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United Methodist Church |
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Union Grove
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Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and establishing people in personal relationships with God and one another |
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Pastor’s Message: |
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Greetings UGUMC Family,
Micah likes to work in the garden. Actually, Micah likes to pick things in the garden. He helped me with some of the planting and even will pick weeds now and then, but he likes harvesting the most. Getting him to dig the soil, spread it out…dig all the holes is at times a task. But getting him to go check the fruit and eat the corn and pull the carrots is easy. Since he likes to pick things, we went to pick strawberries at a local farm. The row we were assigned to was long…football field long. Micah loved picking (you probably could have guessed that by now) and so Ali and Micah were picking berries. Matilyn wanted to pick flowers so she and I went to sit along the edge and as she picked flowers I watched one of the workers bending over a new row, removing the first year berries and the weeds. I am guessing they were getting ready for the following year’s harvest. I remember thinking that bending over that row that was so long must be an awful job, especially because those new plants don’t even give you a berry to enjoy. I would much rather go to the row where you can pick one and eat one and then pick a weed and then pick another and eat two and pick a weed (you see where this is going). This isn’t unlike church, specifically how we as Christians like to enjoy the fruit of what is taking place but rarely do we want to wholly engage in the process, the hard work of preparing the soil, removing the weeds and all of the other stuff that it takes to bring about that opportunity to enjoy the fruit. Statistically in churches 20% of the people give 80% of the funds and also do 80% of the weekly work that it takes to make the church tick, to be a prevailing church. I want to break these percentages as we continue to experience growth. To sustain this growth and continue moving the church in a healthy and growing direction, we need more help…we need everyone’s help, hands, time and finances. Here at UGUMC we are a small but growing church (5 new families into membership just this summer alone), and we are not too different in those statistics. I would like us to change that. For the longevity of the church, we need to change it. Quite honestly, we need everyone to be more a part (physically, spiritually and financially) of what is taking place here. Some people are extensively involved in a regular, weekly basis in one ministry area (some more than one). Some here at UGUMC are sacrificially giving of their time, talents and finances to see the church continue to grow, and for their time and efforts we are eternally grateful. Our growth is a direct result of their willingness to give and to serve. Thank you! UGUMC would not be where it is right now without you. However our growth is exceeding our capacity to keep up with it in certain areas while other areas have remained totally neglected because of a lack of interest and help. Some areas are hurting from a lack of help while others are not fully functioning because people make commitments to an area but then fail to follow up on those commitments. We have a vision and ideas for certain ministries to flourish, to reach people and families, and to continue our current growth trends. However, we can’t begin to create or accomplish what we are dreaming of or need to do because we need people to get involved. In the last year we have all witnessed the transformation of our worship team from one person playing or leading to an entire team leading our services. This happened because people approached the leaders and actively volunteered to be involved and the results are transformational for our church. It happened because people gave time and finances. People didn’t sit on the sidelines waiting to be asked. Some on the team were scared to death to be doing what they are doing and have never done anything like it before. But they volunteered and the team is continuing to grow, change and improve the worship atmosphere. I would love for this to be the story for more of the ministry areas and finances in our church. Here are some of the specific areas that we need help: Recent research has shown that 94% of people who will come to Christ will do so before the age of 18. There are some mornings in our children’s area that we have two teachers for forty children. We don’t have AMP in the summers not because we don’t want to but because we simply don’t have enough help. You don’t have to have a degree or even a whole lot of experience…you just need to be willing to learn and be a part of an area that God is working in. You have to have a vision for the church. You have to simply be willing to allow God to use you to make an impact for his kingdom. You have to realize that your time on a Sunday morning, as a teacher assistant, helper or teacher is what is bringing and keeping families in our church and affecting the lives of our children and church for eternity. You just have to be willing to let God use you. We need help in our Encounter area. Our reaching out over the last four years is what has enabled us to grow at the rate that we have been growing. Word gets around in the community when you hand out doughnuts and gift cards and buy people a cup of coffee. You don’t have to be an evangelist or know how to present the Gospel flawlessly. We need people who are willing to be used by God in significant ways to be kind and compassionate to others. We need people who are willing to serve others and possibly talk about the church. We need people who are willing to help plan and run events that invite the community to be a part of what we are doing. We need ushers and greeters and people who are willing to drop off a gift bag at a visitor’s house in their area. We need people willing to run the sound on a Sunday morning (we can train you and age doesn’t matter). We need people to help with the fellowship time after the service…people who are willing to make the coffee, get everything ready and stick around to help clean up afterwards. We desperately need people to help clean the church for a few hours on a Thursday or Friday or Saturday. We need people to come to Bible studies that are offered to get feedback on what we are doing that is helping people to grow. What is happening is that a few people are doing many of these things, staying after church, cleaning, serving so that they are getting overwhelmed. We need you, and this is your invitation. To be quite honest, we also need people to give financially to the church. As followers of Christ, Scripture teaches us that the baseline for giving back to God is the tithe…that is 10%. It loosens up our fists that like to tightly hold on to things, it teaches us to live more simply and it also supports the ministry taking place. Because of special projects (physical upgrades, ministry needs) around the church, we are almost $10,000 behind budget and we certainly can’t dream or step out in faith as a church unless each one of us is willing to step out in faith in our own lives and commit our resources in ways that obediently reflects Christ. Thank you to those who have given to special projects like the worship team or the missions teams, again lives were affected, literally hundreds of lives, because of your gifts. Children heard the gospel in Nicaragua and gave their lives to the Lord because of your gifts. People are coming and worshipping and new people are coming because of your gifts. Thank you. While special project giving is appreciated, we need people to step out in faith on a regular, weekly or monthly basis in the giving to support that operations and ministries of the church. I don’t share this in the family style letter to guilt anyone into serving or giving. I do share it to be open and honest about where we are as a church and our needs as people have asked me to do. I do it because serving and giving is part of what it means to be a Christian and to reflect the life of Christ. It is necessary for growth, both for us as individuals in our relationship with God and also as a church.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark |
