Dear Friends,

Warm Greetings from Main Street Church in Brigham City!

We are excited to share with you the launching of a new media outreach: Sacred Groves, another resource for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with Mormons and others who are seeking answers.

But before we explain this further, here's a little background, especially for those of you who haven't heard from us in a while.

In September of 2009, Living Hope Christian Fellowship officially changed its name to Main Street Church. This was, in part, a response to a growing sense that God was asking us to become more engaged in our community--to be a loving, truth-bearing presence, right here on Main Street in downtown Brigham City, sensitive to our town's needs and making ourselves available to be part of the solution.

Along with our church's name change came a renewed understanding of God's calling on us to remain engaged with the broader Mormon community. You may have heard that Living Hope Ministries, the video ministry that had become a significant part of our "reputation," is no longer affiliated with this church. They opted to separate in 2008, in order to pursue an expanding vision. This made it necessary for us to re-evaluate what sort of ministries God was now calling us to become involved in.

Despite the departure of the video ministry, we retained a strong appreciation for multimedia as a means to proclaim the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ to our Mormon neighbors, near and far. And more to the point, we retained staff with both expertise in multimedia, and a passion for sharing biblical truth with Mormons.

Months of prayer and discussion, and God's gentle leading, have given birth to a new vision: Sacred Groves, an online presence whose objective is to provide authentic, loving, and Bible-based guidance to seeking Mormons. The primary "vehicles" of this are video testimonies of people who have come from Mormon traditions, and who have had a life-giving encounter with Jesus Christ and found true freedom in a relationship with Him. Who better than they to point the way to new life in Him?

We chose the concept of "Sacred Groves" deliberately to harken back to the emblematic "Sacred Grove" of Mormonism, where a youth named Joseph Smith was said to have had a powerful encounter with God and Jesus in response to his own questions about religion.

Like the young Joseph Smith, many Mormons today are wrestling with questions about their religion...and seeking sincere, authentic answers. They are, in a sense, wandering through their own "sacred grove."

The Sacred Groves website (www.sacredgroves.net) is a gathering place of posted video stories of people from Mormon traditions who have encountered the living Jesus Christ! These testimonies of Jesus serve as "signposts" on the trail--giving encouragement and courage, and a sense of direction, to those Mormons who are somewhere on that path, struggling with difficult questions.

In addition to the good news of eternal life through faith alone in Jesus Christ, the message we want to communicate is: This pathway may be difficult, but it is worth walking. There is life--abundant life--on the other side! And there are many here who stand ready to walk alongside you, wherever you may be on that journey.

Our goal is to maintain the Sacred Groves Online website as a place where seeking Latter-day Saints--regardless of where they are on the journey--will feel welcomed and wanted. This is a place where Mormons with questions can come and see for themselves how others from a Mormon background have dealt with the same struggles that they are facing, and where their searching has led them. It's also a place where challenges and matters of truth are freely presented and discussed. Truth matters...and eternal truth matters eternally! And truth--if it's really true--should never fear investigation.

Sacred Groves is also a place where non-Mormons can come to learn about the stories and struggles of those on a "sacred grove" pathway, and in so doing, develop greater compassion and understanding for those who are making, or thinking about making, the long journey out of Mormonism.

Over the past few months, we have been assembling video testimonies and posting them on the sacredgroves.net website--both short clips and complete interviews. We will continue to do this for as long as God provides us the resources to do so. In addition, our longer-range goal is the production of feature-length DVDs that will tell the stories of Mormons encountering the living Jesus.

In fact, our first DVD project is already in production. It is largely focused upon the stories of a group of young men, all former Latter-day Saints, who have formed a band and music ministry, called Adam's Road (pictured on the right). We were introduced to them last September, when they were in town to give a concert at the church. At the suggestion of a mutual acquaintance, we asked the band members if we could sit them down in front of a video camera and have them tell their story, which they graciously agreed to do. At the time we didn't have any specific plans for the interviews, but sensed that it was something we should do nonetheless.

But it soon become obvious why God had orchestrated this. What came out of this informal interview setup was an amazingly compelling and moving story. We quickly put up the raw, uncut interviews on the Main Street Church's website (this was before the Sacred Groves website was up and running) because we believed that their story was worth sharing! We've since taken clips from those original September interviews and posted them on the sacredgroves.net, along with the full-length interviews.

As our own vision for using video stories in general to reach Mormons for Jesus began to take shape, we decided to take steps to acquire more formal interviews from the Adam's Road members, and from a few others who were closely associated with them. So last month, our producer traveled to Florida (where Adam's Road is based) in order to get those interviews. The result of this was "treasures on tape" as we've come to call them. Phenomenal interviews. Treasures we are anxious to share with anyone who will hear it! (So stay tuned.)

When the DVD is completed (something we hope to have ready later this year), it will be a story that will bring you encouragement, and it will be something that you will want to share with the Mormons you know and love. A presentation of the biblical Gospel message, as told through the stories of these young men who love Jesus with all their hearts.

We will offer these DVDs free of charge to Mormons who request them of us; we'll also make them available at base material cost to those who want to hand them out and use them as outreach tools. We have been so greatly blessed by the gift of eternal life that Jesus has freely given us...we want to do everything we can to share this gift with the rest of the world!

So, what can you do?

We encourage you to watch the video clips that are posted on the website, if you haven't already. (Most of our videos are also available for download to your computer or mobile device for off-line viewing.) As you watch them, keep in mind people that you know and care about, who might benefit from them. Perhaps you yourself are on a "sacred grove" pathway, and need some encouragement as well!

Or it may be that you, or someone you know, has a "sacred grove" story that you'd like to share with us, one that you think will be an encouragement for someone who is walking that pathway. If so, please contact us and let's talk about how we can share your story!

And by all means, please pray with us, and pray for us. Pray that God would use these stories to draw people to Him, that many would find true freedom and eternal life in Jesus Christ. And pray for us, that we would remain sensitive to God's leading and guidance as we move forward.

You can also help us get the word out! We believe there are many people out there who are desperate to hear the Good News that our friends on these videos have already found. Share the website, or share this email, with people you know who may be interested. If you are involved in a church or ministry, share it with the people you know there, so they, too, can use it as a resource in their own outreach. You can even connect with us and help us spread the word on Facebook and Twitter!

If you believe this ministry is worthwhile, and you are so led, we also invite you to consider supporting this outreach financially. Since we are committed to making all of what we produce readily available and accessible, we do not generate a profit, either from online presentations or from material goods. Therefore we count on the support of people like you to join with us in the work of producing these materials. To learn more about how to help out in this capacity, click here.

In Conclusion...

This is a fascinating adventure that God has placed us upon, and we are grateful for those of you who join us on this journey! Thank you for your prayers, your time, your expertise, your stories, and your resources toward supporting this ongoing ministry. We are also grateful for those of you who watch and listen to these stories, and are blessed by them. We can't wait to see where it's going! We don't know all that God has planned, but we do know that whatever it is, it will be for His glory, and that is our chief goal--to honor and serve Him, in all that we do.

May God bless you, as together we celebrate and proclaim His Truth!

--Main Street Church of Brigham City