During this holiday season, I am asking you to give a gift to Good News Church. This is a time of year when you are already giving gifts to your parents, your kids, business associates, friends, teachers, and other members of the community. And I didn’t want you to forget about your church!

If you are already a regular supporter of Good News Church, please consider giving a special, one-time, end-of-the-year gift that goes above and beyond your normal giving. And if you are someone who benefits from the ministry of Good News Church, but you do not regularly support us, please consider giving us a gift this month as the first step in a continued lifestyle of supporting the work of God that is happening here.

Give To Good News

Why Bring This Up At All?

In the past, I have outlined two major reasons why pastors must routinely bring up the topic of money over the course of the year. You can read about them on our website.

But to sum it up, there are practical reasons for trying to raise funds for a church (ex: to pay for things like lighting and air conditioning) and then there are theological reasons for talking money (ex: generosity and greed matter when it comes to Christian living.)

So, my plan is to address both of these reasons more thoroughly over the next few months. When it comes to raising funds for practical reasons, I am addressing that in this very email. When it comes to teaching on money for theological reasons, my plan is to get to that in a sermon (or a series of sermons) in February 2018.

Why Give to Good News Church?

I believe that people usually give to a particular organization for one or more of the following three reasons:

OUT OF RESPONSIBILITY: Some of us give money to churches (and other organizations) out of a strong sense of responsibility. It is my responsibility – my duty - to support my local church. Many of these people give 10% (or more) of their total income to their local church. They factor it into their monthly budget just like their mortgage/rent, retirement, taxes, or their children’s college fund. They just decided that this is as aspect of their life that simply must be funded.

Personally, I love these people, and I would guess that they are, by far, the main reason a church like Good News can exist in the way that it does. Only if people set aside a regular portion of their income, and give it regularly, can we do what we do as a church. While it is nice that there are people who occasionally drop $100 into the giving box on Sundays whenever they “feel led”, Good News Church could never survive if we relied only on those people.

TO MEET A NEED: Some people like to give to an obvious need. That is, they may not regularly give money, but if the roof were caving in and we took a special offering, they would step up and give the funds needed to repair the leaky roof! This one is tough for me to relate to and I rarely fundraise by appealing to these kinds of things. However, if you are the type of person who has to see a “need” in order to give, let me list a few:

1. This year our church had to pay $1,200 that we weren’t planning on spending in order to repair the damage done to one of our buildings by Hurricane Irma. (And we have $9,000 - $15,000 of roof damage still left on one of our other buildings that we haven’t fixed yet.)
2. This year our church gave $1,800 to organizations (Convoy of Hope/Samaritan’s Purse/Harvest International) to help other people who were victims of Hurricane Harvey and Irma.
3. This next year, we are bringing on a new staff member for the purposes of improving our children’s ministry. We need to not only pay for her salary, but her computer, office furnishings, etc...
4. Sometime over the next year, we plan on renovating the Church House (a house on 24thstreet just a few yards away from the church’s main property) into office space so that the staff of Good News can work together. Right now, one of us works in the larger auditorium building, one of us works in the old building, one of us works from a home office, and our newest employee is going to work in what used to be a children’s classroom.

If any of these above “needs” resonate with you, please help us fund them by giving through one of the avenues mentioned below!

TO FURTHER A MISSION: Lastly, there are some people who don’t care about whether the money is specifically used to buy a computer, fix a roof, or renovate offices. They just want to support the overall goal of the organization.

This is more the way that I, personally, think about giving. And, in fact, this reason is the one that motivates me to give each month as a regular responsibility. And I hope it will for you, too. Please consider giving to Good News Church this season (and even regularly through 2018) because you want to fund the mission of “Love God, Love Each Other, and Love People Who Don’t Know God Yet” and because you believe that, as a church, we are doing a good job of that!

Well, How Do I Give To Good News?

Here is how:

1. By Mail. You can mail a check to: Good News Church, 5600 SE 24th St, Ocala, FL 34480
2. Automated Bank Transfers. For 2018, you can set up an automated donation directly from your bank by utilizing the online bill payment feature that almost all banks offer these days. In order to set that up you’ll just need the name and address that can be found in the line above.
3. Online. You can donate through Tithe.ly by using our website, or using their app on iOS or Android.
4. You can physically give a donation on a Sunday morning using one of the giving boxes located in the back of the auditorium.

Give To Good News