Redeeming Grace Church, Southgate, Michigan

In October of 2021, Kevin Godin, one of the elders of Redeeming Grace Church in Pittsburg, PA was sent out with his family to plant Redeeming Grace Church of Southgate, Michigan. Kevin is planting this church in partnership with Anchored in Truth Ministries and under the immediate oversight of Redeeming Grace Church of Pittsburgh as his sending church. Redeeming Grace Church of Southgate was constituted as a church in December of 2021.

Pastor Kevin has a wife, Beth, and two children, Zack and Abby.

(Update from May 2023)

Hello RGC prayer partners,

I apologize for the delay in sending out the update this month. Things have been busy! Even so, we continue to be amazed at what the Lord is doing in our midst. We all enjoy those times when God works through obvious blessings, but he often does much of his work in adversity. This month we have had several of our members facing challenges and difficulties. It has not been easy and there have been several moments of discouragement but it has been a blessing to see so many step up to encourage each other and share one another's burdens. God is good and His lovingkindness endures forever.

Here are the most recent updates so you can continue to lift us up in prayer.

Praises / Prayer:

We launched the next semester of our Bible Institute which is a course on Methodical Bible Study. I am teaching the group a method of inductive Bible study. The response to this course has been amazing. Nearly 40% of our average Sunday attendance is in the course. That is a blessing because I cannot think of any other class that I believe is more valuable for believers that we teach than this one.

Having pastor's Chris and Craig has continued to be a growing blessing in allowing us to expand our discipleship efforts and prayer with people.

Our outreach group is really starting to pick up momentum and have several events planned that would have been impossible for us to pull off a year ago.

The Lord continues to add folks slowly but steadily and we continue to have people regularly looking to make a membership commitment. In fact, we added two new members yesterday.

Please praise God for and continue to pray for Bobby, who is the young man potentially interested in missionary work. I have been encouraging him to gain a marketable professional skill as well as furthering his study of the scripture. He is considering the AIT pastoral training institute and is now working as an I.T. person.

A group is considering establishing a counselling center in our region where people would have access to certified Christian counsellors. We are increasingly seeing people whose counselling needs require more than what we can provide in pastoral counselling sessions. Please pray that this moves forward so we have another trusted resource to whom we can refer people with those needs.

Our Easter service was well attended with about 80 people and we had several regulars out visiting family, etc. It was encouraging to see new faces and a few have continued to visit afterward.

I mentioned some difficulties earlier. We had a dear brother lose his mother. Please pray for Bob, Rachel, Bobby, and Lana who lost a mother, mother in law, and grandmother. We have some folks working through marriage issues, another dear sister who lost a pet that she has had since she was a teenager, and some people dealing with difficulties at work. Please continue to pray for the Lord to be merciful and to glorify His name by drawing our people closer to Him and to one another through these trials.

Updates:

The pew cushions and welcome center upgrade are done! Praise God that we were able to do this without draining our reserves as much as we thought we might. It is possible we may be able to do additional needed upgrades if our members are supportive of pushing to do more and are willing to help offset those costs. Please pray the Lord would give us wisdom in this.

Please pray I find the time to file the paperwork with Michigan so we can have the deed transferred.

We have more helpers for the kids now but continue to need more teachers.

Again, I want to thank you so much for your continued prayers.

If you are receiving this email message it is because we have you listed as someone who is praying for our revitalization efforts in Southgate MI. If you would like to be removed from these monthly updates, or if you know anyone else who would like to receive them, please let me know.

"Finally, brothers [and sisters], pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you..." (2 Thessalonians 3:1 ESV)

In Christ,

Pastor Kevin

Grace Bible Church, Lexington, South Carolina

Alliance Community Baptist Church

Redeeming Grace Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania