A Note From Pastor Bruce
Beloved People of God,
This October, our sermon series and bible study entitled, “Fixer Upper,” will also serve as the basis of our stewardship series. “Fixer Upper” is based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the HGTV show starring Chip and Joanna Gaines, in which they turn dilapidated but potential-rich houses into showplaces. They work with clients who cannot see a structure's beauty beyond the blemishes. I wonder if we are not often like those clients and sometimes like those homes. Because of sin, shame, and guilt, we forget that God sees us as beloved children and through baptism we have been made right in Christ. We invite you to see what God sees in us and learn to build upon the foundation of God’s love, which will help revitalize our lives and build stronger, healthier relationships.
We hope you will hear God’s promise and experience a joy-filled, abundant life and respond to the call to invest all we are and all we have in response to God’s gifts. These values and attitudes include:
10/4: The Attitude of Integrity - As we put our trust in Christ, we become more who we were created to be and can realize a vision of life grounded in God’s love.
10/11: The Attitude of Service – Our call to serve springs forth from the fact God is more powerful than death and breaks the bonds of fear and frees us from all that would hold us back.
10/18: The Attitude of Generosity – Generous hearts are created as we encounter our generous, giving creator who energizes us with life.
On Sunday, October 18, 2020 we invite you to share your financial pledge to the glory of God as an act of worship. This has, no doubt, been a challenging year. Throughout this time, I have witnessed God’s grace and guidance, and our ability to consistently rise to meet those challenges. There is much work to do and ways in which we can continue to build upon the foundation God has established. To build boldly into the future, we invite you to prayerfully consider growing by 10% in your giving. That is, if you gave $20 per week this year, we encourage you to prayerfully consider giving $22 per week next year. This will
help us to further our mission by enhancing our ability to worship in-person and on-line, further develop our faith formation ministries, continue to strengthen our ministry staff, and help us establish a new mission opportunity as an “Anchor Church” with Zion Lutheran in Canton, Ohio.
Hear the call to build on the foundation of faith and be stewards of the life with which God has blessed us. Let us live generously in response to God’s mercy and grace. Please join Pastor Andrew and me in praying for God’s guidance as we thank God for “fixing us up” to be people who God desires us to be, people overflowing generosity and blessings, who freely share those gifts with others.
With You in Christ’s Service,
Pastor Bruce