As chairperson of the Stewardship Committee, part of my job responsibilities involves numbers. Numbers relating to giving families towards the ministry of the church. A few weeks ago I made an announcement in the service about a bunch of numbers and then a little later told you what those numbers meant. Many of you came up afterwards to tell me about your experiences of visiting different churches for one reason or another and agreed with my analysis.

For those of you, who did not hear, I will recall my story for you.

The Church is known as a place where believers come together to worship.

At these public worship services, missionary teachings and outreach in the name of Christ were offered to all within reach.

In the Church we see the sign of the cross, usually to remind us of Jesus and his commission. The cross symbolizes the glory of the Christian gospel.

The debt of sin against us was "nailed to the cross" (Col 2:14), and we, having "been crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20), have been freed from sin and death and made alive to God (Rom 6:6-11).

The cross, then, is the symbol of Jesus' love, God's power to save, and the thankful believer's unreserved commitment to Christian discipleship. To those who know the salvation, which Christ gained for us through His death, it is a "wondrous cross" indeed.

Now what does this have to do with all the numbers that I quoted. Well if this is a place of worship and we look upon the cross as a sign of Jesus love for us, would it not seem appropriate to display this sign?

The people at Grace Lutheran should be proud because within the sanctuary alone there are a total of 762 crosses:

Quite amazing isn’t?

In some churches you won’t find any. I wonder why? But whatever the reason, we as believers must remember to support the church and its mission outreach. It takes numbers to make numbers. You as a number can influence other numbers to learn about number one.

A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who turned in your 2005 Pledge Forecast cards last year. It took a little work to collect and put together this forecast for the 2005 budget. I then presented this to the March Church Council and they suggested that the congregation needs to know this information.

I will start with a brief explanation, there are 88 giving envelopes to which people have the opportunity to give their tithes of offering to the church. The response received was from 50 families and this is a result of their pledge. Remember this is an average forecast based on the 50 families. Some pledged more, some pledged less.

The second group of numbers is "what if" all 88 families were to pledge the average amount or what if there was an increase of $ 7.33 per week or an increase of $ 32.30. Think about what we could do with these type of numbers. Grace Lutheran Church could greatly improve the outreach of God’s word through mission and community outreach. Our goal is not to be the biggest church in Southwest Ft. Worth but to be the church that practices what we preach . . .

I will leave you with this closing thought:

God has first given to us, and the gift is beyond describing. We've been given life itself in Christ when we didn't deserve. We've seen examples and heard urging in the words of scripture about our stewardship. Let's take a little time and think what it means to have received life from Christ. Think where you would be without him. Think what it cost God to give us this gift. Think about some benefit you've received. Then will you determine to tell someone about it? It's healthy to acknowledge these things, to be reminded of what we've been given.

Steve Zeisler September 30, 1990