May 8, 2008

Hey Suncrest,

I heard we had a strong finish to our Fearless Series.  I downloaded Doug’s message and listened to it.  I love the story of Gideon, and Doug did a great job telling it.  And, how about that Braveheart/William Wallace monologue???  I love it.

We announced on Sunday that our EXPONENTIAL Offering has been given a huge lift from our leaders.  Just three relatively small groups – our Ministry Staff, our Elders, and our Business Management Team have committed to give over $30,000.  Have you determined your gift or pledge yet?  It will be low-key on this Sunday in our services, but we do ask that you bring your EXPONENTIAL envelope with either your gift or your pledge (to be fulfilled by June 15) and drop it in the offering bag along with your regular tithes and offerings.  I love that this is helping us launch our new campus while delaying long-term capital campaigns at the same time.

$100,000 is an enormous amount of money.  I’ve told a few people that any time we have such a sizeable need, we need 2 things to happen…

1.       We need some large gifts – not everyone can give thousands of dollars, but some can and we need that kind of generosity from those who can.

2.       We need everyone to make some gift – not everyone can make a large gift, but if each one of us does our part we can meet the need.

I was out of town Thursday night through Sunday night with our elders.  Our annual retreat is always a highlight for me.  We covered a lot of ground together about Suncrest’s future, our role as elders, and our own spiritual lives, and experiencing two new churches Suncrest has been key to launching.  I’m honored to serve with them.  A couple of weeks ago in a sermon I described the Biblical quality of “meekness” – solid spiritually our core, but gentle and humble toward others; solid; resolved; quietly confident.  That describes our elders.

I did a lot of reflecting about our conversations and wrote some of the stuff on my blog – you’ll want to scroll down to the post about us at Fenway Park and read up from there to get it all in order.  Click here if you have any interest in reading about the roles elders fill (and don’t fill) at Suncrest.

Love ya, Suncrest.

Greg

PS – Don’t miss our approach to Mother’s Day this weekend – “The Secret Desires of a Mom”.  It’s the perfect weekend to invite the moms you know – whether your own mother or a friend/relative who is a mom.