These are some pretty exciting days around NewPointe. God has blessed us in incredible ways, and the main reason is not for us to revel in it, but to leverage it for God’s purposes. I want to personally ask you to commit to pray as we do our best to exercise the influence God has given us. Here are some specific things:
1. “Go ’08” food drive in July with a goal of 1,500 boxes of food for the local food pantries. It starts this Sunday. Bring your boxes.
2. Service Sunday on August 3. We want to bless our community with the kindness and love of Jesus Christ through acts of service.
3. Sports Ministry Launch – Ben Carver is joining the NewPointe staff to lead us in leveraging this opportunity and build bridges within our community.
4. Small Groups push – In September we will launch a church-wide small group push. We are shooting for over 200 groups. The theme is “One Month to Live” -- living a life of no regrets. It promises to be life changing.
5. Stewardship Campaign --- Big vision takes big dollars. We want to continue to fulfill the vision God has given us. This will happen in Nov. 08.
6. Two Church Satellites – We’re looking to explore possible locations in Sugarcreek and Canton.
7. Middle East Focus -- There are 25,000 villages and towns in Egypt that have no church.
As you can see, much of this is focused on blessing others. One might ask, “What are we doing, giving all of these resources away during an economic crisis?” Well, it is during a crisis that we have the biggest opportunity to show how great and awesome is our God.
As you read scripture, you see one example after another of people living generous lives when everybody else is living with an attitude of scarcity and God using those people to influence others around them.
Let me encourage you to read 1 Kings 17:1-16. It is the story of Elijah the prophet asking a woman to take her last little bit of flour and oil and make him something to eat. He said if she would do what he asked, she would not lack flour or oil even though there was a famine in her land.
Guess what? God was faithful. The woman gave what she had, and God performed miracles on her behalf.
Let me encourage you to finish reading the chapter.
In verse 17 you catch the phrase “Sometime later….” There is always a “sometime later” in our lives. God is always preparing us for those times. He does so by asking us to trust him now in what he calls us to do.
So let’s start now with generous living. Our first opportunity begins this weekend with the “Go ‘08” food drive. Let me encourage you to fill your boxes with food, and bring them this Sunday as we kick off this great season of intentionally blessing and influencing others.
