WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
How are we going to make room for everyone God wants to send to TMCC?
First I want to put this in perspective: many of you have heard my testimony about how God had to do a work IN ME before he could bless us as a church. It wasn’t that he had to make me \\”better\\”; he had to impress upon me that anything good that would happen in our church was because of HIM and not me! I’ve joked about how as a young man, I had verses memorized that told me why I ought to be humble and now as an older man, my memories are sufficient for the task!
From the beginning, this church was established to be ever-growing and ever-reaching this generation for Christ! For eighteen years God prepared the foundation for the reason He established TMCC . . . and then BOOM! The floodgates opened and the vision I believed was from God in 1989 has truly begun to become reality!
Back to the people.
Everything is about God . . . and people.
We have sought with all of our hearts to be faithful to God and faithful in expressing His heart for people.
Knowing, loving, serving Jesus!
Reaching, touching, growing people!
YOU are one of those people! I want room for you to come, bring your friends, find the encouragement you need to become everything God created you to be! It would break my heart if there wasn’t room for YOU and it should break OUR hearts if there isn’t room for others, everyone whom the Lord our God may call and will entrust to our care when we are ready!
The difficulty in church is that we are forced to make decisions and pay prices for people we can’t see and haven’t met yet all because of the one who gave His life for us and calls us to lay our lives down for others . . . who are yet to come!
We are seriously pushing a weekend attendance of 600 with a room that can legally hold 300 and with an effective capacity of 230 (seating capacity is considered to be 80% of the total number of chairs). We regularly have 150 children up through fifth grade and teachers on a weekend in our nursery and four classrooms. Youth on Sunday nights use every available room and are looking at meeting outside this Summer so they can have enough places to meet for their lessons! It’s amazing what God has done AND IS DOING!
What We’ve Done
1. Three services. This Easter will mark two years since we added a third (Saturday evening) service.
2. Ideal times. We experimented with service times until we found the right balance on Sunday morning.
3. Developing Ministry Teams. Leaders of teams are in place to equip people help those whom the Lord sends each week to feel valued, loved, and connected!
4. Devotion to prayer. With the conviction that God won’t entrust to us any more people than we will pray for; each week multiple people on our staff pray for every person (that we know of) who regularly attends TMCC! (it’s so important to fill out Response Cards.).
What’s the Solution to the Problem?
1. Turn people away (nobody would suggest this but it is an option that needs to be recognized).
2. Add additional worship services.
3. Buy the old Walmart.
4. Rent the Performing Arts Center at Buena High School.
5. Begin Phase Two of our building plan.
What do you think of those options?
Please take our online poll at: http://thundermountain.org/blogs-events/upcoming-events/
Please Pray!
This ministry is built on and fueled by the work of the Holy Spirit that is released when we pray! Prayer is a non-negotiable, key element of this church and the primary reason God’s blessings have been pouring out upon us in a remarkable and joyful way!
Please Give!
Ask God what you can do right now to contribute to the building fund. Please don’t take money from the operations fund to do this. It’s been because of the remarkable level of giving that began in October that has fueled our church that has us talking about these things. Kim and I will be giving sacrificially to the building fund in addition to our first-fruits giving while we will be preparing to give our very best offering when the time is comes.
Life-Changing Dollars
By the way, whenever building is talked about, people (it happens at other churches all of the time) usually ask if that money would be better spent on the poor or given to missions. Fair question that has a very good answer!
Every dollar invested in TMCC helps grow the engine that every year produces more dollars for the poor and for missions! Outreach is becoming the heartbeat of our church! We’ve made unprecedented commitments in this area and at the same time we give more money in benevolence request than we were ever able to do before we built in 2008!
WHY US? WHY NOW?
Our local Christian radio station (90.9 The Spark) determined that if all the churches in Sierra Vista were filled to capacity, 30,000 people in our community still wouldn’t be able to get in! I believe TMCC is a great place to invest life-changing dollars and invite you to help make this God-given vision of over twenty years ago continue to unfold so we can be ready to do the part God has assigned to us! No matter how many people do come to TMCC, there are still tens of thousands of people that God wants to know, love, and serve Him!
God’s At Work! He’s Using Us! Let’s Respond!
In response to a seemingly impossible situation where someone needed a touch from God, these words from Jesus were recorded. We can’t do this on our own (nor would we want to try!). Let’s take them to heart!
\\”Do you believe that I am able to do this?\\” \\”Yes, Lord,\\\” they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, \\”According to your faith will it be done to you\\”;
Matthew 9:28b-29 (NIV)