Family Time
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How we have made it through COVID financially, so far.
1) Your generosity
2) Furloughs and expense savings
3) PPP loan forgiveness
4) Reserves
SVCC 2022 is different than SVCC 2020
Losses we are seeing after 20 months:
1) Moves
2) Church transfers
3) Families with kids
4) Attendance habits
5) Online only
Fiscal YTD GF giving (July-October) 1/3 of the year
YTD budgeted giving 490,000
YTD actual giving 395,000
(Difference) -95,000
What our pastors, elders and finance teams would like for you:
1. Know
2. Pray
3. Give
Opportunities/Resources we have now:
1. Greater need for a church that is loving Salinas and the world!
2. Online church as a new tool. Every screen a church.
3. Video meetings
4. Children’s Pastor—Candice Blake
We’re going to do a three week series for the rest of November, called
Generosity rEVOLution
Generosity rEVOLution
November 14 Time and Talent
November 21 Treasure
November 28 Thanksgiving
Generosity rEVOLution
Time and Talent
The time context is the end of Jesus’ life and ministry.
The content context is Jesus’ teaching about how to prepare yourself for the judgment that is coming when he returns to earth. But since we don’t know when he is returning, we also can think of this as teaching that prepares us for what happens when our ride is up on this merry-go-round.
Matthew 25:14-15 (ESV)
“For [the kingdom of God] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
One denarius equaled one day’s wage for a common laborer à
One talent was worth 6,000 denarii à
So a talent is worth 23 years wages for a laborer.
At the CA minimum wage in January, that would be $720,000 in our culture here.
· 5 talent servant got $3.6 million,
· 2 talent servant got $1.44 million and the
· 1 talent servant got $720,000
1 talent is 23 years of your annual household income
2 talents are 46 years of income
5 talents are 115 years of income
Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV)
You are the servant. The least among us is immensely blessed.
We are to live with an “abundance mindset” not a scarcity one.
“For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is "I didn’t get enough sleep." The next one is "I don't have enough time." Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of... Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack... This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life” ― Lynne Twist
What would change if you saw yourself as having an abundance of time to do all that God wants you to do?
· Kronos (chronos)—Sequential time
· Kairos—Opportunity time
Make room for the abundance of Kairos opportunity in your Kronos schedule.
What would change if you saw yourself as having an abundance of “talent” to do all that God wants you to do?
· Spiritual Gifts
· Heart
· Abilities
· Personality
· Experiences
s.h.a.p.e. Test – Helping You Discover God's Purpose in Life (freeshapetest.com)
Church:
· Children’s Ministry
· Youth Ministry
· Ushers
· Greeters
· Small group leaders (especially to start them)
· Event serving
· New things
Community:
What if you stopped comparing yourself to others who are 5 times better or 2 times as talented and started focusing on the enormous gifts that you have?
Master-Jesus Servants-us
Wealthy Poor
Generous Enriched
Trusting Trusted
Rewarding Rewarded
Just Accountable
Take a risk to respond to Jesus’ amazingly generous offer of citizenship in his kingdom of forgiveness, transformation, and abundance.
Take a risk to live out of Jesus’ amazing abundance this week with your time and “talent”
