Stewardship
September 2009
As the fall season approaches, we would like to encourage you to prayerfully consider the following congregational challenges for the remaining months of 2009. As we look to the fall season and our participation in the life of our congregation, there are several challenges for us to consider.
Challenge #1: We would like to see every youngster in our congregation enrolled in and regularly attending Sunday School. Parents, those spiritual formative years are so short! Be faithful to those promises you made at your child's Baptism. Be as concerned about your child's spiritual nourishment as you are about their physical nourishment. There are many of your fellow members who are working hard at developing renewed Sunday School programs for our children.
Challenge #2: We would love to see many more adults attending Bible classes. We all need the nourishment of God's Word regularly!
Challenge #3: Be a regular Sunday (or Saturday evening) worshipper! Let's not deal with worship as an elective. We work very hard at making our worship an uplifting, renewing experience! Gods' Word is at the heart of it ... become an every Sunday attendant.
Challenge #4: Invite someone in your circle of friends and acquaintances to come to church with you. 8-85% of church visitors come because someone invited the, "If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul", you can invite someone to church. Pray about it!
Challenge #5: Be a responsible Christian steward. Be faithful in giving a generous portion of your time, talent, and money to the Lord's work. Find some area of activity that you enjoy and which uses "your gifts" and pitch in!. Be diligent in your financial support of the Lord's work.
Challenge #6: Be regularly involved in prayer to the Lord for His blessing upon the sick, our various church programs, the Pastor, the leaders of our congregation, etc. ...
Do you think participating in these challenges will keep us busy? God bless us as we take these six challenges seriously. How does Paul put it? ... "It is our reasonable service"; a "reasonable" response to the wonderful love of God to us in Jesus Christ.
The Stewardship Committee
February 2009
The SOS message of the Bible is simple and direct. The Old Testament SOS "shows our sins". The New Testament SOS "shows our Savior".
Earth has its own meaning for SOS; it is a need and plea for help. That is what Calvary need now ... HELP!
We can never out-give or out-love our Lord but we can do what He asks of us; time, talent and treasures! Attend church, step up to the plate when a job needs to be done and especially give back to Him; a show of thanksgiving of His many gifts to us! Our budget will not be met unless:
- We keep up to date on our pledges.
- We make a pledge if we have not done so yet.
- We increase our offerings and send them in if we miss coming on Sundays.
How much can we expect the utility companies to continue giving us heat, light, water, etc, if we don't pay them?
How then can we expect our church to continue God's work if we have no funds to continue His work on earth?
Please prayerfully consider this message; The SOS is for each and every one of us!
In His Service
The Stewardship Committee
January 2009
A church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've been going for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. For the life of me I can't remember a single one of them, so I think I am wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote the clincher. "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooled some 32,000 meals, but for the life of me I can't recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this; they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals I would be physically dead today.
Likewise if I had not gone to church for nourishment I would be spiritually dead today."
When you are DOWN to nothing ... God is UP to something. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible, Thank GOD for our physical AND spiritual nourishment, A happy, healthy and spiritually nourishing 2009.
SEE YOU IN CHURCH!
The Stewardship Committee
December 2008
Someone has written that people use Xmas to describe our Savior coming to earth. This mean Xhaustion, Xcuses, Xhanges, Xcesses, Xtravaganzas, Xhibitions and worldly Xcitment.How much better it is to make Christ the very center of our Christmas observances and know joy, love, happiness, sharing, caring, peace and commitment to Him.
Let us take the X out of Christmas and keep Christ as our reason for celebration. We wish you all a very blessed and Christ-centered Christmas!
The Stewardship Committee
November 2008
During the coming weeks each of us will be challenged to take a fresh look at our stewardship life. We will hear the message that true Biblical stewardship means total and sincere Christ and His church. It is a message that commands all of our attention.Out prayer is that God's Spirit will move each of us to a deeper, more fulfilling commitment to Christ and His church.
In His Service,
The Stewardship Committee