Happy 5th Birthday, South Bay Church!

It's hard to believe that it was almost 15 years ago that Andy & I met each other at a small college in South Carolina and began dreaming about what it would look like to start a church on the West Coast of the United States. As I stood on stage yesterday during the final song looking out over a sea of people worshipping Jesus, my heart was about to burst out of my chest. 

A dream becoming reality. 

God called into existence the vision He planted as a seed in our hearts. 

It's hard to believe that in just five years, we've

• grown from 3 families to 1500 in weekly attendance
• moved from meeting in our living room to 5 services every Sunday
• seen over 600 people indicate a first time decision to follow Jesus
• had over 300 people be baptized

Yesterday was such a fun day at South Bay Church! Our goal was to have a blast celebrating all that Jesus has done in our midst over the past 5 years. So many memories. So many lives changed. So, so much to celebrate!

I wanted to share some pictures with you, but wouldn't you know, I forgot my phone and my camera at home. No worries, though...I just hijacked a bunch of my friends' pictures off of Instagram (without asking permission, ahem!).

 

As people arrived on campus, they were greeted by smiling faces, crazy glasses, and party hats. Everyone knew right away this was no ordinary day!

We had a cool lights show with an app called Wham City Lights where everyone's phones lit up in syncopated rhythm.

What's a birthday party without cake? We passed out cake pops in every service!

To me, there is nothing like watching people be baptized and to see the emotion on their face. Some pumping their fists. Some with tears streaming down their cheeks. A changed life. Every time someone comes up out of that water, I thank Jesus that I get to be apart of this! It's a picture of why South Bay exists and it NEVER gets old! We celebrated 10 baptisms throughout the day yesterday.

We blasted the crowd with confetti blasters during the last song. So fun!

There were balloon arches at every entrance and bouncy houses for the kiddos.

Yummy food trucks invited people to hang out for a bit after the service to enjoy a meal with their friends and family.

So much joy! So much to be thankful for!

We showed several videos from pastors of our partnering churches congratulating South Bay on five awesome years, and they almost all concluded by saying "The best is yet to come!" We believe that with all our hearts. As we are on the brink of launching our Sunnyvale Campus in less then 2 weeks, we know that God has so much more in store for this church. Let's continue to trust Him and keep in step with Him, because there is NO LIMIT to what He can do in our midst! He loves the people of the Bay Area so much more than we can imagine!

Yesterday we sang a song that says, 

"I will look back and see that You are faithful.

I look ahead believing You are able." 

That's what the day was about...celebrating His faithfulness because His FAITHfulness fills us with FAITH as we look to the future. He is able to do more than we can imagine! I look forward to seeing it unfold.