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