This is our local congregation in Charlotte. In less than two years we have grown from fewer than one hundred to somewhere around a thousand people who now consider us their home church. This kind of growth is encouraging, but also presents some problems. We know that we must overcome these if we are going to be able to deal with the harvest that is now upon us, but each week seems to require a new level of wisdom. My greatest concern is that the church is first a family, and we do not want to lose our devotion to this regardless of how large we grow. We know that the only answer to this is in home groups, and the Lord has been shedding abundant grace upon them, for which we are thankful.

Just a year ago I questioned whether we could ever see the kind of intensity of worship in a local church that we experience at our conferences. Conferences are made up of people who are hungry enough to travel great distances and go to the expense that it takes to attend. God will always meet that kind of hunger in a special way. Even so, I now think that some of the local meetings are getting better than the conferences. The reason for this intensity here is also because of the great spiritual hunger of those who have joined us. We have a high percentage of people who were hungry enough to go to the trouble and expense of actually moving here! Many have also come with such a level of maturity and humility that it has enabled us to do things we thought would take years to get to.

This is not to imply that we do not have some dry meetings too, or the usual problems churches have. When we began the church, Steve Thompson asked me what I thought it was going to be like. I replied that I would not know until I saw the kind of building material (people) the Lord sent us to work with. I can now say that I have never been more encouraged by the potential of a local church than by what I see here now. Nevertheless, I know that we must go through the persecution and the prunings that every church must go through. They will be painful, but necessary. Even so, I never thought that starting a church could be this much fun!

We are now having School of the Spirit meetings both Friday and Saturday nights, and then the Sunday morning meeting. So it seems like a conference every weekend now! If you are coming to Charlotte, please visit us. You can get directions and information by calling (704) 542-0278 weekdays between 9:00 a. m. and 5:00 p. m.