Many of you may know that for the last five months I have been working very hard with weight training. In less than 11 months, I will be turning 40 years old, so this could be my mid-life crisis. But, really, the genesis of this training came when Tarah and I booked a cruise for our anniversary earlier this year. I decided then, I am going to get myself in the best shape of my life for my wife and I am going to do it before the cruise.
Now that I have less than 3 weeks before we leave for the cruise, I know that it is time for me to Finish Strong! This week we begin a sermon series in the last two chapters of the Book of Acts with that same title: Finish Strong. In these last two chapters of Acts, we see the struggles and stress that Paul has to go through to complete the mission he has been called to accomplish. Paul will face challenging circumstances and be forced to persevere through many trials, yet at the end he will finish the task God has set out for him to accomplish. I am praying that we can be like Paul in these last 3 months of 2016. We are facing a few challenging circumstances as a church. One of the biggest challenges is a financial one. We knew that 2016 would be a stretch as we brought our Goose Creek campus into our general budget. This was an expense of over $150,000 but it has paid huge dividends for the kingdom. Not only is our Goose Creek campus regularly seeing over 200 people worship there each week, we also have our Spanish-speaking church partner, Grace Church, meeting there, as well. I think it is critical that we persevere, just like Paul, and finish strong in 2016. You may have noticed in our weekly email updates that we are running behind financially; well, those monthly shortages add up now to more than $40,000. This may feel like a huge hill to climb, but I believe that our church can still meet this challenge. Making our budget this year will allow us to continue with our church planting strategies; empower our Cypress Coaching center; progress with our Ladson building project; keep Goose Creek self-sufficient; and give our team the resources to continue to see the vision of every man, woman, and child have multiple opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is my request . . . would you consider doing this small 3 step process?
Our family is planning to give an extra offering on top of our normal tithe during the Finish Strong series. If everyone made the same commitment, Journey Church would certainly finish strong this year, give us the resources to accomplish all of our goals in 2016, and help us to really Start Fresh in 2017.
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About WillChurch Planter. Pastor to pastors. Husband. Father. Reader. |