series we're in these days at Evident. (you can see the series intro and site here www.wewantanewmarriage.com) So far we've had great response to all the teaching and things we've done (Last week we gave out flowers to the ladies and had someone tell us they had never been given flowers before). Actually, I've been on maternity leave (ha, sort of) and Matt has been filling in and doing a great job (great messages, go to the media page of www.EvidentChurch.com). I'll be back in the saddle this Sunday and can't wait to tackle some more issues in this series. If you can make it, we'd love to see you Sunday.

For fun, here's a quick video we shot and played this past Sunday at church (it's me and AdaLyn!)....

She's Here!

After months of waiting she's finally here! I'll share more at church Sunday (or next time I see ya) but here's how things went down:

I got home Friday from a morning appointment (Raelyn was one week and a day past due) and I could tell something was different. Raelyn was having contractions and they were three minutes apart. We hung out at home (timing the contractions with a labor app on my iPhone :) ) and as things got more intense we headed into the hospital (thankfully our good friend Kate was at the house and could watch AvaRae for us). We got to the hospital at 3:30pm on Friday and things were just a whirlwind from there. We were rushing all over the place and were holding AdaLyn in our arms by 4:45pm! It was crazy and intense and a blessing. It was so fast we didn't even have time to grab our suitcases out of the car, which had our cameras in it (and if you know Raelyn and how she loves to scrapbook, the cameras are super important). I even asked at one point if I could run down and at least get the cameras and the mid-wife said not unless I wanted to miss the birth of my daughter!

Anyway, things went great and everyone was wonderful. We couldn't have asked for a better scenario and we are so thankful to God for answered prayers and extra blessings. We're thankful for all the support of our Evident family and staff, Raelyn's mom and dad as well as mine. Everyone's been great and we can't wait for all of you to meet little AdaLyn.

Here's a little bit about her:

AdaLyn Rose Hossler (name means "noble" and "pretty one")

September 25, 2009 (4:48pm)

8lbs 3oz

20 3/4 in long

Life Verse: Psalm 45:11 "The King is enthralled with your beautify, honor Him for He is your God."

I'll post a little bit more Wednesday. In the meantime, here's some pics. Enjoy!

A Giving Alternative

Nice picture huh? I went golfing a few days ago and this was my tap in birdie on the par 4 13th! Golfing's a lot of fun when you're hitting shots like this (or in my case "shot" singular). Birdie's (one shot under par for you non-golf fans) are easy when they're an inch away.

I thought of some Evident parallels to this and this is what came to mind. We've got a lot of things rolling these days that makes ministry fun, some tap in birdie kind of things.

We were just able to launch a new website and one of the best, lesser known features is online giving. Before you head into a tailspin about this, remember it's simply an alternative for giving and isn't necessarily for everyone. I would really encourage you to consider it though, whether you're an Evident regular or a distant observer/supporter.

For starters, it is definitely safe and easy. We take this very seriously and only the most trusted tools have been used to make this possible. Secondly, it also streamlines things. Raelyn and I have chose to do the Automated Bank Debit, which automatically draws money (an amount we determine and can change if ) out of our checking account and puts it into Evident's. It streamlines things for us personally (saving time and checks) and it also streamlines things for Evident (as more and more of you do this, accounting and tracking get easier).

Is it less spiritual? That's going to have to be something you hammer out personally. Scripture is to give, give generously, and give cheerfully. Automated giving helps me do that. Even though the giving is automated, I know my heart is in it and it also helps me to be more disciplined in my giving and not half-hazard.

There are a lot more things I could talk about, but to keep the post short I'll stop for now. God is doing some great things in and through Evident and it wouldn't be possible without the faithful and generous donations from the Evident church family and many of you. Online giving might be a good option for you. It makes things simple and easy and helps support what God is doing. Check out the "Give" page at www.EvidentChurch.com to learn more and definitely email me if you have questions.

Sunday Recap

Sunday was a big day for Evident! We're launching into a new season and you can definitely feel the momentum building. Last week (sep 13) we celebrated our one-year anniversary which was a blast (party favors and all), and yesterday we kick-offed a new series We Want a New Marriage (listen to Matt's message here (on the media page) - he was covering for me while I'm on call, baby is due any day). We'd like to get your input (and those who will be at Evident during this series) and so feel free to get in on the discussion here.

I'm absolutely loving it these days as we watch what God is doing. God has brought an amazing group of people to Evident - you guys are awesome - many of you invited and brought people with you yesterday. We had about 160 at church and three people accepted Christ!

We're still waiting for the new addition to our family. Raelyn's due date was last Thursday (sep 17) and life is literally on hold waiting for this little one. We just had a doctors visit today though and everything looks great... just means more waiting!

I'll post again later this week with an update on our baby situation and a few other updates about Evident.

new things

Just wanted to redirect you to a few new things we've done...

Redesigned Evident Church website (looks sweet Jonny!)(lots of media, lots of fun):

www.EvidentChurch.com

Follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/joshhossler

Out of the Silence

I've been "gone" for a while, but I'm picking things up again. Feel free to read past posts to see where we've been. Posts will be coming regularly! God is and has been doing some amazing things!