On behalf of the Vision
Implementation Team, I have been asked to give you a full update on where we
are regarding our Vision Plan as a church and what our direction is in
continuing to implement this plan as we move into 2105. In case you are unaware, the Vision
Implementation Team is led by Josh Kent and
includes myself, Glen Catt, Bill Blaker,
Steve Dipzinski, and Dave Baragrey, Jr. This is not going to be a short update but it
will be a very exciting one. I hope that
you will read it carefully, prayerfully, joyfully and repeatedly.
It is amazing what God has
done since we launched our original 3-year Vision Plan back in 2013. Let me review with you what God has already
accomplished as we took steps of faith as a church regarding the following
aspects of our original three year vision plan.
A Technology Upgrade with an estimated
$220,000 cost including new lighting, environmental projection (in both the Gospel
Center and the Chapel); and all the equipment needed to broadcast to the Chapel
as well as to begin to broadcast on the internet. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS
UPGRADE WAS FINISHED AND COMPLETELY PAID FOR THROUGH DESIGNATED GIVING! Praise the Lord!
The hiring of a part-time Technology
Director to launch our broadcast ministry.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS WAS PROVIDED
THROUGH THE HIRING OF DAVE MINIER AND WAS PAID FOR THROUGH 2014 BUDGETED
GIVING! Praise the Lord!
Broadcasting the message to the Classic
Service in the Chapel so that this important service was not interrupted by
having to walk down to the Gospel Center.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS WAS COMPLETED! Praise the Lord!
The expansion of our nursery to allow us
to bring all of our nurseries into one secure area and provide room for the
many young families God has been and continues to bring into our church. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS OVER
$600,000 PROJECT WAS FINISHED, INCLUDING A LOWER LEVEL GIVING US THE LARGEST
CLASSROOM IN OUR CHURCH, AND WAS COMPLETELY PAID FOR THROUGH DESIGNATED
GIVING! Praise the Lord!
The hiring of a part-time Facility
Director to help us better care for and use the wonderful facility that God has
given to us. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS WAS PROVIDED THROUGH THE HIRING OF
CHRIS OLDS AND WAS PAID FOR THROUGH 2014 BUDGET GIVING! Praise the Lord!
The implementation of a much needed building
restoration and maintenance program to bring our facility up to the level where
it needs to be. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN FINISHED AND COMPLETELY PAID FOR THROUGH
DESIGNATED AND 2014 BUDGETED GIVING! Praise the Lord!
Broadcasting our Sunday worship service
on radio. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND PAID FOR THROUGH DESIGNATED AND 2014
BUDGETED GIVING! ALONG WITH BROADCASTING
OUR SUNDAY SERVICE LIVE ON THE EAGLE 101.5 WE ALSO HAVE A WEEKLY TAPED SERMON
PROGRAM ON THE PROMISE FM! Praise the
Lord!
Broadcasting our Sunday worship service
on the internet. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN COMPLETED ALONG WITH A VIDEO ARCHIVE OF PAST
SERVICES! Praise the
Lord!
The hiring of a full-time Children’s
Director to oversee our growing Children’s Ministry. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS WAS
PROVIDED THROUGH THE HIRING OF JULIA RUPP AND WAS PAID FOR THROUGH 2014 BUDGETED
GIVING! Praise the Lord!
Increasing the Outreach Budget of our
church to 20% of our General Fund Giving.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE ARE NOW UP TO 17% OF
OUR GENERAL FUND GIVING BEING GIVEN TOWARD OURTREACH! Praise the Lord!
Seeing 80% of the Adults who attend
E-Free connected to our ministry through Life Groups and Equip-U Classes. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HAVE
MADE GOOD PROGRESS IN THIS AREA. WITH
THE GROWTH OF OUR CHURCH, HOWEVER, THIS IS AN AREA THAT WE ARE STILL WORKING TO
SEE INCREASED PARTICIPATION IN TO REACH THIS LOFTY GOAL. Praise the Lord!
Isn’t
absolutely amazing what God has already done? It should in no way surprise
us. After all, He is a God that can do
super abundantly beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20)! In fact, this was especially evident as our
Vision Implementation Team sat down this past week to put a strategy together
to see our 2015 Vision Items implemented.
As we met, we discovered that almost every aspect on schedule for 2015
has already been paid for including the following:
New Seating for the Chapel. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HAVE
ALREADY RECEIVED A DESIGNATED GIFT TO PAY FOR THESE CHAIRS TO BE PURCHASED! Praise the Lord!
The hiring of a part-time Classic
Service Worship Leader to enhance the music and worship in our Classic Service
each Sunday. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN PROVIDED THROUGH THE HIRING OF MARY ELLEN
JOHNSON AND IS PAID FOR THROUGH THE 2015 BUDGETED GIVING! Praise the Lord!
The hiring of a full-time Technology
Director. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN PUT INTO THE 2015 BUDGET AND THERE IS CURRENTLY
A SEARCH TEAM CONSISTING OF DAVE MINIER, JOSHUA RUPP AND GEORGE LAKE JR THAT IS
COLLECTING RESUMES AND WILL BRING A FNAL RECOMMENDATION OF A CANDIDATE TO ME
FOR HIRING. Praise the
Lord!
The hiring of a full-time Facility
Director. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN PUT INTO THE 2015 BUDGET AND CHRIS OLDS HAS
AGREED TO STAY ON STAFF AS OUR FULL-TIME FACIITY DIRECTOR. Praise the Lord!
The hiring of a Pastor of Adult
Ministries whose main focus will be in helping to lead our adult ministries and
to develop and implement an effective strategy for seeing people connected to
our ministry here at E-Free. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD, THIS HAS BEEN PUT INTO THE 2015 BUDGET AND MARCUS WEGMEYER
WILL BE LEADING A SEARCH TEAM WHOSE TASK WILL BE TO BRING UP TO 3 FINAL
CANDIDATES TO ME FOR FINAL INTERVIEWS. Praise the Lord!
Phase 1 of a 3-part flooring replacement
plan throughout our church facility. BY
THE GRACE OF GOD WE HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED A DESIGNATED GIFT TO PAY FOR THIS
PHASE OF THE FLOORING UPGRADE TO BE COMPLETED! Praise the Lord!
The remaining vision items
scheduled for the 2015 portion of our vision plan include the following:
OUTREACH GIVING! While we want to continue
on the path to see 20% of our General Fund giving going to outreach, we
realized that trying to make that increase in just 3 years was quite a
step. We are grateful that we have been
able to increase this to 17% and will continue at that percentage in 2015. We will then look to increase this by 1% each
year afterwards until we reach the 20% goal (18% in 2016; 19% in 2017; and 20%
in 2018).
TECHNOLOGY!
Because our future vision plan includes
making more steps in saturating our county and northern Michigan with the
Gospel through technology, including a television ministry, our vision plan for
2015 includes doing a full technology evaluation so we know exactly what our
needs are. We estimate this evaluation
to be a cost of around $5,000. This will
allow us to then make a 3-year technology upgrade strategy for 2015, 2016 and
2017. We will wait to conduct this
evaluation until our full-time Technology Director has been hired and can spear
head this element of our vision plan.
As you can see, we have
some exciting times ahead of us as a church.
God has already proven Himself faithful to us and He has already shown
us that if we will step out on faith, He will part waters and open doors! Please continue to pray specifically that God
will be honored and glorified in all that we do and that He will use us to meet
as many people as possible right where they are and help us to move them to
where He wants them to be! Let’s
together believe God for even greater things and let’s be sure that we give Him
all of the glory for any good thing He chooses to do in and through us here at
E-Free!
On behalf of the Vision
Implementation Team,
Pastor Scott
