A LOOK BACK OVER THE FIRST YEAR OF WATERMARK CHURCH!

We prayed from the beginning that, when anyone sees Watermark, the only explanation can be the LORD. As we scrolled back through our posts on the Facebook page in preparation of today’s celebration, we are struck again by how truly amazing our LORD is to answer that prayer! As you read the summary timeline below, take note at how quickly our God has brought everything together both in & through His church! In our first year we have seen the LORD work in establishing the culture of Watermark, embedding a joyful heart for Him, His Word & His people into the very DNA as a church body. Now, as we stand in the doorway of this second year, we already see Him beginning to increase our impact outwardly, both on the global front as well as locally within our own families & community!

It was painstakingly difficult to narrow down this timeline – the initial draft was seven pages long because of how much God has done in these twelve months! None of this would be possible without:

1) Our LORD who has directed every step of Watermark’s journey.
2) Our incredible faith family.

As we read this timeline, we see the faces behind each entry, the stories that were written that day, & the relationships that have been planted, nurtured & bloomed in the last year. When we look back at those early days before we all really knew each other & contrast it to today, we can’t imagine doing life without each of you, not just church, but the Christian life. Our LORD never created any of us to do life alone as we are built for community & we are honored to be given the privilege to enter into your life & you into ours, as we all seek to know God & make Him known.

Happy Birthday to our Watermark Church faith family! We pray that this reflection timeline is a blessing to you & a reminder that He has done great things! May our LORD keep our lampstand burning for years to come until He returns to call us home!

~ Pastor Cameron & Caitlin

LOOKING BACK AT WHAT GOD HAS DONE!

Watermark Church’s first service was at 9am on February 11, 2024 at Great 8 Cinema. We had no idea what to expect as we set everything up – we just prayed that the LORD would use His church to make an eternal difference in the lives of many. He brought 64 people to come worship our Lord together that morning & our faith family was born!

February 12^th we announced the website!

February 13^th less than 24hrs after we shared the registry of items needed for the church, everything was purchased by our faith family!

February 18^th the service was livestreamed for the first time & has been livestreamed every service since!

February 25^th the first church invitations arrived as well as stickers & we began printing children’s edition bulletins!

March 2^nd offering envelopes arrived.

March 10^th Watermark car decals were released to help spread the word about what God is doing!

March 17^th Watermark tshirts became available so that our impact on our community would spread!

March 24^th we had over 100 attend our (very chilly & windy!) Palm Sunday Easter Egg hunt at Veteran’s Memorial park! It was our first potluck as a church family & our first community event! It was on the way home from the event that Pastor Cameron was told about the vacancies in the business park located on St Andrews Drive.

March 26^th Pastor Cameron & Caitlin along with Glenn & Holly Ryerson & Rick Neace were shown the three empty suites in the St Andrews Drive business park.

March 27^th the lease was signed for 41 St Andrews & we were given the keys!

March 29^th we had 28 join us for our Good Friday service at the Franklin County Baptist Associational Building.

Sunday, March 31^st, on Easter Sunday, which was only Watermark’s 8th Sunday as a church, Pastor Cameron shared at the conclusion of the service that the Lord had already answered Watermark’s prayer for a building so that we can open up as many avenues & opportunities as possible to get the Gospel to the people of our city! Immediately following the service, we migrated over to the new building so everyone could see it in person.

April 3^rd, just three days later, all the excess walls were taken down!

April 5^th, just another two days later, Pastor Cameron & Caitlin picked up 98 chairs in Illinois for the amazing price of just $15/chair (compared to $60 each).

April 20^th the walls were primed (two coats) & on April 21st the walls were painted (two coats again) – covering all of the original primary colors was no easy task!

April 25^th the damaged ceiling tiles were replaced.

April 26^th the flooring was patched where walls used to reside.

April 28^th was our last service at Great 8 Cinema – we were a church without a launching pad (aka building) for only three months!

April 29^th everything cleaned top to bottom & the chairs
shampooed.

April 30^th the trailer was unloaded for the last time as well as the televisions hung, & Nursery, Children’s Church & the kitchenette were set up.

May 1^st the baseboard trim was installed.

May 2^nd we had a prayer walk around 41 St Andrews Drive.

May 5^th we had our very first service in our new space & dedicated it to our good & gracious LORD! Of course, we celebrated with food following the service. As it was Cinco de Mayo we had a taco-themed potluck outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

May 16^th the beautiful handmade 5-ft walnut cross from Texas was ordered in honor of a group of seasoned believers who have demonstrated faithfulness to our Lord for many years. It was delivered on June 18th & hung the same day.

May 18^th we participated in Secret Church 2024: Ruth.

May 19^th we had a special Sunday service in which we recognized & prayed for our two high school graduates!

May 20^th we celebrated 100 days as a church with a video!

While we began our Wednesday Small Group on February 14^th, the first Wednesday following our first service, it wasn’t until May 29^th that anyone came in-person who wasn’t a relative of Pastor Cameron’s. 15 weeks of plugging along & the week that Pastor Cameron was considering dropping it & trying something else was the week others started coming & we have been a solid & consistent (and lively!) group ever since. From May 29^th to now our midweek group usually has about 13 participants each week & we have had as many as 18 come at one time! It continues to be the highlight of the week as we dive deeper into Sunday’s passage!

June 2^nd online giving was made available.

June 10^th we had a ribbon cutting with the Union Chamber of Commerce & our group even made the local paper!

June 20^th for the first time our Mighty Men of Valor men’s group met!

June 29^th we had over 30 ladies come to our first women’s event to paint a waterfall!

July 14^th we began compiling the much-requested directory designed so pages can be easily added as we grow.

July 29^th the 13-week Monday night women’s study through the book of Acts kicked off!

July 30^th the exterior sign was ordered & later installed on October 9^th!

August 4^th began our month-long food drive for Second Blessings at the end of which we donated 745 food items — yes, green team won!

August 6^th the digital Ministry Partner Schedule was added to the website so anyone can check it to see where they’re serving.

August 11^th we celebrated our 6-month birthday as a church with cake & cupcakes as well as the release of our Church Directory. Since that time 8 additional pages have been added!

August 17^th we gathered to pray for our schools, teachers, & students as they began the next academic year. Afterward we enjoyed an ice cream dessert!

August 18^th we figured out how to enable anyone to sync the church
calendar directly to their phone. Psych! Well, we did for iPhone users. We would learn in January that androids don’t reflect changes – you win some, you lose some. 😉

August 23^rd was our first ever movie night complete with popcorn! The power of film cannot be underestimated as it further communicates the truth & impact of the Gospel through story.

September 8^th we began our 6-week Sunday Night study focused on evangelism. 28 people participated in some way during the study &, of course, we did enjoy a potluck dinner each session because it wouldn’t be a church event without food!

September 11^th the Grace & Glory Girls Bible Study began with a focus on the armor of God!

September 28^th our second ladies’ event with 28 who came to make Fall wreaths together!

September 29^th we released the ABC Gospel church invitation cards at the request of our Sunday Night group!

October 1^st double-sided doorhanger invitations for the upcoming Fall Festival & Trunk-or-Treat were hung on all of the doors in Chapel Ridge & Hummingbird Heights – 276 units in all!

October 5^th we had over 70 participate in our unexpectedly blazing hot 90-degree Fall Festival – Tom is still eating the candy he won!

October 31^st we lost count of how many came to our super fun & creative Trunk-or-Treat because they just kept coming – congratulations again to the carnival clowns who won the vote!

November 3^rd we celebrated our first student to transition from Children’s Church into the main service where he is continuing to learn the importance of Christian fellowship & church life, how to take sermon notes, & how to study the Bible independently to take more ownership of his walk with the Lord. On behalf of Watermark Church, Pastor Cameron presented Markus with his very own study Bible engraved with his name & a Quiet Time Kit to give him the tools to continue to grow into a godly man. Afterward, several men of the church surrounded Markus in praying for him.

November 11^th the Clark ladies led in honoring our veterans through the Pledge of Allegiance & saluting our veterans.

November 16^th we had 40 come to our Thanksgiving Potluck – we all ate way too much but it was all just so very good!

November 17^th we concluded our study verse-by-verse through the Gospel of Mark! How special it was to begin the life & ministry of Watermark Church studying about the life & ministry of our Savior!

November 21^st we delivered the 50 packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child to the receiving location for our district!

November 24^th we celebrated Lumberjack Sunday with flannels & pancakes – an unofficial holiday but any excuse for pancakes!

December 1^st we began our new Sunday morning study through the Minor Prophets & released the books-of-the-Bible bookmarks to aid everyone in finding where these small & obscure books are located in their Bibles. Our church family was also surprised with the ceiling decorated with ornaments & ribbons! We weren’t going to allow limited floorspace to prohibit festivities!

December 13^th we had our third women’s event decorating Gingerbread Houses with 20 ladies who came for this sugary evening!

December 21^st we had a fantastically fun Christmas party with a memorable white elephant Christmas exchange where we passed gifts right, left & across! Plus, we had an unofficial official cookie exchange so everyone left with plate of delicious desserts!

December 22^nd we commemorated the holiday season by wearing our festive/ugly Christmas sweaters!

December 24^th we had our first Christmas Eve candlelight service as a Watermark church family with 49 who came to celebrate our Savior’s birth together! It was an extra treat to have special music provided by Marlie on the violin & Melissa singing.

December 31^st we rang in the new year with a party during which we learned that words are hard (Taboo) but we sure know our food (Logos) which seems fitting! We began the evening with 29 & 16 made it all the way to midnight!

January 5^th we kicked off the first Sunday of 2025 with a winter storm where 11 “survivors” made it in-person including one first-time visitor! Thankfully we had the blessing of technology so everyone else could tune in online.

January 19^th Watermark Church partnered with our first full-time missionaries who are serving in Indonesia!

January 27^th the 8-week women’s study through Romans began.

February 2^nd we shared the exciting news that we are sending out one of our own on a short-term mission trip this summer!

February 8^th we had 22 come to our very first Saturday Seminar through the book of Jonah!

February 9^th just as Israel built altars to remember what God has done, today we’re taking time to celebrate what our Lord has done in the first year of Watermark Church!

STATISTICS

Because we know we can’t be the only ones who enjoy stats!

Of the 91 Bibles ordered, 63 have gone home with someone!

We’ve prayed for 12 countries through our Monthly Missions Emphasis: Afghanistan, North Korea, United States, Yemen, Somalia, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, Pakistan, Syria, Indonesia, & Ecuador.

As a church, we have studied verse-by-verse through the entire books of Mark, Joel, & Jonah, & currently have three chapters left in Amos.

25 blogs have been published on the website.

4 on-going Bible studies — Wednesday’s Small Group, Mighty Men of Valor, Monday Night Women’s, and Grace & Glory Girls.

3 women’s events: painting, wreath-making, & gingerbread houses.

We have partnered with both 1 full-time missionary family &
1 short-term missionary – the latter of which is one of our own!

6 movies shown.

The content on the Facebook page had 156.1k views in the first year!

1 Saturday Seminar: Jonah

We’ve had 7 after-church potlucks – this comes to no one’s surprise given how much we all love food!

We have celebrated communion 12 times as a faith family.

At least two people have come to know Christ as their personal Lord & Savior through the ministry of Watermark Church.

Average Sunday attendance is 54. Our largest Sunday of 66 people has occurred twice: March 24, 2024 & February 2, 2025. The winter storm on January 5, 2025 takes the cake with the smallest attended service when we had 11 people come in-person – one of which was a first-time visitor! Thankfully we have the blessing of technology so everyone else was able to tune-in online.

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