To: Netcast Church Guests

At this point I think that it is easy to say that we are all in awe of what God is doing here in Greater Boston. We are clearly wrapped up in something much bigger than we ever would have expected. Our great God, by his Power, Might, and Grace; is doing something that I have never seen done before. In our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined to have over 100 people join us on Sunday, especially since Netcast has only being here for 4 months.

It’s great to see that you joined us for church this past Sunday. I hope your time was both meaningful, fun and you enjoyed the experience. I just wanted to personally express appreciation to you for coming out to visit us. We’d appreciate your prayers as we move forward as a church, and seek to see new levels of growth in people’s lives this year!

We’re excited about what God has in store for us as we continue to grow and have an impact on Greater Boston. If you’re looking for a church where you can make a difference in the lives of others, consider worshipping with us again. If you’d like to grab a cup of coffee one day, I’d love to do it. Just let me know. Regardless, if you have any questions, comments or concerns about anything, please do not hesitate to let me know.

See you tomorrow.
Matt

P.S. If you got a second, you can help us by answering this quick survey; our team is going to talk about it this next week.

Survey:
What most influenced your decision to attend Netcast?
What was most memorable about your first time at Netcast?
Would you feel comfortable inviting your friends to attend Netcast with you? Why?
How could we improve your experience?
Would you be interested in learning more about getting more connected?

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Matt Chewning
Lead Pastor - Netcast Church
matt@netcastchurch.org
www.netcastchurch.org

Netcast Church (Launch Update)

At this point I think that it is easy to say that we are all in awe of what God is doing here in Greater Boston. We are clearly wrapped up in something much bigger than we ever would have imagined. Our great God, by his Power, Might, and Grace; is doing something that I have never seen done before. Our goal has become less of "Plant Netcast Church" and is becoming more of "Keep up with the Lord because He is moving fast."

As most of you have been following, Beth and I got here only 4 months ago to plant the gospel in Greater Boston, starting in Beverly MA with the hopes of seeing 100 churches planted in Greater Boston in 40 years. We started with a "Vision Meeting" in our living room and then began to build a team. After a few meetings we realized that this is moving faster than we expected and originally desired. We out-grew our home in only a couple of months and just had our first Sunday Service.

This church would not be remotely possible without the incredible people who have journeyed with us along the way for almost 4 years. We are seeing the fruit of your faithfulness everyday as people are being broken of sin and falling in love with Jesus. Disciples are being made and God is using people like you and me. On Sunday; We had to keep adding rows and rows as people flooded in? I was told that there was a total of 120 adults and children who visited. We only set out 70 chairs, so that is way more than we ever expected. Some of those people were "well wishers", but most of them weren't. The majority of the people were from our community and Christ is adding to our numbers daily.

I have already gotten emails and messages from many people. People want to be baptized, people re-dedicated their lives to Jesus, others want to get plugged into a small group and some more want to partner with us. More than numbers or anything else, it is most exciting to see God working in the hearts of people. All of this would be worthless if we weren't drawing closer to Jesus as he continues to reveal himself to us.

Please know that your financial support and prayer support has gone further than any of us could have dreamed. Continue to pray for us as we work towards assimilating some of this. Please also pray that we pursue humility and never take any credit for what is happening. Pride got Lucifer kicked out of heaven and it is the same temptation that we face everyday. Our desire is not to grow a huge church, our desire is to reach as many people as possible with the life changing message of the gospel. God gets all the glory and praise. Bless his name. He is worthy.

Pictures are at: http://chewningjourney.blogspot.com/2011/01/netcast-church-launch-day-pictures.html
Sermon is at: http://www.netcastchurch.org/#/sermons

I love you more than you know.
Matt

Netcast Church "Launch Day" Pictures

Click the photo to enlarge it.

A big thanks to Amber Shomo at http://www.forevercandid.com/ for her awesome pictures.

Wow; What a great LAUNCH!!!

I just need to send out a note to let everyone know how excited I am about what is going on. First, it was amazing to see how our team worked together to set up for the service. Everyone worked so hard and did such a great job with setup and tear down. This church would not be remotely possible without our core team's faithfulness and dedication to teh Gospel and seeing Netcast do something special. Praise Christ that our team is believing God for huge things.

Second; We had to keep adding rows and rows as people flooded in? I was told that there was a total of 120 people who visited with us today. That is way more than we ever expected. Some of those people were "well wishers", but most of them weren't. God is adding to our numbers daily.

Third; I have already gotten emails or text messages from many people who were impacted today. More than numbers or anything else, it is most exciting to see God working in the hearts of people. All of this would be worthless if we weren't drawing closer to Jesus as he continues to reveal himself to us.

Our pursuit of Christ doesn't end when a service ends; The service is a chance to worship Christ for all he has done and celebrate with each-other what God is up to. We did that today!

I will send out another update later this week. I love you all more than you know.

To My Acts 29 Gospel Partners

Just wanted to give everyone an update that Netcast will be launching this Sunday. Please take a second and pray for us. We have only been in our city for 5 months and have outgrown our home. The local YMCA has given us a free gym to use for worship. Out team is growing fast and they are owning their responsibilities. In just 5 months, so much has been happening. College students are maturing, reading their bibles, breaking up with their unbelieving partners, etc. We have seen marriages that were once almost over, now thriving. Our core is looking more like family than friends as we serve one another, love one another, and own this church plant together. I already have my eye on our first potential church planter. I can go on and on with what we are seeing the Lord do.

Join me in praising Christ in this time of blessing and that He will be glorified as we gather for worship on Sunday. We are in a difficult area. Greater Boston is one of the hardest places to reach; but Christ is building His church. Bless his name.

I love you all; more than you know. The A29 partnership with us in this journey has been incredible. Special thanks to Jan V, David P and Bland M. I praise God for our brotherhood.

Believe God's Promises.

This week I sat down with our worship leader to catch up and talk. In the midst of our conversation, there was a shift as Josh began to talk about declaring and worshiping because of the promises of God. As he spoke, God's Spirit began to stir something in my soul.

God's promises are his pledge to do or not do something. “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). “Not one word has failed of all his good promises” (1 Kings 8:56). The term “claiming a promise,” however, is scary, especially to some who have been possibly influenced by those who take random verses and desire to “put pressure” on God to give them what they want. This careless use of the Word is far from the biblical standard.

Promises are unlocked with the key of believing prayer. Peter recalls the words of his Lord and writes “Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). The Holy Spirit links Scripture, through meditation and prayer, to our needs, to people, and to opportunities. A promise from God becomes personalized as we see its potential to change our life. Because God has promised it, it is already ours.

In this church plant God has shown His faithfulness, His staggering love and long-suffering with me and you. I know He wants to overwhelm us with opportunities, as we believe His Word specifically in prayer and worship.

The application to this is simple. As we fast and pray this week, we no longer need to pray for God to give us His Holy Spirit in our lives or when we gather. Jesus says, the kingdom of God is at hand and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We no longer need to ask for God to defeat Satan who attacks us. He has already been defeated and crushed by Christ on the cross. We no longer need to ask for God to build His church. God is building and will continue to build a nation that outnumbers the stars. We no longer need to ask to be given power to fight sin. The power has been given to you by the Holy Spirit. Worship Christ and declare His promises because they are ours as adopted sons and daughters of God.

Why sexual implications and nudity on TV isn't good for me.

I actually got a good amount of heat from people when I wrote a post on my thoughts of "Private Practice" and other TV shows that show or imply a bunch of sex. However, BT and Jessica left probably the best comment and insight on the issue. See Below:

This is a long quote, but I thought it was relevant. John Piper writes:

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

[...]

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/why-i-dont-have-a-television-and-rarely-go-to-movies

1 Week Until the Netcast Public Launch

It's now been almost 4 years since I started having literal dreams of planting a church in Greater Boston. I still can remember it like yesterday, the dream came 5 nights in a row and we were outside setting up for a service in Boston Commons. Having not yet told my wife about the dreams I'd been having, on the 5th night, before I laid down to go to bed, I asked Beth, "If God were going to call us to plant a church, where do you think He'd tell us to go?" without hesitation she said, "Greater Boston."

Last night, what once was a dream began to slowly look like a reality as we began to do a mock setup of our public launch. Now, I want to stop quickly and acknowledge the fact that we have not arrived at anything yet. We know that "The Church" is not a group of people who sit within four walls on a Sunday to hear a sermon and then go about their usual week. Rather the church is a group of people in which Christ has paid the penalty for their sin, imparted the Holy Spirit and now those people seek to glorify God through their changed life. Isn't that good news?

That being said, we at Netcast will celebrate every win just like we have ever since we got here. Last night was a win. 16 adults and another 12 children gathered together to unload chairs, set up, clean a closet, eat together, pray and dare to dream of what Christ may do through them as a team wholly submitted to Him.

Join us in fasting and praying for Netcast Church to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit this coming up Sunday as we gather to worship Jesus. If you're around, come and join us as we celebrate what Christ has done. For details check out www.netcastchurch.org


Matt Chewning
Netcast Church - Lead Pastor
netcastchurch.org matt@netcastchurch.org