Dear Church Family,
We started out 2018 with a challenge. The challenge came from James 2:18 that says, “I will show you my faith by my works.” I challenged you to make your faith tangible this year. Merriam-Webster defines the word this way:
Tangible - capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch: substantially real
The idea is that if we have faith in Jesus then that faith will show itself in our lives. It will become tangible. Our faith will be able to be experienced to some degree by those around us.
To accomplish this challenge I presented you with a Tangible Project of the Month. Here are the projects that we’ve accomplished so far this year.
January - Replenished our Food Pantry with Nonperishable food items
February - Donated hundreds of dollars of Subway Gift Cards to bless our neighbors
with a free lunch
March - Gave and exceeded our $2,500 Annie Armstrong Mission Offering goal which
helps support gospel-centered ministries throughout North America
April - Volunteered at Monte Sano Elementary School for CityServe Augusta and
donated baby items to the Augusta Care Pregnancy Center
May - Provided an end of the year luncheon for all the faculty and staff at Monte Sano
Elementary School
June - Donated items for Homeless Care Packs for the Tapestry Church in Atlanta
July - Collected school supplies for Monte Sano Elementary School
August - Gave and exceeded our goal of $1,200 to support the Cru and YoungLife
ministries here in Augusta
September - Gave and exceeded our goal of $1,000 to support the ministry efforts of
the Georgia Baptist Mission Board in the state of Georgia
October - Replenished our Food Pantry with can and donated several bags of candy for
our Halloween Outreach
November - Brought in many coats and socks to be donated to the Broad Street
Ministry Center
Reading over that list is so encouraging for me. Each and every month you have stepped up to the challenge and exceeded my expectations. We have one more Tangible Project to accomplish in 2018. This last project for the year has two parts. The first part is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the second part is the ministry budget of our church.
The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is one way we give to reach the nations with the gospel. Every dollar you give does directly to the work of reaching every nation for Christ. This offering is one of the main ways we help fund international missionaries through the International Mission Board. Our goal this year is $3,500. In order to donate you can make your check payable to “The Hill Baptist Church” and write “Lottie Moon” on the envelope or you can use a Lottie Moon Offering Envelope.
The second part of our Tangible Project is to help our church finish the year fully funded. The good news is that we are projecting that we will end the year under budget with our expenses. We are projecting that our end of the year expenses will total $258,000. As of November 11th our giving totaled $209,000. In order to end the year fully funded we need to give $49,000 by the end of the year.
I’m looking forward to how God is going to have each of us respond to these challenges. I believe we will all be stretched in our faith. Also, I believe we will be encouraged as we see that our giving results in many people to be reached with the gospel both here in Augusta and around the world. Thank you for all you have done this year and let’s finish the year strong!
In Christ,
Pastor Ron Jones
