"STEPPING OUT IN FAITH"

            For the past couple of weeks, you have been hearing about this "Call to Faith" that would unite Messiah Lutheran Church in a bold venture toward impacting our community both within and outside our church. God has provided us with exciting possibilities for ministry, and He is weekly drawing more and more people into our family of faith. Many more are still out there in our community waiting to be impacted with God's love in Christ. In order to reach them and at the same time, provide meaningful ministry to those who are already a part of our family, we will need to expand our facilities.

            If you were to wander the halls of Messiah on a Sunday morning, you would quickly find how desperate we are for space. Both Paula, our Family Life/Youth Director,  and my offices are being used for Sunday school rooms. We have a women's class in the modular that is packed like sardines, as well as a marriage class led by Paula. In other words, every bit of space is full on Sunday mornings and that just covers existing ministry. We have the need to grow new Sunday morning ministry but no room for them to come into being.

            If you were to visit our campus during the week, you would fine Donna, our Music Director, either boiling or freezing in her make-shift office, JoAnne, our Parish Administrator, trying to find a place to store records, and various other volunteers trying to find items that are either hidden in storage in the attic, behind the curtain in the fellowship hall, or in the small storage room off the fellowship hall. If that weren't enough, with our membership drawing close to 700, our need for an Associate Pastor is beyond crucial. If he were to come tomorrow, we would have no place to put him. In other words, we are critically short of both office space and storage space.

            Finally, just south of us in Union County, new neighborhoods are being built as you read this article. Union County is one of the fastest growing counties in North Carolina. The Southeastern District has already purchased 11 acres of property to develop a new Mission Ministry. Messiah is partnering with the District to impact the Weddington Community for Christ by developing that new ministry. We are a Covenant Congregation, joining ranks with many other congregations around the United States that intend to begin at least one new ministry before 2017.    

            If Messiah is to fulfill the ministry opportunities that God has given us so as to impact our community by growing families in Christ through the Word of God, and at the same time to provide meaningful ministry to the Family that God has already brought together in this place, we will all need to "step out in faith." We will need to join together by combining our time and talents and treasures and laying them at Jesus' feet so that He can multiply them to His glory. Or to quote an anonymous sage, God will take care of the "super" while we take care of the "natural."

            In the weeks and months to come, you will be hearing over and over how you can be involved in this exciting venture of faith. I pray that when you are asked, that you will be able to surrender yourself to God to be used as He sees fit in this monumental faith-stretching undertaking.