A Unified Church

With the exception of a handful of dissenters (yes... even EBC is blessed with a few), we have a wonderful church that operates in the sweet spirit of harmony and unity. Two fires have taught our church how to pull together and we are blessed with a large number of spiritually mature believers who realize that "We must learn to agree to disagree -- agreeably."

Last night is a great example of a unified church. We held our annual Ministry Meeting to vote on our 2009 budget and give annual reports /updates to our congregation. We distributed our budget proposal 2-3 weeks in advance and invited our people to ask questions and offer their input to our pastors and deacons. When the vote was taken last night, it was approved unanimously. It means a lot to know that the church trusts the integrity of its leadership and their unanimous approval is a great vote of confidence. Our staff and deacons had prayed and worked for several months preparing a budget that displayed our trust in God, but also exhibited good stewardship and fiscal responsibility. The church also voted on another proposal regarding our financial reporting and that too passed unanimously.

In addition, we took time to brag on God! During 2008, He blessed our church with many salvations, baptisms, and new members. He brought true revival to our church! He led us in the timing of several key financial decisions that we didn't even realize, until the bottom fell out of the economy. He used our people to pay $700,000 against the principle of our debt in just 2 1/2 years. God has been so good to our church that we just took time to brag on Him publicly. It was a very sweet time... even in a business meeting.

Are things always perfect at Emmanuel? No... because our congregation is made up of imperfect people and we don't have a perfect pastor; but when we put our differences aside, stop our selfishness, and focus on God's plans instead of our own -- oh how sweet it is.