This past Sunday was a different sermon experience at Good Shepherd.
The “Red Dot Sermon” was more a state of the church – a “You Are Here” message — than a clarion call to action. (We’d had enough of that during What Child Is This.)
As part of the message, I shared some numbers about ministry in this church that people might not know. I didn’t even know them until I prepared the sermon! Here they are:
1. The church sent over $557,000 to both local and global mission in 2010. This includes the $207,805 raised for the International Justice Mission for What Child Is This as well as 15% of every Sunday offering — about $350,000 for the calendar year. That money went to build churches in India, support pastors in Cambodia, teach English in Russia, and provide rent, utilities, and dignity right here in Charlotte.
2. The people of the church processed 110,000 meals through First Serve’s partnership with Stop Hunger Now. The bulk of those dehydrated, high protein meals went directly to Haiti in the aftermath of last January’s earthquake.
3. Volunteers from Good Shepherd prepared and delivered 547 meals to others in the congregation in 2010. These meals go to people in the early stages of grief, returning home from a hospitalization, or celebrating the birth of a baby. There are over 140 meal making volunteers who make this ministry “run.”
4. Approximately 500 houses got blessed in 2010. We greet new movers to Steele Creek with a card, a blessing, and a “World Famous Refrigerator Magnet.”
5. One (1) grateful pastor.