Simply - Generously - Joyfully

 



Dear MPCC Family & Friends,

 I hope this email finds you doing well and enjoying the fall weather.  I wanted to take a minute to write about a new sermon series that begins this weekend. The series is called "Simply - Generously - Joyfully" from I Timothy 6:17-19. In this series we'll be talking, once again, about what the Bible says with regard to money. Talking about financial stewardship (money management) is one of my favorite things to do for a couple of different reasons: First, because the Bible has so much to say about money and second, because money can be a dangerous thing when not understood and managed from a biblical perspective. In fact Paul says that the pursuit of money can cause people to "wander from the faith and pierce themselves with many griefs" (I Timothy 6:10).  That's why I believe talking about money is one of the most important things we do each year.  

 One very important part of this years teaching on money will be the challenge for everyone in the church to bring the "whole tithe into the storehouse (church)" on the final weekend of the series (November 16/17). We did this last year as a part of our series "30 Days to a more Generous Life" and it was a great blessing to everyone who participated as well as the church. This will be a critical part of this years series because we are currently a little over $40,000 behind our weekly budgeted need to cover our operating needs as well as our debt retirement. At the beginning of October we were operating in the black then the two weeks of Fall Break came.  Those two weeks affected three weekends of offering leaving us with our current deficit. I'm confident that we will be able to make up this need but not apart from your help. So, if you've been gone for one or more of the past three weekends then make sure you "catch up" with regard to your giving and make plans now to bring the "whole tithe into the storehouse" on November 16/17. 

We've got some exciting ministry opportunities coming in the last two months of the year. Let's make sure that none of them are compromised by a lack of financial resources. I'm very thankful for the many generous people here at Mount Pleasant and I know we'll more than meet this current need. 

 Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris

Meet the New Senior High Student Youth Pastor

 

Hey MPCC family,

I want to remind you of a very special event coming up this Saturday, September 14th, at 7:30 in the Student Ministries Center.  We will be having a "Meet the New Youth Pastor" reception as Matt Pineda, our new Senior High Youth Pastor, and his wife Shelby will be joining us for an informal meet and greet.  This reception is open to anyone who would like to attend but I'm especially encouraging all our families with Senior High students to plan on being involved.  After much prayer and an extensive search I genuinely believe God led me to the exact person we need to lead this ministry.  We have everything we need to build a dynamic Senior High Student Ministry in place but we can't do it alone…Matt can't do it alone.  We need your help and your support.  So here's what I'm asking.  Come to the meet and greet reception this Saturday night, encourage…ask your high school student(s) to come and get in on the ground floor of what God is about to do here at Mount Pleasant, be willing to use the influence you have with your kids and other kids to promote our student ministry.  

We live in a world where people's first question is often, "What's in it for me?"  The church should be different.  In the church we should ask, "What can I give" or "How can I help."  This is an opportunity to ask those questions.  We need your support and we need your kids participation to create a dynamic Senior High Student Ministry.  So I'm asking you for your help.  

I look forward to seeing you this Saturday night,

 

Pastor Chris

 

Summer at Mount Pleasant

 

I wanted to take a minute here in the midst of a very busy summer and just give you an update on some things that are happening around the church.  

 

First, it's been a very busy summer.  We've already had Family V.B.S., two mission trips (one to Mexico and one to Poland), several sports and youth camps run through the CLC, Summer Fun Days through our Pre-School and just this morning our 7th & 8th graders left on a charter bus to Knoxville for the CIY Mix Conference.  Next week our Sr. High kids will be headed to Holland, MI for the CIY Move Conference and later in the month well over a hundred of our elementary aged kids will enjoy a week of church camp just down the road at Camp Allendale.  In addition we've got another mission trip planned for Mexico.  This is always a busy time.

 

I've been spending a lot of time trying to fill a couple of open staff positions as well as find someone for a newly created position.  I'm excited to announce that Matt Goodpaster, our CLC Director, is going to be moving into the role of Church Administrator.  In this role Matt will assist me by overseeing the day-to-day operations of the church. In addition, he will continue to have oversight of the CLC through the existing staff.  Please pray for Matt as he begins this new role effective July 1st.  I continue to search for a new Senior High Youth Pastor.  This has proved to be more difficult than I first thought but I'm confident that the right man is out there.  Pray for God's leading in this effort.  Also, I have created a new position on staff that I am simply calling the "Serve" Pastor.  The Serve Pastor will have oversight of all our local and global missions.  This will include providing oversight to the current staff that runs our food and clothing ministries.  Please pray that God will provide the right individuals to fill these roles.

 

The God@Work expansion plan is moving forward and I am anticipating being able to utilize the new space anywhere from the first of August to the middle of September.  Our God@Work offering is over one million dollars and there are still monies that have been pledged but not received.  I continue to be extremely grateful for the generosity of the Mount Pleasant family.

 

As of the writing of this, we have 8 more weeks left in The Story (we'll be taking a break this week for our Patriotic Service and another break on August 3/4 for our Back to School weekend). What a great study this has been as each and every week someone shares with me a personal testimony of how this study has created an even deeper desire in their life to study and know the Bible.  I've been thrilled with the way this has worked out and I'm already growing in my excitement for our next study called "What If?" (watch and listen for more information).  

 

Finally, I know it's the middle of the summer and everyone is busy but don't forget about the ongoing need to be faithful in your worship, your service and your giving.  This past weekend our offering was down over $20,000 from our normal budgeted need.  That's not unusual for this time of year but it can create some difficulty bouncing back.  Don't forget that there are more giving options available to you than just the offering bag that's passed each weekend.  With automatic ACH deposits and online giving you can support the church financially even when you're not here.  

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this.  And thanks for being such a great church.

 

Jesus cares,

 

Pastor Chris

I Need Your Help

Sitting in my office this Monday morning listening to the sounds of the God@Work Expansion going on right outside my office fills me with a great sense of gratitude and satisfaction for the many good things that are happening in the ministry of Mount Pleasant Christian Church.  As I write this “blog” we have just received a special offering that is nearing the one million dollar mark, our weekend attendance is higher than it’s ever been before and many of our ministries are experiencing new levels of impact and influence.  At the same time we have some very definite areas of need.  One of those is our Senior High Student Ministry.  For many years Mount Pleasant had a strong and vibrant Senior High Student Ministry.  It was nothing for us to have well over one hundred kids gather on Sunday nights for a time of fun, fellowship and spiritual growth.  Over the past few years, though, that number has been on the decline.  I’m not going to try and explain why that has happened because, the truth is, it’s the result of a number of different things and I’m more interested in focusing on where we need to go rather than where we've been. This is where you come in.  

At the current time I am working hard to find a new Senior High Youth Pastor.  I want to fill this position as quickly as possible but I am committed to taking as much time as necessary to find the right guy.  In the mean time I need you to do two things.  First, will you commit to praying earnestly, each and every day, that God would provide the right man for this need.  We need someone who has the passion, the energy, the personality and the commitment to rebuild this ministry.  I’m prayerfully seeking that person but I could use your prayers as well.  Second, if you've got high school students or you know high school students would you encourage them to support this ministry?  The simple truth is I need the parents and adults at Mount Pleasant to “leverage” their influence to help rebuild this ministry.  I need your help.  I need you to view this as an opportunity to help your kids or the kids you know learn that church is a place that’s supposed to be different from the rest of the world because church is a place where our primary focus is not what we get but what we give.  I've written about this before.  In fact, here’s a link to a blog entry simply called “Youth Group.” http://mpcc-front-porch.blogspot.com/2011/08/youth-group.html 

So this is my personal request because I need your help.  I am committed to a strong Student Ministry here at Mount Pleasant.  We have a state-of-the-art Student Ministry Center and we are committed to providing funding through our annual budget.  But I need your help.  I need your prayers, I need your influence and I need your support.

Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris

God@Work: It's Here!





Hey MPCC family, this weekend we’ll be receiving our special God@Work offering to help underwrite the cost of our current God@Work expansion plan.  I’m excited to see the results of what happens when God’s people have the opportunity to pray and plan for generosity.  I say pray and plan because I asked you to do those two very things all the way back in September 2012 as we wrapped up a sermon series called “30 Days to a More Generous Life.”  In the last message from that series I shared the biblical truth that when God creates a need He always provides for the need and He does that, most often, through His people.  I genuinely believe that God has created the need for ministry expansion here at Mount Pleasant.  We needed the additional 185 parking spaces, the new maintenance building, the additional adult classroom space and the new Community Ministry Center to house and expand our food and clothing ministries.  The overall cost of this expansion plan will be in the neighborhood of 4.3 million dollars.  As I told you in an earlier letter, we will be able to pay for this through monies on hand, additional monies borrowed from The National Bank of Indianapolis and through this offering. 

 How cool will it be to knock out a huge part of this expense through this special offering?  I’m praying that this weekend you will be prayed up and prepared to give.  We’ll have special offering envelopes available for the God@Work gifts you’ll give over and above your regular offering.  If you’re not going to be present then you can log onto our website and give your gift online.  Also, even though we’ve been promoting this as a “one time” offering, if you’re not able to give this weekend or you’d like to give more than you’ve got available at this time then please know that the God@Work offering account will continue to be available to you as long as it’s needed.  As we approach this offering I’m especially mindful of two verses.  The first one is Proverbs 19:17 and it has a special application for our new Community Ministry Center that will be used to help people in need.  He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.  (NIV)  The second one is 2 Corinthians 9:7 which has a general application for what we do each and every week but even more this weekend.  Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  (NIV)  I’m looking forward to a great celebration this week!  See you in church. 

Jesus Cares,

Pastor Chris

Strengthen Your Strength

Strengthen Your Strength

 

In I Thessalonians 4, Paul urges the church to live holy lives.  In fact, verses 3-8 contains at least in my opinion, the best teaching in the New Testament about sexual purity.  Then I Thessalonians 4:9-10 say, Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.  And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia.  Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.  (NIV)  What’s interesting about this is that after Paul commends these believers for their love for others he goes on to say, “Do so more and more.”  In other words, he’s telling them to strengthen their strength…to take something they’re already good at and become even better.  What a great concept. 

 

As we approach our special one-time God @ Work offering on the weekend of April 20/21, I am mindful of the fact that Mount Pleasant is a generous church.  Now I’m sure there are plenty of folks who need to grow in the area of stewardship and generosity and that our week-to-week giving could be stronger, but the bottom line is, our church is a generous church.  So, following the example of the apostle Paul, I want to encourage you to strengthen this strength by being willing to generously support this special offering. 

 

God is at work at Mount Pleasant Christian Church all you have to do is look and listen to know that’s true.  The additional parking spaces have been needed for a long time and have been a huge blessing as our attendance is currently up 12% over this same time last year.  We’ve also needed a maintenance building for some time as our campus now includes over 70 acres of property and nearly 200,000 sq. ft. of building space.  Our commitment to develop what we are calling a plan for “focused discipleship” has created the need for additional education space.  And the sheer numbers of people who are coming to us for basic necessities like food and clothing have created the need for our new Community Ministry Center.  And speaking of the Community Ministry Center, how exciting will it be to open this facility and expand our partnership with Midwest Food Bank by becoming a Super-Pantry for the south side of Indianapolis.  Because of this building even more people will come to us for food and clothes.  And in addition to that, we will be able to resource smaller food pantries in the surrounding area.  All of this will give us many more opportunities to share the good news of Jesus with people in need.

 

So let me encourage you, once again, to strengthen the strength of giving by being generous in this special one-time God @ Work offering.  Be willing to trust God and give over and above your regular giving on this one weekend to contribute to meeting the needs that God has created at MPCC.  Give generously, give sacrificially and give joyfully.  If you have a non-cash gift we can put you in touch with someone who will help you convert that to cash.  Pray for God’s leading and God’s provision in this offering.  Every dollar we receive is a dollar that we don’t have to borrow and that means more money for ministry.  So strengthen the strength of generosity!   

 

Jesus cares,

 

Pastor Chris

The Story Begins

This past weekend at MPCC we began our much anticipated new series, “The Story” which will take us from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 over the course of 31 weeks (the actual series is 32 weeks counting this past weeks introduction).  To say that I was pleased with the way we began would be a huge understatement.  This past weekend we introduced “The Story” to 3,412 people…that’s infants all the way up to adults.  And it’s important to characterize what happened this way because our entire church is involved in this study.  That means our children and our students are involved along with all of our adults.  What an exciting adventure.

One thing that I was particularly pleased with this past weekend was there were no parking issues (at least that I’m aware of).  The addition of 185 new parking spaces (the first benefit of our God at Work expansion plan) makes a huge difference to the weekend experience.  We did, however, have an extra large crowd at our 10:45 service, which is usually our largest service (1,028 in Worship Center and Chapel Overflow and 166 in the Video Venue).  For those of you who may have felt a bit crowded at 10:45 let me just remind you that we’ve got plenty of room on Saturday nights at 6:00 and there’s still room on Sunday morning at 9:00.  Also, while I know it’s a different kind of experience, we have upgraded the Chapel for overflow.  We have a new projector and a new, much larger, screen that enables you to feel like you’re a part of what’s happening in the Worship Center.  I’ll be honest and say that in the past if you had to use the overflow space it felt like a punishment, but not anymore.  Our new Chapel is a very comfortable place to worship.

So, we’re off to a great start in 2013 and I’m looking forward to see how God uses The Story to challenge all of us to a deeper faith a deeper understanding of His story and a deeper desire to study and know His Word.  And if you missed the introduction it’s not too late for you to be a part or bring a friend.  The introductory message is already available on our Facebook page.  Watch it online and come ready to worship.  I’ve been in ministry for over 32 years and I can honestly say that I’m as excited about what God is doing at MPCC in 2013 as I have ever been.  I look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris