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Vision Statement:
"To know Christ and make Christ known."
from Stewardship
Summer is upon us and our stewardship campaign is behind us. We thank all who helped make it a success. When we consider the financial problems our country and many of us personally are experiencing, we praise God for the faith he has given us.
As you have noticed, our offering envelopes have a new look this year. Instead of having a separate envelope for the Scholarship Fund, we have combined our three individual funds in one envelope-Current Expenses, Building Fund and the Scholarship Fund. Our financial secretary has found that apparently a few have indicated their giving in the wrong place. This, of course, makes it rather difficult to keep accurate records. Please take a moment to examine your new envelopes to assure the correct placement of your giving.
Finally, remember that stewardship does not end just because our campaign is over. Stewardship is our responsibility to manage all that God has given us - not only our treasure, but also our time and talents. Let us keep in mind that if we want to please God, we must freely offer all three - joyfully.
but I kind of missed the punch line. Of the four soils Jesus describes, only one produced a full harvest. To Jesus' original audience, the other three would have represented a disaster. They knew that no farmer would be satisfied with an initial spurt of growth followed by a failure to reach harvest. There is an old saying, "You get what you measure." I've learned to pay close attention to two key measurements when it comes to determining the long-term stickiness of our church. The first is retention rate. A discipling church always has a high retention rate across the board. The second is the percentage of significant relationships throughout the church. If people do not have significant relationships within the church, they'll eventually respond to it like customers instead of family members. When a better deal comes along they will be gone. Not so when they are velcroed
by relationships. People who hang on to a sick or highly dysfunctional church
always give the same reason why,, "My friends are here."
The second step came when we decided to make small groups the new hub of our
ministry. Once we made our small groups a primary focus, people went from having
lots of casual acquaintances to developing some deep and significant
friendship-without losing their casual acquaintances along the way. You'd think
a front-door church would
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