A Year of Ministry Fruitfulness
The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 disrupted the whole world. Business as usual came to a halt. The airline business, the restaurant business and the business of the church were all interrupted. Many churches and Christian non-profits closed their doors in 2020 and many doors have yet to re-open in 2021. Many churches have not seen their regular attendees come back into the pews and most have struggled to regain their pre-covid-19 numbers. However, by God’s grace, the opposite has been true about our little covenant community at UHCC. In some ways, the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for us as a church. We say that we believe that God works all things out according to His purposes, but are there times where we think that maybe His purposes can be thwarted by this pandemic?
Even as I write this “end-of-the-year newsletter”, I am just amazed by how much God has accomplished in just one year. There are so many awe-inspiring stories to reflect on and even more are happening now as I type this letter. The physically largest story in 2021 was a $1.6 million building renovation project that has now become our church home to be utilized daily for worship, discipleship and prayer throughout the week. It's hard to put into words what this new building has brought to the city of Fairfield in 2021. If I had to sum it up in two words, it would be the words “life” and “hope.” The building has brought so much hope through the culmination of both spiritual and economic life and the move to morning worship has been a game-changer. In the first two months of the move into the new building, we hosted nearly 130 unique new visitors at our morning worship services! The work of the Spirit has been evident in the lives of many individuals. We’ve had some individuals experience spiritual re-birth during this pandemic, where they became new Christians in their middle-aged lives. Their lives have been radically transformed by the Gospel, and therefore so has the entirety of their immediate family structure.
We’ve seen young men become elders and deacons, husbands, fathers and spiritual leaders for the first time in their young lives. Several of these men have come to us through college campus ministries and now make up the core group and leadership team within our church. We’ve seen our women’s ministry, under the leadership of our Women’s Ministry Director, Carine Lewis, really come into its own this year. We had our best-attended and most generationally-diverse women’s retreat in our church’s 9-year history this fall and our women returned from that annual trip more bonded together than ever before.
The college ministry at Miles grew exponentially this year and several of the college kids have become covenant members of UHCC. Their lives are being transformed and the Gospel is having a tangible impact within many of their immediate families. This is the ministry and vision of UHCC as a church. We are called to impact the very fabric of the urban family by speaking directly into the core issues that are causing such noticeable decay within them. God is being faithful to remind us that only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can remedy the brokenness that He is allowing us to witness. Only the gospel can heal our urban pathologies; not social programs, not government programs, not distant benevolent charity.
I believe that this is one of the reasons why we are seeing the transformation that we are seeing. “The Gospel is the power of God, for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). We are leaning on nothing but the Gospel and the power offered by the Holy Spirit to share life and life more abundant.
In September of this year, we had our first wedding in our new worship building. Before the doors of the church were opened on a Sunday morning for the first time, our first worship service in our new space was a wedding. I believe this wedding signified the heartbeat of our ministry and why the Lord saw fit to renovate this old building in downtown Fairfield. Weddings speak of new beginnings; they speak of a hope that comes from the renewal experienced when we are united to our groom, Jesus Christ. This hope belongs to all who trust and believe in the Gospel and we are seeing more and more eyes availed to His majesty and more and more hearts turned to desire to honor, glorify and enjoy Him forever.
As we reflect on all that the Lord has done in 2021 and throughout these trying days of sickness and strife, we are constantly reminded that the Lord is still on His throne and He will be faithful for all of eternity and He is calling men and women to Himself and His plans will never be foiled. Please continue to support the work here in Fairfield as the Lord leads you. As we continue to do Gospel-centered discipleship ministry among the poor, we continue to need the resources to make it possible. We are trusting the Lord to provide for us, as he directs us through much counsel and Godly oversight.
You can give to our building fund, individual staff or to our operating budget/general fund online at www.urbanhopecc.com/give. Our address is P.O. Box 53, Fairfield, Alabama 35064. Our phone number is 205-514-3715. Our email is info@urbanhopecc.com.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Alton Hardy, Founder and Visionary, Urban Hope the Movement
