Yes, I know. This would be much easier if I would just update the blog more often. I have SO many updates this morning!!
A) We saw another person walk from darkness to light. There was another person accept Jesus as their personal Lord yesterday. It is AMAZING to watch Him work!
B) Ben gave an elder update yesterday. He started by telling us that in the past 8 months there have been 200 decisions to follow Jesus. To save you the trouble of doing the math—he informed us that this translates to roughly one per day! WOW!
C) Ben also informed us that we have grown 25% since last year. Our rooms are all at 70-80% capacity—except one. The sanctuary. Part of the dialogue the elders have been having is how to allow ministry areas to continue to grow. How do we allow room for growth for a very fruitful student ministry, growing women’s ministry, and a men’s ministry that is going to purposefully develop leaders? The answer involved moving the sanctuary to be more of a multi-use room. Moving from pews to chairs will allow our ministry efforts to continue to grow. Can you picture 100 students sitting in circles talking about Jesus? Can you begin to imagine the impact to women’s or men’s ministries? This one step will relieve some of the immediate pressure that we are currently feeling.
D) Ben did NOT talk about a special offering. He did NOT mention the need to raise the funds for this to be able to happen. Because of your faithfulness in reaching the stewardship goal, we are going to be able to accomplish this before Fall and do it WITHOUT extra giving. As you continue to be faithful in offering your gifts, time, talents, and prayer—He continues to pour out amazing opportunities in ministry. Be looking for this project to be completed in August.
E) Shift your thinking to the Great Bicycle Giveaway and summer feeding program. I had someone approach me yesterday after one of the services, “Pastor, I work for Vicksburg Schools. I wanted you to know that the person in charge of the meal program for the school works in my office. I had her listen to the church podcast from last week.” (This is the one where you heard about the chance to partner with the schools in providing lunch for Portage Terrace throughout the summer—and YOU busted out with some serious celebration.) She said, “Pastor, the people that approve the grant for the state came down this week for the final thumbs up or thumbs down. We played the podcast for them as well. They were overjoyed and passed everything. They loved the way that we are working together to love the community.”
WOW!!!! Are you kidding me?!?! This is incredible. Is it possible to get your hands around everything that is happening right now? I don’t think so. Maybe you have only been involved at LC on the fringes. You hear the updates and think that things can’t really be THAT good. Some people might start to think, “Billy, every week can’t be your favorite. They can’t all be THAT good.”
I can honestly say that what is happening is EPIC! Sunday morning I heard story after story after story about what God is doing in hearts and lives. It’s amazing. I hope that you are as blown away as I am.
I’ve been reminded of a few things recently.
*Every Sunday my job is to preach the bible…to speak TRUTH…to declare HIS gospel. When I do that—His Word will NEVER return to him in void.
*One person DID give their life to Christ this week. We can’t become calloused to that amazing miracle! It is supernatural and worth throwing a party over.
*Ben nailed it this morning…the goal is GROWTH. The dialogue and conversations that I am hearing have EVERYTHING to do with being a better reflection of Christ. WOW! This church is nailing it in so many ways!
*This church…this staff team…this group of elders…YOU…are not a normal church. Then again, he never called us to normalcy. This church is truly doing GREAT things.
