Last Sunday we met as a congregation for our midyear business meeting during the 9:30 hour.

I jotted down a few notes of significant things we covered for both review and the benefit of those who missed for one reason or another.

First, regarding the building program, God has given us favor in the neighborhood in acquiring certain easements that will definitely save us money. A water easement still needs negotiating. Pray for favor with the pertinent parties. Also we continue to move closer to signing a contract with our building contractor, Dave Eddy. Pray for wisdom in the final negotiations. Lastly, tomorrow morning’s interview with the city of Altamonte may be the final meeting with the city to open the door to pulling the various permits to enable us to break ground. Pray for favor for Ross and company before the review board.

On the building finance and capital campaign front we are investigating loan options with various lending institutions and we are working on a second-tier campaign letter to friends and former members of OGC to ask them to pray about giving a gift to the campaign. I was pleased to report that my dentist gave a generous gift recently to our building program! Pray for favor on these efforts and that God will bring us up to the $500,000 ultimate goal we would prefer for our capital campaign.

Second, regarding our church finances, we praise God for His faithfulness in providing for us thus far in 2010. We observed a slight downward trend this summer in our general fund giving. This past Sunday we again fell short on our budget need and for the first time in a great while fell below budget. Pray that as we move out of the summer and into the fall that our general fund giving gets back to budget and that our capital campaign pledges get met.

Third, regarding staffing issues, I reported that the leadership team recently voted to continue Evan Fairey’s role as student ministries intern and to increase his hours from 15 to 30. In addition to making more time for him to build relationships with our students and families, he will be working within our Christian education ministry to help shore up the weaknesses on various fronts.

Fourth, I talked about the 9:30 hour fall curriculum offerings, including Discover OGC, our newcomer’s orientation class, and Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything, a DVD and Bible study/discussion curriculum featuring Tim Keller. These kick off this Sunday, September 5. Contact the church office for more info. Click on the video below for the trailer we showed in the service Sunday for GIL.

Trailer for Gospel in Life from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

Finally, we had about a 25 minute Q&A with the elders. After the fact I always think of things I wish I had said. Those sessions are unnerving! Someone raised a question about any plans we in leadership might have about equipping women for ministry and helping them with their roles in the church. I answered from an entirely macro level in terms of our need for someone to own the leadership of women’s ministry in our church similar to the way Brett Bradley has recently stepped up to serve our men. I completely failed to acknowledge the efforts going on already on a micro level with the efforts of someone like Kelly Simpson with the Anchored Youth girls and the Women’s Bible Study. Other women are actively engaged in what I referred to numerous times on Sunday as “vine work,” doing discipleship and mentoring with other women in the body. The Titus 2 Moms ministry is also meeting a huge need. That being said, we still need workers in this realm, as in so many, where the harvest is great but the laborers are few. Pray with me to the Lord of the harvest that He will raise up workers (Matt. 9:38).

On a completely separate note but connected to Sunday, I continue to praise God for the way He worked in our special service of thanksgiving that evening for my being five years cancer free. Thanks to all who played a part in making that happen!