The Return on Your Investment

by Pastor Tom Anderson

With great love we built the Family Life Center twelve years ago. It was in the great recession. The return on our investment is a new generation of Christian leaders! Here are two voices from the first generation of kids raised in our FLC, first from Liz Frank now 14 years old:

Why should you be thankful? ...because it’s a very big step in your faith. It starts out small like saying I'm thankful for food...but then you get really big in the end like saying I'm thankful for God watching over me...I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit guiding my steps.

When I was 12 years old in the church youth group...we went to service at camp ... I felt really changed, moved. I found out that it was the Holy Spirit moving within me and ever since he has been guiding my steps, I'm thankful for that. I have a verse for you, 2 Thessalonians 1:3 "Brothers and sisters, we should always thank God for you. That is only right, because your faith is growing more and more. We also thank God that the love you all have for one another is increasing."

And from Brent Cohen, now 20 years old:

Jesus didn't come to this earth to give us examples of grace and truth, he came to save us with grace and truth. That's the message of the Gospel. The truth is we all kind of suck...We all lie. We all lust. We all sin...when you accept the truth that you're a sinner you can receive the amazing grace of Jesus...As believers our purpose is to grow in our faith and become a little more like Christ every day. This means we should be striving to be full of grace and truth…and sharing Jesus with others...

February 14 is Finish with Love Sunday. Any combination of pledges and gifts that totals $344,000 will make us a debt-free church. We have come this far with love, let’s finish with love. Complete the enclosed pledge sheet (download one at Finish with Love) and bring it with you to worship February 14. You can also mail it in. Following the second service we will gather in the gym for a celebration meal. We hope that you will stay but a take-out service will also be available. Counters will be busy tallying the gifts and pledges and we will announce the results at the end of the meal. Extra pledge sheets can be found in the lobby or download them from myhumc.com.

Following both services on February 7 we will hold special prayer times together in the gymnasium. Plan for a few extra minutes to join us in prayer that we might finish with love!

I’m looking forward to a time of great rejoicing with you all!