I hope you enjoyed last Sunday’s surprise party celebrating the 60th anniversary of Our Saviour as much as I did. It was a great morning together. Praise God for His faithfulness to our church and may He continue to sustain our ministry!
We will host a 60th anniversary banquet on March 13 from 12:00-2:30PM at Chevy Chase Country Club. Dr. Bill Hamel, recently retired EFCA President and former member of OSEFC, will be our keynote speaker. Invitations were sent out today to former pastors, many past members, and ministry partners. Tickets are $15/person or $40/family (including children ages 2-18). It’s important you know that even in asking you to purchase these tickets, the church is still covering more than half the cost of this banquet. I hope that everyone who is a part of Our Saviour will attend this special celebration.
In addition to commemorating our 60th anniversary, a new two-year campaign called Renew was launched this past Sunday. A generation spans 20 years. The heartbeat behind Renew is to set our fourth generation up to succeed in the same way our previous three generations have. We will spend the next couple of years intensively focusing on progressing as disciples of Jesus, creating a culture of disciple-making in our church, and joining together to renovate and update our facility. During this campaign, we are also challenging everyone who calls Our Saviour their church home to read through the Bible in two years. Each Sunday, you will find a reading schedule for the coming week in the bulletin. There will also be copies of the full, two-year schedule available on Sunday, February 7. I encourage you to put one in your Bible to track your progress.
There are three questions for every member of Our Saviour to ask himself or herself during this campaign. First, what is the next step in growing as a disciple for me? If you’re not attending church regularly, it is being in worship with other Christians every week. If you are doing that, but not developing deeper relationships that encourage and hold you accountable in Christian living, pursue those relationships. For a lot of us, the next step of discipleship is becoming a disciple-maker. That leads to the second question: Who is God calling me to disciple? You do not need to have everything figured out to disciple another Christian. All you need is a desire to grow in Christ together. The third question is how is God calling you to grow in faith by supporting a capital fund drive to meet needs that support ministry? Our building needs maintenance and renovations that go beyond the scope of our annual budget. We are gathering information and making plans to present to you over the next few months.
This is a great time in the life of our church. Many exciting things are happening. Pray with me that God receives the glory. Remember to pray for Pastor Joel and his family as they make plans for him to begin his ministry with us in mid-February. A welcome reception is scheduled following the service on Sunday, February 21. Plan to stay for a few minutes to welcome the Fishers. Lord willing, this will be another great Sunday as we talk more about declaring the supremacy of God by making disciples. See you in church.
We are so looking forward to this!! God is so good!