The Second Story and Eastside merge for Restart

As many of you are aware over the last year or so we have been working with Eastside Community Church.  We have shared series, worshiped, and done many other activities together.  Through this time we have developed a great relationship with the leaders of Eastside and have felt that the Holy Spirit has been leading us to come together.  Through months of prayer and consideration Ron and myself took this to our respective elders. This was prayed over and after much prayer and consideration from the elders of both churches they agreed that this would be a great move for our churches.  We then took this to the leadership teams of both churches independently and presented it to the leaders of the church.  Again after prayer and consideration we at Second Story took a vote and overwhelmingly it was agreed that God has moved us in the direction of restarting  
with Eastside.  So I am writing to you to inform you that we will be restarting as a new church with Eastside Community Church.  This is very exciting news and I am thrilled as we look to the future and coming together to serve God's community.  We will still be meeting (for the time being) at the Cornerstone building. Certain elements/criteria need to be met and certain preparations need to be made before coming together on Sunday mornings. This is a time of celebration for our communities and also a time to roll up our sleeves and get to work for the Kingdom.  I have worked out a plan of action for the restart and we are currently working with the leadership of both churches to map out what that looks like for our churches.  There are three action items that you can commit to, or take part in, starting right now:

1.  Pray for the restart!
2.  Commit to being a part this new community!
3.  Help with a new name (that's right, we need a new name so I will ask that you suggest names to Kyle at kyle.yocum@gmail.com.  He will be leading the team to create a new name and he wants your help, thoughts, and considerations.) 

Finally, I understand that you might have questions regarding this restart.  Please feel free to contact me at 309-453-4999 so I can answer any of the questions that you might have.  I look forward to hearing from you and I also am excited about the journey we are about to take together.  God bless you and thank you in advance for your support.   - Brock Winkler, Pastor