Dear Church Family,
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Chanda and I are enjoying our fourth Christmas in West Milton, and Wesley is enjoying his second Christmas ever. We want to thank the church for the generous Christmas gift that we received at the Christmas party. I also appreciate all of the other cards and gifts. You are a very supportive and caring church family. Hoffman is an amazing place to serve. Thank you!
We certainly had a good Christmas at the church as well. I want to thank everyone who made that possible. We could not have accomplished it without each of you. It is amazing what our church is able to accomplish. We could not do it all without each one of you. I thank God daily for having a church full of faithful servants.
I want to thank all of you who supported the release of the new CD in November. We had a great time sharing the songs with you. It was a lot of fun to work on that project, and I pray that the CD touches the hearts of all who listen to it in a way that draws them closer to God.
As January quickly approaches, I have a new sermon series for you entitled “The Bible’s Believe It Or Not.” During this series, we are going to be looking at some Bible stories that you may not believe are even in the Bible. We will spending some time with a talking donkey. We may look at the floating ax head or the dry bones rising. An unbelievable story of forgiveness and obedience is found in Hosea. We will see what happens when someone sleeps during a sermon. Then, there was the day that time stood still. The Bible is full of stories that you may have never heard before, and we are going to spend some time with them. They are in the Bible whether you believe it or not.
January marks the beginning of a new year—2014. One thing that I like to do at the close of the year is reflect on the blessings of that year and look forward to the hopes for the new year. I want to begin by reflecting over the many blessings of this year.
Personally, there were many blessings for our family—Wesley’s first steps, my ordination, and the release of a new CD. As a church, there have many blessings as well. We are in the launch phase of a brand new youth ministry. We celebrated the one year anniversary of our new service. We have continued to support many groups in the community by sharing our space.
Of course, numbers are not everything, but they certainly help us see our blessings. Last year, we set some breakthrough goals for 2013. We prayed over these goals, and I happy to say that we have surpassed our original goal in all areas.
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Goal
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Actual
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Average Weekly Worship Attendance
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175
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182
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New Members
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5
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9
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Baptisms
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5
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9
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Weekly Giving
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$4300
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$4626
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Apportionment Giving
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100%
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Over 100%
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We have a lot to celebrate in 2013! Now, as we move into 2014, let’s look at the hopes we have for this year. What do we want to partner with God to accomplish in 2014? As a church, I want to see our youth and children’s ministries grow so that we can continue to reach youth, children and their families. We also want to be involved in more Mission and service this year. On the Administrative side, we are going to be discussing how we can establish a better governance structure to make our work more effective and support people engaged in mission and ministry. I certainly pray that we continue to see the growth exemplified in the numbers above, but even more important than that, I want to see people grow in their spiritual lives and commitment to Jesus Christ.
As we enter a New Year, let’s reflect on the blessings of 2013 and have high hopes for what will come in 2014!
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Pastor Justin
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