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Weekly Update from the Senior Pastor
 December 1 , 2005
Dear Family and Friends,
Christmas celebrates Jesus’ birthday. In love God gave us His best Gift, so we give gifts to those we love.
I love inviting you to write Jesus Christ at the top of your gift list—let your first and best gift, as a single adult, a couple or family, be your gift to Him, a special offering to build His Kingdom (Jeannie is inviting our children to exchange one specific gift on their list into a gift for Jesus). In Matthew 2:11-12 the Magi point the way: “when they saw the Child, they were overjoyed and bowed down, worshipping Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts…”
Many people “square up” with God in December or make final offerings that would otherwise go to Federal taxes, so December is always our highest giving month. Please be bold according to your income and faith—my goal for us is $200,000 of which $25,000 for local budget has already arrived! Here is how your special gifts and tithes will be used:
· THE LAND: Tuesday evening, December 13th, at 7:00 p.m., will be a final Q. and A. concerning the Kelley property located at Barthalows and Route 144 between Mount Airy and New Market—as well as any updates on interim or construction options. This 65-80 acre parcel (the survey/perc tests are being done!) came to our attention through retired realtor, Bob Hilton, who read Bryan Chaney’s article in the Frederick Post and knew the Kelleys would be open to selling this land, which was not on the market, to a church. The Kelleys have asked $1 million for this property.
Before our December 13th meeting, ballots will arrive asking members to vote Yes or No for this purchase. My sense after months of listening is that the congregation is comfortable with the land purchase but concerns remain about the interim period between the purchase and a finished facility on the land. If you have any questions or concerns about the land purchase, please feel free to contact the Development Team, Trustees, Staff or Elders. The ballots are due on December 16th. We have no debts and $1.4 million on hand to purchase the land and then begin this journey, including a Christmas gift for the land development of $45,000—thanks be to God for faithful hearts.
· THE INTERIM: If our land vote is yes, we begin applying for all necessary land use permits, hire a project manager, and work with our architects, RNL of Denver, to finalize the scope, planning as a congregation the best first phase building, (which we estimate will be a 40-45,000 square foot facility), design the building for review, make appropriate modifications, finalize construction drawings—then accept bids on the plans and specs from construction contractors for the highest quality at the best cost. There is one potential option already that may cut down the timeline.
It looks as if we will remain in our current facility until March of 2007 at a cost of around $27,000 a month—very expensive! From March, 07 until we have a new home built will truly be our wilderness time—but we will have a clear destination and time line for a new facility as we go into that stretch. Right now the only definite option for a meeting place in that stretch is Linganore High School north of New Market—not at all ideal but a final hurdle before we go home to a new “family house.” We explored the West Ridge shopping center rent option, but it is so far from the land at such a high cost that it is not likely we could make that move and stay focused on building a home on the land.
· THE ORPHANAGE: As we begin building our future facilities, we‘re going to heed the words of James 1:27 that “the religion our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress; and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” To first build a home for AIDS orphans in Memel, South Africa, is a crazy act of faith on our part, a counter-intuitive Kingdom move that takes Jesus at His word when He declares that as we give it is given to us and that by letting go—opening our hands to the needy—our hands are perfectly positioned for God, whose resources are infinite, to fill them. I love Proverbs 11:25, which says that “he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed!” Already a single gift of $40,000 and several other gifts totaling another $10,000 have come in to help build the orphanage on the land the children purchased—so we’re well on our way!
· YOUR GIVING: The funds that come in during December will go 80% to our local budget, which was running strong in the black until this huge rent (200%) increase sent us reeling; 10% designated for future facilities (a tithe); and 10% designated for our South African orphanage (a tithe). Now here is the really cool part about all this in terms of you: to do whatever God desires you to do, all you need is: 1.) integrity and 2.) trust. Your integrity will put your heart in a place to say: “What Lord? Yes Lord! Thank you Lord.” And by trusting His call to you, you also trust that He always guides you where He intends to provide for you. I DO NOT believe in a “prosperity gospel” that feeds our materialistic nature and says: give—and get rich. No such promise. I DO believe God’s promise that when we give faithfully—occasionally even sacrificially—then God becomes the infinitely wise Partner in our life, pledging we’ll have all we need to live the life of joy and purpose He calls us to. Here is what I shared with the Elders this week:
If our decision on what we build on the land is made after much prayer, especially as Elders, uniting the whole congregation, asking for God to guide us in order to win A MAP = “as many as possible’ (1 Corinthians 9:19), then God will also provide into the homes of our congregation all the resources necessary—to some more, to some less, but all we need. So this entire challenge boils down to our faithfulness and discerning God’s will. God will never GUIDE us into a challenge and not PROVIDE us with the resources necessary to do it. The Elders’ hearts need to be together on this because money is the great false god, and I want all of you at my side as examples as we invite the congregation to join us into the adventure of living beyond greed and fear during such a challenge as this.
Okay, here’s the truth. I’m pumped. I love stretches that stretch—times when God calls us to take a hill in His name. All my life I’ve hated the thought of a mediocre, safe existence wrapped up in self and dreamed of being a part of something big for the Kingdom—and this fits. So again, this Christmas season, step aside to a quiet place, whether as a single adult, a couple, a family, lift a prayer up to the One who came down, and decide what kind of gift is a sacrificial investment for you in Jesus’ Kingdom.
The returns are eternal—guaranteed.
In the Lamb, Richard
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