First, you can ask the faith family to dig a little deeper and give more. For those who are already tithing and being generous or for those on a fixed income, this can be a challenge. For others who are not tithing (giving 10%), there is room to increase giving.

Second, giving can increase by the number of people who attend each week. This happens when the faith family invites people who do not have a church home to attend Messiah. When the church grows, giving grows along with it. Giving also increases when the faith family attends regularly. It’s common for people to give only when they attend. If they don’t attend, they don’t give. If people were more regular in their attendance, giving would increase.

Third, giving will increase if the faith family gives their offering whether or not they attend. Either bring two checks (or however many weeks you miss) or use online giving (see MessiahOnDemand.org). This would help immensely.

As we approach the New Year, decisions will have to be made about how we can make up the on-going shortfall. Either we need to increase giving or we reduce expenses. We have gone through our budget very carefully and have cut spending. We keep a close watch on every expense.

I would encourage you to think about where you are in your giving and ask God what He would like you to change. If you haven’t done so already and would like to give a year-end gift to Messiah, it would be greatly appreciated as we are finishing this year with a deficit.

May God bless you richly as you serve Him.

Ed

Some of you have asked about why we need another person for our Kids and Youth Ministry. First of all, let me explain that we are adding to our staff, not replacing anyone on staff. The Pastor or DCE will oversee the entire ministry from Preschool through Young Adult and oversee LIFT worship. What’s missing is the coordination of all of these ministries so that we can do a better job reaching these age groups with Jesus. Currently we do not have ministry for young adults so the new person will begin assembling volunteers to work with this age group.

I’ve shared many statistics with you about Teens and Young Adults and how the vast majority of them are leaving the church. We are being proactive to go after this age group and do everything within our means to reach them and keep them close to the Lord. Today, only 4% of 15 – 32 year olds have any connection to a church. It’s also one of the primary reasons we would like to open up Journey’s Coffeehouse on Main Street in Midland is to reach this age group.

Some of you have asked how we will pay for this new position when we are not currently meeting our budget. I trust that if God wants us to bring another person on staff to reach kids, youth and young adults, then He will provide the financial resources that we need to do it. I hope you are being faithful to God and giving to God a tithe of your income as an expression of your thanksgiving for all that He has given you. If we are confident that God is providing the income then we will move forward.

I’ll keep you posted as to the progress. The District said they hope to have the names of the candidates to us by Christmas so we hope to begin the interview process in January.

I pray God will bless you richly this Thanksgiving season.

Serving Him, Ed

Hopefully by now you have heard of Messiah’s mission and strategy, “Reaching one more life with Jesus by creating environments for life transformation.” Our Values are, God loves us, we love God and we love all people. What has been missing is the vision. For the past couple of months we have been working on vision. Mission answers “What?” Strategy answers “How?” Values answer “Why?” and vision answers “Where?”

Vision is a picture of where we are going. It’s important to know where God is leading us because then we can begin to map it out accomplish God’s vision for Messiah. Discerning God’s vision for us is a process. It involves hours and hours of seeking God, praying, discussing with others, evaluating the people resources God has brought to Messiah and a lot of waiting on God to review to us what He wants. A team of people have been working on this for quite a while.

Along the way we caught glimpses of what God was doing, but we couldn’t see it clearly. Having been through similar processes with mission, strategy and values we understood that we needed to keep seeking, keep striving and know that eventually God would show us what He wanted us to see. A couple of weeks ago, the fog began to lift. Wow, was it ever exciting to see what God showed us!

We are currently in the process of sharing it with others to see if they affirm it. As the vision is being shared with others, they have the chance to ask questions, challenge it, debate it and give feedback. It’s nothing that we hurry into. If it is God’s vision for Messiah then staff, elders, board of directors and the rest of the leadership of Messiah will affirm it. It’s been exciting to share it with people and see the excitement of where God is leading us.

In the coming months you will be hearing more about God’s vision for Messiah. God is blessing Messiah in amazing way and I am truly thankful. I am thankful for each of you and pray that God will bless you in the things that you are doing. If you have any questions or there are things you would like me to write about, drop me a note at

May God bless you richly as you serve Him. -Ed