Hello There!
I have three important items to relay to you:
First, at our January Ministry Forecast Meeting, we reported on a serious developing concern regarding our aging air conditioning units. We had been told that the units were no longer going to be serviceable due to changing coolant systems in the industry. That means whenever there is a problem, it soon becomes a very expensive fix or, eventually, an impossible fix.
With that in mind, the Stewardship and Leadership Teams went to work securing bids and working through options on what it would take to replace our units. Those bids came in somewhere in the neighborhood of $115,000, a significant sum. That is why we began exploring different funding options, hearing the church’s opinion in a straw poll, and eventually settling on using funds from the Generation Next account that were previously borrowed for construction, but unspent.
We were recently ready to come back to the church for official permission to do just that when some new information came our way - and it was good news! We were told by the company that was likely slated for the job that our current units still had some life in them. More than that, we were told that the new coolant being used today could be placed into our old units if necessary, making an expensive fix more manageable if and when that occurs. This new information changed our perspective a great deal.
So, at this time, we are returning the borrowed, but unspent money to the lender, lowering our overall debt and speeding up the time when it will be fully retired. We will also continue with our current maintenance schedule while saving and budgeting in the future for the complete replacement of those units.
Second, God has brought a number of new families to us since the first of the year. Through March, an average of 43
more people have worshiped with us this year than at the same time last year. This is a wonderful blessing! With that in mind, we hope you will join us in giving extra special attention to hospitality. Please intentionally be on the lookout for faces you don’t recognize. Welcome them warmly! Ask if you can help them find a seat or serve them in some other way. You might be a link to helping them or their kids have a better experience and be more able to freely participate and hear from God.
Finally, Easter is just a little over two weeks away! You know that Easter week is filled with many important events like our Worship Gathering on Maundy Thursday, our Eggstravaganza on Saturday and, of course, worship on Sunday. These are special times for us all. When it comes to Eggstravaganza and worship on Easter Sunday, we have especially good times to invite family and friends. We expect large crowds with many guests for both, including the ones who hopefully come with you. With that in mind, we hope that you will consider attending worship during the first service at 9 a.m. if you are able. This will ensure that we have enough space to welcome our guests in both worship services.
We have much to be thankful for and so many reasons to praise Him – as individuals and especially as a church! May our lives glorify Him with everything we say, think and do!
Pastor Jim
