Last Sunday, it was such a joy to celebrate THREE years of gathering together to worship God!
We watched the latest Anniversary Video—made by our very own Gil Balch. If you haven’t watched it already, you can do so here.
We feasted on a Happy Birthday Cake—made by our own Paul & Fran Citrullo.
And we began our Building Fund series by studying Galatians 2:11-21 & the Church’s Message together. If you haven’t listened to it already, you can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
But, you may be wondering, why are we starting a building fund now?
Why are we starting a building fund now?
This is a very important question generally & a very important question for us specifically.
If the church is not a building & if we are only three years old, why bother starting a building fund now? Shouldn’t we focus on other things right now?
As we have thought & prayed about this question, we believe now is the right time for the following reasons:
1. Our attendance is continuing to grow, making it harder & harder to find a place to gather each Sunday to worship.
We have met in five different locations in Athens & it has been difficult to maintain a consistent place to gather.
The YMCA has been gracious enough to extend a long-term lease to us.
But after the YMCA, we simply do not know where we’d go!
2. Our membership is continuing to mature & that is reflected in giving to Trinity Grace.
Hudson Taylor once said: “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
Now, we do not think we are doing God’s work perfectly in God’s way. We have a ton to learn. But, we have seen God supply our needs.
In fact, our giving has steadily increased, including a 29% increase last year in the midst of a pandemic!
3. We have been entrusted with a lot as a young church & a building would help us serve one another.
In addition to our 82 adult members, we have 80 children. Not to mention the children of others who attend.
In seeking to be good stewards of all whom God has entrusted to us, we believe that in the future a building will enable us to better serve all in this church, both the adults of all ages & the many children!
4. A building will facilitate many more opportunities to serve our community.
Firstly, a building would free us from many of the time-consuming tasks of setting up & tearing down each week for worship. In so doing, a building would free us to focus more of our time, energy, & resources towards serving our community.
Secondly, a building would provide a place in which & from which we could better serve our community.
5. Most importantly, a building will provide a more permanent location for us to proclaim the gospel of free grace to this community for years to come.
That’s what we want more than anything else!
Scottish theologian John Webster has said: “[If we understand the teaching of Scripture] the church will not attempt to say everything but to speak one word and to speak it well. And one word will be the word of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
We’re not serious about ourselves, but we are serious about our God, his gospel, & our call to proclaim it.