Grace for Española
 
The beginning of a new year is always a good time to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re heading. As a church, we have much to celebrate and thank God for in the past year. One of the most significant events in the life of our fellowship was the calling and ordaining of a new pastor. There are always adjustments to be made as the church members and new pastor begin a new relationship. From my perspective, the transition has been very smooth and I can say as your new pastor I am very pleased with the spirit and harmony in the church. Perhaps the honeymoon is still in effect, but I sense a real comradeship in core values. There is a true hunger for the Word of God evident which is the most foundational and determinative core value a church can have. When a church allows the Word of God to direct its ministry, it places itself in the way of God’s blessing and fruitfulness in ministry. In other words, a God-honoring, God-blessed church will always ask itself, "Whose church is this?" To which the answer is "God’s." And also, "What does God, in His Word, say we should do?" This submissive attitude toward God as expressed in the attitude toward His Word will make all the difference in the life of our fellowship and will become more obvious as the months and years progress and we look back and see God’s hand of blessing.

FBC conducted numerous outreach events in 2009. Among them were the Easter Egg Hunt, VBS, Summer Mission Trip, Back to Church Sunday (newspaper ads, booklets), Harvest Festival, Desert Skies Concert, Angel Tree, and Children’s Christmas Program. In the Fall, we carried out a "You’ve Got the Time" campaign to get our entire church family listening through the audio New Testament. As part of that campaign, we were able to raise, with the help of an anonymous 3 to 1 matching donor, over $2,200 to fund the Lao language audio Bible. I was told by Hosanna, that our gift put that project’s financial need over the top!

We began a weekly radio program on KKIM that reaches from Socorro to Southern Colorado and around the world on the internet. The program director loves our program and gave us 285 free 30 second ads and has invited me to talk live on the air 3 times about our ministry. They’ve also repeated the program at 4pm on Sunday at no charge! This ministry is not funded by our regular budget so if you’d like to support it, mark your gifts (above regular tithes/offering) "radio ministry."

In 2009 we also were able to fund and offer biblical counseling booklets on a range of topics from depression to divorce. We have already had to restock the display completely. Please keep in mind that these booklets cost $3 each and this ministry is not funded in our regular budget. So if you’d like to contribute at any time toward the booklets, mark your special gift "counseling booklets."

For our children’s ministry, we were able to begin again our children’s church and we began offering our children a weekly Bible Bookmark to encourage daily Bible reading. We also launched a mid-weekly youth discipleship group that I lead each Wed. evening for teens who want to grow in their faith, maturity, and knowledge of God’s Word. Turn out has been meager so pray for our teens for a desire to take seriously their spiritual lives and come together each week to learn and be challenged.

We added four new members to the Ministry Team this Fall and we were able to complete a new Pictorial Directory that should be published and distributed by early February.

As we look toward 2010 there are several challenges we face as a church family. One of the most important I see is the need for our church to grow deeper in fellowship with one another. Life and ministry is about relationships and for our church to grow stronger and healthier in 2010 we must each make a commitment to get to know and love one another better this year. I’ve suggested from the pulpit for our members to share meals together as an easy beginning point. Later in the year I hope to see our church conduct a "dinner with six" initiative where people can sign-up to share a meal with a few others that they don’t know very well. I believe we will be pleasantly surprised by the joy and body life ministry that can result.

Another major concern is our current level of giving has not matched our approved budget expenditures. Our church has been in a spending freeze the last few months and we’ve sought to reduce spending where possible, but it’s not enough. In 2010, we will be offering a ministry effort to biblically instruct and assist our membership in personal financial planning. We don’t just want to plead for an increase in giving, but to help our people manage the resources God has entrusted in the best way possible that will bless them and God’s church as a result. You may recall my Christmas gift to those in attendance one Sunday morning was Randy Alcorn’s excellent little book The Treasure Principle as one small effort to this end (have you read it yet?). More information about this effort will be forthcoming shortly.

Please continue to lift up our fellowship before God in prayer. Look for ways to be a blessing to others and seek to make the most of your involvement each week. Remember that God loves you and I do too.

Yours for the Master,

—Pastor Massimo

 


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