Stories ::: 2023 Vision Meeting

We had a great turnout for our 2023 Vision Meeting! Pastor Curt (PC) shared the vision for Emerge in 2023 with the big focus of small groups, serving, and our next generation.

For 2023, we are looking to make sure every person is connected within a smaller group from Emerge Kids to Youth to Adult Small Groups. There is such value in taking a Sunday morning gathering and making it smaller into a group of people to connect with one another.

Additionally, during the meeting, it was shared that we are in the process of finding our next future home!

Take a Look and Listen via this link if you want.

Stories ::: All Church Party @ Duck Pin Bowling

In January 2023, we brought the church out together to celebrate serving! We have a lot of people that are serving each and every week and always want to encourage more to jump in to serve.

We rented out the Duck Pin Bowling Lanes in Indy to bring us all together. It was such a fun night with around our kids to have a fun evening of bowling, food, and catching up with one another!

Check out the Reel Below

Stories ::: Online Gathering Changes

Hey, Church!

With the temporary move to Wild Blackberry Farms, we are going to put our LIVE online gathering stream on pause, for now.

At this time, we have lost some of our equipment to live stream. Additionally, we do not have access to a consistent and high-speed internet stream to effectively stream.

Over the next few weeks, we will try to pre-record the sermons or may post the sermon portion later in the day on Sunday.

We just want to keep you in the loop!

…the best option overall would be for you to join us in-person!

Check out our location details by clicking here.

Stories ::: Join us at our Temporary Location!

With the smoke damage to our current space, we have found an amazing place to temporarily stay!

We are so grateful for Wild Blackberry Farms to open their doors to us in their off-season! WOW — what a beautiful space to be able to gather in on a Sunday am!

We’ll see you HERE on Sundays at 10am.

Wild Blackberry Farms is an active blackberry farm on 40 acres just northeast of Fortville. They host weddings on their property throughout the year while the blackberries are growing. On top of that, they have some of your favorite farm animals that may greet you as you are walking in on a Sunday morning (from behind their fence, of course). Please watch your little kids .. fingers could get nibbled by the goat, potbelly pig or horses :-)

Please note the following for a Sunday:

  • Please BACK into your parking spot if the ground is soggy and keep your front tires near the driveway

Stories ::: Fire on Main Street '23

Church,

A quick update to keep you in the know. Around 11:30p last night, a fire started in Bonsai just a few doors down from where we meet. The first responders were there quickly to keep it contained! So grateful that no one was injured and that stuff can be replaced!

I made my way over to be with Zack and Krista Schuyler. We were able to walk around the buildings and eventually in them. The smoke damage is quite significant in Fortville Music Garage (upstairs) and in the lounge downstairs. They will be meeting with insurance and get the ball rolling on next steps.

As I walked the buildings last night, I took the above photo. I didn’t notice in the moment and Emily actually pointed it out … do you see that cross on the wall from the shadows?! Friends, in the midst of this, this isn’t the way we would want 2023 to start off but let’s keep our eyes on Jesus. He protected this space, the patrons of the businesses and owners, etc.

Will have an update midweek with a game plan moving forward and to offer any ways that you can help with clean up, etc.

For now, here are the specific ways you can help:

  • Pray — for Zack and Krista owners of Fortville Music Garage (FMG), their landlords (Missy & Pete), and the other owners of the businesses.

  • Give — We would like to raise benevolence dollars to help FMG and any other needs that arise from the neighboring businesses. Additionally, we will likely need to replace items. If giving online, please select BENEVOLENCE

  • Consider — Looking at different ways for us to gather .. this might be the time to go to our homes during this short time. Please consider and pray about being a host home for a Sunday. More information and direction to come.

On This Journey With You,

PC

Stories ::: Christmas Eve '22

This was one of the best Christmas Eve Gatherings we’ve had!

It was filled with tradition — from the bulletins to the Christmas Hymns to the Candlelight — and it was so serene, Jesus-honoring, and amazing.

It was great to see all of the families coming together for the communion and gathering around the candles to sing.

Stories ::: Impacting others for Christmas

We partnered with a local school to provide Christmas for 4 families that were in need.

It was so great to see our families take each tag and spend money over and above what was requested for each of the families. Additionally, we all prayed over each gift and tag as we were wrapping the gifts and being delivered.

Such a simple, yet impactful way to help our community and spread the love of Jesus!

Stories ::: 12 Baptisms!!

What. A. Day!!

We kicked it off with Advent reading and ended with 12 baptisms!!

Such an amazing day of each person publicly telling everyone that they are living for Jesus! It was so amazing to see parents baptize their own kids … and generational prayers/blessings of believers!

Stories ::: Winterfest '22

Fortville’s Winterfest was another way to reach the community!

On this cold, blistery day, our free hot chocolate was a hit! We handed out just over 230 cups of hot chocolate within 2 hours!

It was so nice to be able to welcome our friends and neighbors into our space for the day!

Stories ::: Friendsgathering '22

It’s always a good time when you gather around a table!

We took some time to recall about being Grateful and how it should be on the forefront of our minds! We provided each person with a thank you note to send to a person that they were grateful for in their lives.

Sundays Friendsgathering was a day to remember on a lot of fronts!

So great to see so many people, great conversations, a little worship & Word, and amazing food! See our stories for more photos

If only they had the heat on, fans off, and the icing on the cake (or should we say ice..) was the power going out for the majority of the time! … but, did you notice? Our flashlights on the phones did very little, but the opening of the door lit up the entire place — pushing back the darkness

Stories ::: Daddy-Daughter Dance '22

WOW!!

We had just over 80 father figures with their daughters out dancing the night away!! This is such a great outreach event to bring in all of the people from the community! We gave away scholarships to several couples so they could experience it!

We had some amazing vendors of Quality Ingredients Cooking who put on an amazing spread!! We also had someone there to do airbrush tattoos and a photo booth.

We will continue to do this event each year as it’s impacting families in such an amazing way!

Stories ::: Treats on Main

This event was such a blast!! We were able to meet a lot of people from the town with over 4,000 people coming through!

We handed out 300 play-doughs with our contact info on top and over 1500 pieces of candy.

The day was incredibly busy and awesome with fun games at the booth to interact with the kids and parents. PLUS we gave away $150 in gift cards to local businesses!

Stories ::: Youth Fall Events

We’ve had a lot of fun events with our Youth over the last several months! The most recent were the fall events!

We brought a bunch of kids together for a pumpkin carving contest .. plus costume contest!

Yes, our kids do more than just have fun — they spend intentional time each month. Our 5th graders meet on the 2nd Sunday and the Youth (6-12th) meet on the 3rd Sunday of each month.

Stories ::: Holiday World & Lake Rudolph

This is SUCH a great experience!! … and a crowd favorite!

We had over 40 people from the church come down to camp and ride the rides! This is what community looks like! … we converged onto one camp site for all of the meals and spent the time in the park together. Late nights around the fire and picnic tables with kids running all around.

This was a time of some great prayer, connections, and overall fun! Looking forward to doing this in 2023!

Stories ::: Worship Night

YES!! Worship Night as amazing!!

It was an intimate setting and the Holy Spirit was moving. It was so great to hear the voices lifting up praises to our Saving King Jesus! We also had a time of prayer and communion.

It’s nights like these in which we get regrounded in how Great Our God is!