2009: Praying & Planning
It’s hard to believe that Life House Church and Ministries is almost 8 months old and that we are going to be marching into a new year of ministry in a few short weeks. Right now I am spending time, praying, planning and looking toward 2009. We have seen many victories and blessings and there are more ahead. We are so thankful for all that God has done in and through our sponsor church, partner churches and membership at Life House. So many people have prayed, worked and given sacrificially to get this new ministry off the ground. We believe that God wants to use Life House Church in 2009 to continue the work HE has begun in College Hill. Pray for us. Pray that I will have wisdom, sensitivity to the leadership of the Lord and that God would show me the direction to lead this new church plant. Pray for God to save souls, add to our church family by baptism and letter and for our members to grow in the Word and in stability.
Pray for the Life House Church family as we seek to get out into the community in 2009 and let Jesus shine among the people. There are so many hurting, sick and dying people in our area who need the Lord. There are families who are struggling and many who are falling apart – who need to know that Jesus is the answer. Pray that we can impact College Hill and the surrounding area like never before for the Lord! If you or your church feels led – contact us and make plans to join us for one of our community outreach events or even a “mission trip” to help us reach souls this year. We would be glad to have you do mission work with us.
Also, pray for God to continue to meet our needs finacially. We are a baby church and it will take 2/3 years (maybe longer but our goal is 3 at most) to be able to be a self support and stable congregation. We begin buying our present building in January 2009 and we are excited about that! The building has been appraised at a much greater value than we will be buying it for. Our thanks to the owner, who doesn’t want to MAKE money off of the building, but rather just recoup the amount he paid for it many years ago. He has a heart for College Hill and wanted someone with a heart for the Lord and for souls to buy the building – THAT’S US! We are praying that we can “pay it off” in record time so that the monthly amount will not hinder us growing and doing ministry in the area. We are buying it for $140,000.oo – it is appraised at about 7 times that much. Pray that God would help us pay it off ASAP! Maybe you want to help us by giving a end of the year, tax deductible gift – if so contact us! You would be helping a new church gain financial freedom to do more ministry in 2009 than we could ever dream! Pray about it. All gifts toward the building (big or small) will get us that much closer to being able to pay it off!
We also are in need of a good used/new church van to be able to pick up children and adults in our local neighborhoods to get them to church. We are a “walking” neighborhood so when it’s cold or gets dark early our local people have a hard time getting to Life House. We know of a good used van for $12,000.oo and we are praying that if God wants us to have it that HE will provide the funds like He did recently when we bought the empty lot next door. HE CAN and HE WILL if it’s HIS WILL. Pray!!!
NOTE: I’m sure that some will say – “WHY NOT HAVE FUNDRAISERS TO PAY OFF THE BUILDING?” We began Life House Church with the idea that we would never hold “fundraisers” to buy or purchase anything. We want to be a debt free church and the only debt we hope to incur is when buying property or building. Even at that we do not want to resort to fundraisers, because our community already has the idea that “all that churches and preachers want is your money”. We don’t want them to ever see or hear that from Life House. We don’t even “take up” offerings in our services – we have an offering box available so that our members can place their tithes and offerings in it and guests can give as they feel led.
2009 is going to be a great year for Life House! Pray for us! Come see us! Invite me to come speak to your church or group (at no cost) and come see us when you can! It’s a blessing to serve the Lord in College Hill and to be one of your North American Mission Board Missionaries! …’till later… Pastor James
December 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Our best fundraiser has been prayer, but I know God is blessing Life House because he is pouring out his blessings on a church that really means what it says and puts feet to those prayers. We have to continue that faithfulness. It’s been so amazing to see God work over the past few months, just since April. In this economy, it is a miracle that people have the money to give, but God’s people are blessed when they give. I’m grateful that we are promised that God will provide for us according to His riches in Heaven. If that be the case, and it is, we haven’t seen anything yet.
By the way, I’m blessed because I have a church family that will pray for me when I’m sick and a little low spirited. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me Sunday. My heart was truly touched by that gift of prayer.