Thank You for Your Grace and Generosity
With the holidays behind us, I sit humbled in the wake of an incredible wave of grace and generosity that rolled over our staff and our church during the season.
Your staff worked hard to create a series of meaningful worship and musical experiences that drew more people in December and Christmas Eve than we have seen in four years; we had nearly 700 at the 7 p.m. Christmas Eve service alone. It was breathtaking and exhilarating for us. New people attending and members coming back have encouraged all of us. Additionally, your cards, e-mails and delicious goodies fueled us in body and spirit throughout the season.
The other surprise was the generosity of giving for the year-end Christmas Offering. There was not one, extraordinary gift that made the difference; it was dozens of persons and families giving faithfully that enabled FUMC Plano to finish “in the black” for the second consecutive year, making it possible to maintain our $130,000 reserve and build on that with proceeds from the land sale this year (see update in this week’s e-Newsletter).
This in turn provides time and space as a “Futurist Team” elected by our Church Council, does the deep work this year to prayerfully discern what FUMC Plano needs to look like as she right-sizes for the mission before her in a changing culture and mission field. As Bishop Saenz Jr. has said, we are interested in building a church for our children and grandchildren’s generations. What does that look like and what is the “business model” to sustain that outreach? This group will explore those questions and more in concert with our Council. Add to that the physical changes that will come with new construction around us, 2024 is shaping up to be a very exciting year.
In the meantime, on behalf of our staff and leadership, I praise God and thank you for being vessels of God’s surprising grace and generosity for the mission Christ has given all of us. Blessings upon you in this new year.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
