You Are Getting Noticed!

Hello Emmanuel,

Emmanuel is getting noticed.  Your Lay Leader Muriel Cunningham and I are traveling to Columbus on Thursday to meet with the Cabinet.  The Cabinet is a West Ohio Conference Ministry team made up of the 8 District Superintendents and the Bishop.  Muriel and I are going to have lunch with them because they want to know how a church the size of Emmanuel can have so many people involved in missions.

I’m not going to lie.  This is very cool.

It is cool for a couple of different reasons.  First, this is very affirming for Emmanuel.  Healthy churches attract the good kind of attention.  When people who want more churches to be healthy start asking, ‘how do you do that?’ then it affirms that we must be doing the right kinds of things.  Very cool.

Second, it is an opportunity for Emmanuel to expand our Vision—to not just focus on ‘making disciples of Jesus Christ’ at our local church level, but help others make disciples of Christ at their local church level.  We become a teaching church as well as a disciple-making church.  Very cool.

We have around 100 people involved in mission work throughout the year.  The combination of people giving and people serving allows Emmanuel to connect with the lives of so many people who have basic needs being unmet.  As I started compiling the list of all that we do, I became amazed again at the heart that Emmanuel has.  We define mission as ‘Go and Help’.  Here is our list.  If I’ve missed something, let me know.  I probably have.

Missions Team                                               

Traveling Pantry                                             

Inter Parish Ministry pantry                                       

IPM cart                                                         

Jackson Seed Ministry                                                                                   

Teen Challenge                                              

Clermont County Senior Citizens      

Saul’s/YWCA - Bare Necessities                                          

Saul’s Homeless Shelter – shoeboxes

Saul’s Homeless Shelter – food                                 

Back-To-School Bash                                    

Christmas Angel Tree                                    

School Dance  Groups                                               

Home School Groups                                     

Prison Ministry                                               

County Coalition Drug free                           

Camperships                                                   

UMW Fund Raising

Bake Me Home

Summer Impact

30-Hour Famine

Build-A-Bear – Ronald McDonald House

Mission trips – Columbia, Haiti, Russia, Mexico, Ireland, Kentucky

How does this happen?  It takes more than just having the heart of Christ.  I think it takes 3 things:  visioning, process and leadership.  I won’t go into the details here for fear of writing a book, but communicating a clear vision is the start.  Having a well-defined process helps ministry get implemented.  And, of course, you need a few chiefs to take charge and make decisions.  I believe Emmanuel has all 3.  Very cool!

God is Good,

Pastor Joe