I hope this new year finds all of you living life to its fullest in the grace of our Lord and Savior! As I'm sure most of you do, I tend to be somewhat retrospective at the start of a new year, and think back on the good and bad of the last year.
Like most years, last year had its ups and downs. In my secular job, I was unexpectedly hit with an EEO complaint alleging that I had discriminated against an employee because of religious differences. While the allegation was proved to be unfounded, it had a drastic impact in how I conduct myself in my professional life, and has caused me to not share as openly as in the past as to what God is doing in my life and in the life of our churches. On the other hand, our office was selected as the best Natural Resources Manager for the entire Air Force for the second consecutive award period (biannual award).
I was excited this year to be blessed by God in our churches with the first numerical growth since I've been there. While the churches have grown spiritually and while individual members have matured and grown in grace over the past seven years, we did not experience any numerical growth. This year, we added four members to one church and three to another, which doesn't sound like much until you consider that was an increase of 8% and 20%, respectively. More importantly, out of the seven new members, three of them were added by profession of faith! We also stepped out this year by conducting intentional evangelism and outreach, and four of us who witnessed as part of a Fellowship of Christian Farmers event had 21 professions of faith over a 4-hour period.
I can only look forward to 2007 as being a great year in the Lord and as being a great year in our churches. I pray that it will be the same with you and your churches.
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