jeremy allen

Dear Friends & Family,

Good Tidings from the Triangle. I hope this letter finds you joyful and ready for this Christmas season. I’m taking a break from Decking the Vintage21 Halls to sit down and tell you about everything going on here at little 209 Oberlin Rd. When I say little, I don’t mean that we’ve shrunk. Actually we are growing by leaps and bounds! I’m so excited to be a part of such a wonderful group of people at this time in my life. For the last month of so we have just been busting at the seems with new people. We’ve grown so much that we are already looking at 1 of 2 options either, 1 adding an additional service to our Sunday plate (either at the building or somewhere else and starting a church plant) or 2 finding a bigger building. We have our eyes on one building in particular and we are really praying and fasting as a staff and a church as to what to do in those regards.

I feel like this growth has carried over from the church into my personal life as well, not so much in numbers of people but more of a personal growth. We did just have thanksgiving a few weeks ago but my belt has pretty much remained the same size. I just got through reading this great book called Blue Like Jazz. It’s an amazing book. If you see it at your local Barnes and Nobel, I recommend giving it a read over Christmas.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has been praying for me or supporting me monetarily. It has been greatly appreciated. With some jobs it can be a challenge to gauge how you are affecting people, but over the last 6 months I have seen some amazing people come to Christ, be able to walk with them through life, and talk with others about what being a follower is all about. Next door to our building is a day labor place called Labor Ready. One of our big ministries is trying to help the guys that work there out. Since my job keeps me at the building a lot I am in a strategic location to be able to talk to these guys on a daily and weekly basis. A few of the guys have started attending church regularly and it’s amazing to see them start to have a desire to lay down things like alcoholism and crack addictions. This doesn’t happen over night but I know and can see that we are making a difference. And it’s because of you that this is possible.

Thanks to the generous giving of many, I currently am hitting a small percentage of my budget for this church year, which is $28,000. I still have to find outside recording jobs to help fun myself each month. If my budget was fully funded, I would have the peace of mind to devote all of my time and energy to doing my very best work at the church, instead of splitting my time in many places. If you are already giving, thank you so much. If not, would you consider giving a year-end tax-deductible donation or even consider giving $25, $50 or $100 monthly? I’m enclosing a gift envelope for your convenience. I hope to see many of you in the next few weeks as a make the treck home to Skippers around Christmas.

Thanks again!

Jeremy Allen
Technical Director / Vintage21