Loving God - Next Steps
Pathway Points
Stepping Up for Jesus
In last week’s GraceNotes, we
looked at how a new believer just starting out on the Discipleship Pathway
would show God that she loves Him. The focus was attending worship, and I
challenged you to evaluate yourself based on your own attendance frequency.
Remember, the descriptions are not meant to be exhaustive (or judgmental); they
are intended for self-evaluation,
and, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, to help you better understand what each
step on the Pathway looks like in the life of a believer.
This week, let’s look at the Next Step in the Love God part
of the Pathway. A Christian who is being called into a deeper relationship with
God will attend worship one to three times a month and invest financially in
special initiatives that she cares about. In terms of self-evaluation, look at
the frequency that you attend worship and your giving to various activities and
requests at Grace. Since we talked about the importance of attendance last
week, let’s focus on giving this week.
There’s no “magic amount” that you should be giving, just
that you’re following the Holy Spirit’s prompting and helping the church make
disciples. On top of maintaining the ongoing ministries here at Grace Church,
as United Methodist’s, we are a part of a greater connection of churches who
take on huge initiatives that individual churches cannot accomplish alone. Each
church takes a special offering six times per year to support some of these
projects. You can read about these Special Sundays and other ways your regular
offering helps here.
Periodically, there are also Conference and District level initiatives,
like One-Week-One-Street.
Grace Church also has quite a few projects of our own that
go beyond the weekly needs of doing local church ministry (we’ll talk about
time and talents in another article). Monthly, SOS (Senior Outreach Saturday)
provides a meal to the seniors in our community needing a little assistance,
and the team could always use a donation to purchase food and door prizes. The
same is true of our quarterly Food of Faith participation where we feed the
homeless in Bay City. If you’re more interested in helping the other end of the
age spectrum, you could donate to the Rev. Gary Damon scholarship fund or watch
for our special family gatherings and donate money to purchase prizes and food.
If the Spirit isn’t prompting you to support a particular project, perhaps you
could be supporting the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This is the money that
Pastor Eric has on hand to confidentially help members of Grace and members of
the community at large when they’re in a bit of a financial crunch. For more
ideas, check with Pastors Eric or Jeff, Monica, or one of the members of the
Church Council.
As you take this Next Step, remember that everything we
have, from the breath we breathe to the car we drive, is a gift from God.
Worship is one of the ways we respond to our loving Provider. Returning a
portion of those gifts, in the form of money offered, to help the church make
disciples is another.
Stepping up with you in His strength!
Monica Lebsack
Creative Ministries Director