engage_a_season_of_growth_20112
Greetings Engage Community. For those of you who don’t read blogs and emails, please, please, please keep reading for like 2 minutes of your time!
We are asking you to please be paying close attention to what is happening at Engage right now. Part of being in a community of Jesus like Engage, means you take responsibility to keep up with what God is doing in YOUR church. This is necessarily, especially, if you have not been to a Sunday morning worship gathering in the last few weeks. Now, thankfully through technology we’ve made it easy for you to stay connected. All you have to do is click the link to learn more.
This past Sunday November 21, 2010 we gave a two part financial update on the current and future financial realities as a church. We made a 14 minute podcast describing where we are financially, where we will be if things don’t change, and how we are going to grow through this season and experience God in deep and profound ways in the process. Please listen to this podcast.
As you may or may not know, Engage is heading into our crucible year as a church community. 2011 will be our greatest test yet as a church and may be our finest hour. Here are some of the tough realities we knew were coming to Engage year three. 1. We are losing 15K in subsidy from our BIC family of churches. 2. We didn’t see this coming, but our giving has been down $200 a week for the past 11 weeks. 3. Our expenses have gone up since we started Engage. We are a growing church. If everyone who has visited Engage since we started decided to stay at Engage we would be a church of over 450 people. We are not that size because Engage is not a church for everyone. The result of this “perfect storm” means we have to make up $42,000 in 2011 in order to maintain our current levels of ministry and impact. Wow! I know that sounds crazy. We may even need God to raise that kind of money. 
The Leadership Team has to make tough decisions. Please, please pray for us! Some of us are losing sleep over this. We are not afraid of what is happening and what needs to happen. However, some of us are feeling the weight and strain of leading and guiding Engage as we moving forward. In the coming weeks we will be rolling out our 2011 Spending Plan details on what we are calling “A Season of Growth”. The best thing you can do for now is pray. Begin asking God to begin teaching you about his generosity in deeper ways. Pray for Engage to grow together in unity through this season. Pray for us to not allow our focus to be diverted from Christ. Second, pay attention to what is happening in the life of Engage Church. Read email updates. Ask questions. Go download the latest podcast if you miss a worship gathering on Sundays. Our weekly talks will be peppered with teaching and vision as we invite God to deepen us in this season.
What does all of this mean? First, it means we refuse to live in fear. We refuse to guilt people or use shame or pressure to get people to give to Engage. If we ever do this it means God has left the building and we may as well shut the doors and go home. God does not use fear, shame, and guilt in how he relates to us, nor does he “need” us to use those means to accomplish his good purposes. Rather, the more we get to know Jesus the more we grow in security, love, courage, confidence, and freedom. Listen to the podcast to find out more. Thanks for paying attention to the future of YOUR church community. Stay tuned.
BTW: After numerous requests from those who don’t carry cash or check books, Engage is now using Pay Pal for you to give generously to what God is doing.
Listen to Sermon: Prayer
