It has been two months since our last update in “Wellspring: A Church is Birthed”, and we have been meeting as a church for 4 months now. We want to thank all of our partners and tell you that we are already seeing fruit. We have seen a number of people profess faith in Christ, and we have had two baptism services, baptizing six.
Wellspring Church’s first baptism service, mid-March in the courtyard of Mabel Padgett Elementary School.
Chris is delivering great sermons, and many have asked about making podcasts of his messages available. We are praying we can get that feature on our website soon.
Our handy team members are always figuring out clever ways to get what we need in the thriftiest way possible. Mike Hartwick went to the home improvement store and built the needed drum enclosure with his own two hands! Doesn’t it look professional?
Derek Stull has continued to lead well in worship, and pull in other talented young musicians as well.
We were blessed to have FBC Mustang, OK, come out during Spring Break and help with all sorts of things. They painted two houses, worked at the teenage pregnancy center, served two days at the Agua Fria Food Bank, passed out invitations to Wellspring, did concerts, and they sang the National Anthem at a major league Spring Training game.
Brenna Stull had a chance to share the Wellspring story with Tom Brown on FaithTalk Radio in April.
Leader meetings at the Stulls’ house have grown to be 60 strong, and have included potluck dinner, sharing stories, prayer, and planning.
No shortage of food at the leader meetings (this is after most had been through the line!)
Leaders fellowship around the tables before the planning meeting begins.
Attendance on Sundays has grown steadily from 115 two months ago to 186 in attendance by the end of May. We also reconfigured our Sunday worship set-up to center the big screen, and were able to purchase a new and improved sound system.
Wellspring worship leaders Derek Stull and Manny Orozco along with Taylor Napodano had the chance to lead worship at the Phoenix Country Club for the Good Friday service, which included pastors and leaders from congregations all over the Valley.
At the Good Friday breakfast Chris and Brenna were able to share a word, and were encouraged and thrilled to meet a number of people who share a similar vision for God’s heart for Phoenix’s revival.
A group from Cross-Eyed Skates, a skate ministry out of FBC McKinney, came out the weekend before Easter to lead a Wellspring outreach at the Goodyear Skate Park. They also served at Wellspring’s Easter Eggstravaganza community outreach the day before Easter, where children hunted for over 4,000 eggs the youth group had prepared.
Derek did a great job leading the Easter Choir, which included a variety of ages: 11 years to age 85. The Easter Choir had a blast practicing and can’t wait until the next time they can sing. We had 206 in attendance on Easter.
Powerful teaching from Jill Rhodes continued at the Heart & Home Bible Study through April, reaching about 20 women each Wednesday night, and 15 each Thursday mornings.
Brenna with LIFT (Leaders In Fellowship Together) Leaders Pam Lyons and Sandy Betgur. Brenna had the chance to speak to the women’s ministers of Greater Phoenix at an all-day conference end of April. She shared how God has led them in their giving, adopting, and planting a church as they sought and surrendered to the Lord’s will. And she dared them to ask the Lord for direction and be open to new things God might do.
Derek and Taylor had the opportunity to lead worship at the State Capitol lawn on the National Day of Prayer.
Shawn and Lisa Copeland continue to give strong leadership to our middle school and high school students each Wednesday night. The youth will be joining North Phoenix Baptist Church’s camp in Big Bear, California, the third week of June.
The Sunday following Easter we met at a nearby park for “Party in the Park”, an after-Easter celebration.
Chris shared a brief message and Nicki Pacheco shared her testimony.
God blessed us with 72 degrees and sun! It was a day full of JOY and fellowship.
Three believers were baptized in the portable baptistry.
Party in the Park included a tasty lunch by the generous Doug Johnston of Choo Choo Bar-b-q, and fun on the ball fields.
Women’s Bible Studies wrapped up with a dinner in May. Forty women came and shared fellowship, food, testimonies about the past year, and looked ahead at the upcoming summer activities. One testimony: Dorothy shared that she had actually moved to Phoenix to be a part of Wellspring Church, because she had heard about what was going on and didn’t want to miss it. Natalie shared that she and her family had planned to move away from Phoenix this summer, but are considering staying because of Wellspring Church.
Women stayed and visited into the night.
The Wellspring Men also meet each Friday morning at 6 a.m. for powerful Bible Study, share and prayer time (but it’s too early to remember a camera, thus no photo! :))
On the home front news: the Stulls received on May 15 the document they desperately needed by May 19 in order to proceed with their visa applications to bring home their two adopted children from Sierra Leone. This allows their file to move on to the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone. They are praying the visas will be issued by July (instead of the normal 4-5 months) so that the kids can come home and get to know the family as a unit before the oldest two sons leave for college in August.
A note from the Stulls:
We thank God for the privilege of serving Him, and for having us here for such a time as this. The biggest news is that we feel we are seeing, since Passover/Good Friday/April 18, the first Phoenix’s breakthrough for revival. Since that date, God has shown us daily new hearts He is stirring to trust Him in new ways, let go of baggage, fully surrender, and see new visions for what God wants to do. We thank Him and we praise Him.
We continue to seek to stay as close as possible to Him, being right in step to cooperate with His plans…not running ahead and not lagging behind. It is a heated battle, but God is greater. We know it is not by our might or power, but by His Spirit that we do everything.
“Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 We thank God for the start of fulfilled longings!
Thank you to everyone who, through their financial gifts and prayer, is enabling this ministry to do all that it is.
Bless you!
Chris & Brenna Stull
…and one last photo! Wellspring Church just had our first young marrieds dinner at the Hartwick’s house. These are a few of the couples who came. We enjoyed an evening of hearing each other’s love stories, and look forward to the small group Bible Study in the Fall.