Thursday, February 2, 2017

A message from Pastor Doug


Dear flock, 

For those who missed our Annual Meeting last Sunday evening, we were so encouraged to hear the reports of how God has blessed our church and used our church in this last year. So much ministry goes on here, and so much ministry goes out from here, all around the world. Last year, you gave almost $40,000 to support our missionaries and other ministries, locally and globally. We heard how we were able to help our own church family through our benevolent fund, about the ministry of our precious ladies in ‘The Widow’s Might,’ and our privilege of helping Hope City rebuild homes lost in the Valley and Clayton fires. We just committed $80K to Hope City out of our fire fund. What an amazing blessing. 

And we also heard that last year’s giving was $40K short of what we budgeted. This is due to many factors. Some folks moved away after the fire, and others have retired and re-located. Others have had situations that impact their ability to give. These things happen in the life of a church, and we’re not discouraged or despairing. But this is a time of re-building for our church family, and we are trusting God to bring us new growth and meet our needs.  

The Elders made the decision to cut $20 from last year’s budget. And now we are asking all of you in our church family to prayerfully consider your own stewardship in this ministry God has given us here at MBC. We are asking you to consider increasing your monthly giving by 10-15%. If we are all able to do this, or more, we should be able to meet this year’s budget.  

And I would encourage you to think about using the online giving on our phone app. I’m using it myself and it’s pretty cool. It’s easy to set up and you don’t have to worry about forgetting your offering. And then when we take up the Sunday offering – you can just chill! The info on how to set up online giving is on our website and on the phone app. 

Please, let’s all pray and see what God does. We are in an exciting time because we know that our heavenly Father is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” So we say with Paul: “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-2).  

Pastor Doug