Putting It To Use
At the RMD District Conference, April 25 – 28, in Nampa, ID, the RMD Ministry Grant was explained and disbursed. This grant was approved by the Dexcom in March to come alongside our churches in the belief that inflation will affect our churches in the RMD in much more potentially devastating way than Covid has. Due to excellent giving by the people of our churches — and, thereby, giving to the District Advance Fund — the Dexcom approved a proposal to do this one-time grant to each of the 55 RMD churches. The grant was based on a church’s giving percentage to the overall amount of the grant which totaled $640,000. Each church received at least $5,000 while those that had contributed more received more. The only “string” attached to the grant was the request to let the District Office know how, or in what way, the funds were used for. This needs to be done by September 10th, so that we can share some of those stories at our IGNITE conference, October 3-6 in Billings, MT.
Already I have heard a couple of stories from district pastors of how this grant has been put to use. One smaller ministry is using it for on-going increased operating expenses due to inflationary costs. A medium size church pastor let me know that after letting his congregation know of their grant, a commensurate amount was raised to move forward some projects the church had been hoping to engage in!
As a friend of mine in ministry used to say “let me push the pause button right here.” If you haven’t already done so, in your ministry, I would strongly urge you to work with your leadership team to prayerfully create a “hopes and dreams” list. This list could be equipment you might need, ministry projects that you want to engage in, ministry expansion you might want to move toward, staff you might want to add — all kinds of things that keep the future out ahead of you and your leadership and congregation. One side benefit I observed when I did this as a local church pastor was our focus grew from “just getting by” or “what did we do last month” to considering those things AND also looking ahead. Eventually, we spent more time looking ahead and less time being consumed by the other! Perhaps a side-benefit to the RMD Ministry Grant is this “looking ahead” aspect of ministry growing in you, your leadership team and your congregation!
A Personal Note
C ON G R A T U L A T I O N S to Rev. Bill and Wanda Levy, from Calvary Alliance Church in Pocatello, ID! Bill retired this past Sunday, June 5th, after nearly forty-four years of ministry in The Christian and Missionary Alliance — the last twenty nine at Calvary Alliance! Bill has served on the Dexcom; as District Treasurer and presently on the Licensing, Ordination and Consecration Council. I have appreciated Bill’s wisdom and leadership on the LO&CC over the past ten years that I have had the privilege of serving with Bill. Thank you, Bill and Wanda, for being faithful to the call of God, for your many years of local church ministry, for finishing well and may God bless you as you continue to serve Him in this new season of life and ministry!
— Jonathan