Our first service downtown is this Sunday...!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Dear Antioch Church Family,

This Sunday we will take an historic step forward as we celebrate our first worship service downtown at 10:30am in the Dallas Black Dance Theatre at 2700 Flora Street. After months of praying, believing, and preparing, God has opened a door for us to glorify Him and serve others throughout the Metroplex from the very heart of Dallas!

Here is some practical and important information to help you find your way to our new meeting location:

• HOW TO GET THERE - The Dallas Black Dance Theatre is quickly and easily accessible from anywhere in the greater Dallas area by either car or public transportation (See the end of this letter for details).
• TIME - Our English language worship service will begin at 10:30am. Our Spanish language worship service will run concurrently.
• CHILDREN’S MINISTRY WITH PASTOR PATSY – Check-in will begin at 10:00am.
• COMMUNITY FELLOWSHIP - We will provide coffee and light refreshments for thirty minutes prior to the start of our worship services.
• FREE PARKING - Plenty of parking available in two separate lots. One is immediately adjacent to the Theatre itself. The other is located one block away at the corner of Ross & Routh Streets.We are expecting a great crowd, so if you want to park in the adjacent lot, I encourage you to come early!

As we enter into this new and exciting phase of our ministry, I want to encourage you to do three things:

• PRAY – Ask and believe God for His special blessing to rest upon our church family as we take this exciting new step forward into our destiny. Pray for the presence of God to fill the Dallas Black Dance Theatre as we gather together and lift up our voices in praise to Him. Pray for the Holy Spirit to give me a fresh, new anointing as I preach God’s Word. Pray for the army of volunteers that will be sacrificially investing their time and giftings in our ministries each week. Though often unnoticed behind the scenes, their work is absolutely vital to everything we do. Pray that souls will be saved and lives transformed in every single service and that God will give great increase to our congregation.
• SERVE – Worshipping in this interim, downtown location will require an enormous amount of set-up and tear-down every Sunday. We are also rolling out brand-new ministries designed to welcome and integrate our first-time guests. Here is the “bottom-line”: WE NEED YOU…! If you have not already found your place of service in our congregation’s ministries or if you are willing to invest additional time in service to the Lord through our church, please contact Pastor David Estrada immediately via email, text, or phone (david.estrada@teamantioch.com or 972-333-2094).
• BRING – God wants to grow our church. He will use you and me to do it as we bring others to our services and ministries. As I have been doing this myself in recent weeks, I have been amazed at the level of interest, even excitement, my words have sparked in the hearts of total strangers. The Holy Spirit is sovereignly at work preparing many, many people’s hearts to respond to a personal invitation to come and check out the new church God is birthing in downtown Dallas. I encourage you to capitalize on this by inviting everyone you can to come with you this weekend.

As I reflect upon all that God has done to position our church family for this moment and all that He is about to do in and through us, my heart is deeply moved. We are called to be a unique, Antioch kind of church…

…one filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit…
…one that loves God’s Word and tries to do everything it says…
…one that cares for the needy and works hard to transform our own community…
…one that sends out missionaries to impact nations around the world…
…one whose ethnic diversity looks like Dallas…

                                                                               …one that looks like heaven…!

As we allow God to use us to raise up this very special kind of spiritual community, we are going to experience the thrill and the privilege of seeing Him help us bring many, many people into a personal, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing could be more fulfilling or more meaningful for any one of our lives.

I am so thankful for the privilege of working together with you to see this vision become a reality. Teresa and I love you and thank God for the privilege of serving you. We believe the very, very best is yet to come…and YOU are going to be a part of it…!

See you this Sunday…!

Pastor Mark Brand

P.S. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 8th, we are holding a special volunteer orientation and training session at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre from 3-6pm. We would love to have you join us if you are not already planning to attend. Email Pastor David Estrada at:david.estrada@teamantioch.com or call him at: (972) 333-2094 to let him know and we will add some additional refreshments just for you.

FINDING OUR NEW LOCATION

By DART Rail

Take any train on any line toward downtown. Get off at the Pearl Street station. The Dallas Black Dance Theatre is 4 ½ blocks away at Ross Avenue and Arts Plaza. If you have problems walking that distance, please contact Pastor David Estrada via email, text, or by phone, and he will arrange for you to picked up at the station.

By DART Bus

City buses #24 and #51 stop immediately adjacent to the property (Get off at theRoss@ArtsPlaza stop).

Bus #24 runs between the Mockingbird and West End DART Rail stations.

Online schedules for both DART Rail and Bus are available at: www.dart.org.

By Car (via US 75/Central Expressway)

Coming south on US 75/Central Expressway, follow the I-45 signs past the Woodall Rogers Freeway and immediately take the Ross Avenue exit (#285). Turn right at the stoplight onto Ross Avenue and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre parking lot will be on your right.

By Car (via I-35/Woodall Rogers)

Coming either north or south on I-35, follow the US-75 signs onto Woodall Rogers Freeway. Take the Pearl Street/Arts District exit. It will loop around in a circle and bring you to the stoplight at the Woodall Rogers frontage road at the foot of the new Museum Tower Apartment Building. Turn right onto the Woodall Rogers frontage road and continue forward while staying in the far right lane past the Dallas Symphony/Meyerson Center, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and the Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts. Follow the frontage road as it curves to the right past Fellowship.Com church until you come to the stoplight at Ross Avenue. Turn right onto Ross Avenue and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre parking lot will be on your right.