“Planting” in a Cents-able Way
By Pastor Leslie Lake, Polo Church of the Brethren
Polo COB has been intentional now for the last two years in wanting to reach out beyond its front doors to do ministries that focus beyond their own communities and their present mission fields. With the District asking me to become a member of the Church Revitalization and Development Team, it seemed clear that we should become involved with the new church developments in IL/WI District. With that in mind, we forged ahead and came up with a plan we would like to share so that others might also consider doing something like this. We believe no church is too small to share in the process of growing a new church start and help “fill the pews” for God’s kingdom work!
During Lent this year, we used cloth bags that were sown for each member who chose to participate that had draw-string closures to them. They were to represent our “thirty pieces of silver” as we thought about giving up our change as a source of funding for one of the new churches.
We had decided to gift the Parables Church because we had taken them on as a partnership by inviting them to come and lead worship at our church this summer and bring their style to us so that we could experience being together with them. We were so moved by the experience, we decided to sponsor them with this love gift.
On Palm Sunday, we brought the bags forward and took the change to the bank. I took a check for $602.00 to Parables for their Celebration event. I hoped to show our support of their church beginning and to let other churches see how easy it is to help a new church in a cents-able way! God blesses us when we honor His ministries. We will be looking for ways to help more churches start and hope that many more churches will also do the same.
Polo COB has been intentional now for the last two years in wanting to reach out beyond its front doors to do ministries that focus beyond their own communities and their present mission fields. With the District asking me to become a member of the Church Revitalization and Development Team, it seemed clear that we should become involved with the new church developments in IL/WI District. With that in mind, we forged ahead and came up with a plan we would like to share so that others might also consider doing something like this. We believe no church is too small to share in the process of growing a new church start and help “fill the pews” for God’s kingdom work!
During Lent this year, we used cloth bags that were sown for each member who chose to participate that had draw-string closures to them. They were to represent our “thirty pieces of silver” as we thought about giving up our change as a source of funding for one of the new churches.
We had decided to gift the Parables Church because we had taken them on as a partnership by inviting them to come and lead worship at our church this summer and bring their style to us so that we could experience being together with them. We were so moved by the experience, we decided to sponsor them with this love gift.
On Palm Sunday, we brought the bags forward and took the change to the bank. I took a check for $602.00 to Parables for their Celebration event. I hoped to show our support of their church beginning and to let other churches see how easy it is to help a new church in a cents-able way! God blesses us when we honor His ministries. We will be looking for ways to help more churches start and hope that many more churches will also do the same.
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