As a pastor dedicated to the mission of Mars Hill Church, I am absolutely committed to our church growing. Growing in maturity, NOT just numbers. My heart is that Mars Hill members and attendees would be shepherded toward maturity in Jesus. I want to see our people study the Word, learn to pray, and experience missional community that helps to bring about transformation. And I'm not alone in this. The MHC elders/pastors are completely, totally, 150 percent dedicated to seeing growth in every Christian who calls MHC home. We are not playing church. This is not a game to us. We are men who will give an account to the Lord Jesus for those we serve and lead (Heb 13:17). Because of this, we are fully committed to reaching as many people as possible, and seeing those lives transformed by Jesus to live for Jesus. Many of you have heard the term "ground war." The ground war refers to the MHC ministry that occurs outside of our Sunday services (the "air war"), and encompasses a great deal--such as cultivating spiritual maturity, building healthy community, and extending mercy and love to those around us. Over the past four months the elders have been working diligently on a new ground war strategy. We have collectively spent over a thousand hours putting together a plan to improve how we shepherd people and make disciples of Jesus. In 2008 MHC will be doing more to grow and build our ground war then we have ever done before. By the grace of God, we will be systematically improving almost every aspect of our campus ministries: Redemption Groups, Community Groups, Pastoral Care, Marriage Ministry, After-Service Prayer Ministry, College Ministry, Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, and Adult Training. We will also be updating our Gospel Class Curriculum, improving our Membership Process, Volunteer Leadership Training, Deacon Training Curriculum & Process, and Elder Training Process. Some of these improvements will be small and hardly noticeable to people not directly effected. Others will take months to implement and after completion will greatly increase our capacity to minister to people. This April we are planning MHC members’ meetings at each campus to share the comprehensive plan with our people. By January 2009, MHC will have a completely renewed ground war that equips people to not only be disciples of Jesus but also to be disciple-builders for Jesus. (If you want to know some of the Scriptures that inspired our new ground war strategy study the following: Genesis 1–3; Matthew 6:19–34, 28:16–20; John 15; Acts 6; Romans 6–8, 12; 2 Corinthians 8–9; Ephesians 2, 4–5; 1 Timothy 3–5; Titus; 1 Peter 5.) I am more excited about the direction of our church then ever before. I hope you can see that the heart of the MHC elders is that as many people as possible meet Jesus AND grow in a deep, meaningful, real relationship with Him. Personally, I believe God plans to work in and through MHC to reach thousands of people for Jesus and build thousands of disciples of Jesus. My prayer is that those who call MHC home will seek a deeper relationship with Jesus; we all have a lot of work to do for the Gospel. Everyone else, please pray for our church.