Grace Christian Fellowship‟s End of the Year

„State of the Union‟ Address

December 28, 2010

Hello everyone:
This is a special end of year „State of the Union‟ Words of Grace email being sent to everyone on
Grace‟s email list in order to let you know how we as a church are doing since the last „State of the
Union‟ email (May, 2010).

Come February 6th we will have completed one full year of having two Sunday morning services. I
can honestly say that it has been one of the best decisions we have made concerning the worship
experience here at Grace Christian Fellowship. The church has grown in numbers, and the
convenience of having two different times to choose from has enabled more people to come more
regularly on Sunday morning. The worship team has not only been up to the challenge to lead us in
song for two services, but they have also done an incredible job in doing so. And as far as my
preaching is concerned: What the congregation doesn‟t laugh at the first service is cut out of the
second service, as well as any big words that I stumble over – so I‟m growing too!

Newer people continue to comment on the warmth, love, clear biblical teaching, and Spirit-filled
and led worship that they sense and receive at Grace. You as a congregation are to be humbly
commended for the Christ-like character that you consistently show to family, friends and strangers
here at Grace and outside our four walls. Grace Christian Fellowship is indeed a wonderful place to
worship and serve the Lord, and I count it a privilege and honor to be the spiritual shepherd of such a
wonderful flock!

There are many ministries that make up our community life here at Grace and they are thriving and
fruitful. Our Married Adventure Club (MAC), Men‟s and Women‟s ministries, the youth ministries, a
wide variety of Bible studies (discussed further later on in this letter), and our Nursing Home ministry are
all doing well. In addition we regularly offer Dave Ramsey‟s Financial Peace University, which has
been a wonderful success for the church and for many outside the church (We will start up another
FPU series on Wednesday, January 26th at 7:00 PM).

We as a church continue to make every effort to reach out to the hurting world that surrounds us.
You donated nearly $2500 in coins through our baby bottle program for the Pinellas Pregnancy
Center. You filled, funded, and/or mailed almost 200 boxes for Samaritan‟s Purse‟s Operation
Christmas Child program. One of our Wednesday night children‟s workers – Shayne Baxter – has
organized the elementary school age children of Grace to participate in a hands-on ministry called
Grace Givers in which the kids are bringing in non-perishable food items that are then distributed by
the children (with adult supervision) to needy people in our immediate neighborhood. They not only
deliver the food but they pray with them as well.

In cooperation with the Campus Crusade students who were here for the summer on their mission
project, we as a church were involved in a Vacation Bible School project in the Ridgecrest area, and
prepared, served and ministered to the homeless at Pinellas Hope. Our Senior Adults continued to be
involved in a wonderful weekly ministry called Pack-a-Sack that provides weekend snacks to children
from our neighborhood school - Mildred Helms Elementary - who social workers believe would not
have enough to eat during the weekend. Most recently, we as a congregation had the sole
responsibility of providing a Christmas dinner and gifts for over 450 clients – 270 of which were children
– who are a part of the Isaiah‟s Inn ministry to displaced families.

This past year several from our church family were involved in a number of foreign short-term missions
trips to countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Nigeria. On these trips our people were involved
with work in area orphanages, ran a youth conference, and helped with the construction of a
couple of buildings for new church plants. Our very own Paul Wonderly has joined the ministerial staff
of S.O.S. Ministries, which not only ministers in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nigeria, but Paul will
specifically be involved with connecting with as many of the international students as possible that
come to St. Petersburg College for their education.

We are also pleased to announce the addition of Lucas Hillman as our full time youth pastor. Lucas
has already been interning with the youth as he has been completing his Masters in Theological
Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary.

We joyfully reinstated our periodic Sunday evening time of worship in song and prayer by giving this
ministry a new name and emphasis. This special night of worship is called Phiano – and is Greek for
„shine’ – as in ‘so that you may become blameless an pure, children of God without fault in a crooked
and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe’ (Philippians 2:15). We have
scheduled the first Sunday evening of every other month as a special time of thematic prayer, song,
scripture reading, testimony, and brief sharing from the Word that will bring the night‟s theme all
together. We have a strong lineup of encouraging biblical themes scheduled throughout 2011.
Because of the New Year holiday, the first Phaino of the New Year will be held January 9th at 6:00 PM.

A brand new ministry to young mothers will begin early in the New Year. This is called „The Baby
Mama Adventure‟ and is designed to be a time of encouragement, instruction, and nurturing for our
young mothers with the help of our “Big Mamas” (Mentoring Moms from within the church family).
Before I wrap this up, I have asked our financial geek and church treasurer – Bill Buckles – to give a
report of the year end financial status of the church:

Well it’s hard to believe that 2010 is almost over! Since our last e-mail in May the LORD has
continued to bless our Grace family and the response we have seen from the family has been
tremendous! I continue to be amazed at the growth of our family and the many talented people
the Lord has brought to His family! I understand that we had 840 people at the Christmas Eve's
service and that is just a GREAT Blessing from the Lord! It is hard to believe we have been in the
house the LORD built for five years now. Many of you may not know that there was great debate
over what size sanctuary to build and we actually considered three different plans. We decided for
many reasons to build the largest of the three options and we felt that we had to step out in faith
and trust that the LORD would fill his building. It looks like he just did that on Christmas Eve and it
was what we all hoped and prayed for!

Now on to the financial update for the Church. Once again the LORD's people have responded
and I am happy to say that through November of this year our income is up about 11% over last
year and in this economy this is a testament to GOD's grace and his people. In the last update we
asked for your help for the summer months and the LORD's people responded greatly and met
that need! Thanks to all for their help! I want to commend the church staff again as they have
continued to be good stewards and have controlled our expenses very well. Our expenses are up
just a little over 1% for the period through November of this year, which is outstanding. This is
especially notable since our mission giving is up over 40% from last year. This allowed Grace's net
income to more than double from 2009.

It is very evident that the LORD's people respond the best to specific needs and that is what has
happened since our last report. This has allowed the Church to pay off all its old accounts payable
we had from the building program and catch up all the other smaller amounts that were owed as
well as fund the health care and retirement commitments to our Pastor's for 2010 that we were
never quite able to completely keep current on before. It has also allowed us to set up a new
Savings reserve account for the first time since we completed the building and we have funded
$6,000 to date in that account and are hopeful that we will be able to continue to add to it as we
receive the funds necessary to do so!
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 The Board met recently and reviewed all the updated financial information and made a
unanimous decision after much discussion and prayer to add to our staff at Grace and bring Lucas
Hillman on full time starting January 1, 2011 as our Youth Pastor. I know many of you may have
thought he already was full time but the Board wanted to be sure the financial position of the
Church allowed us to comfortably cover that. While we are tight to do so, the growth in the
Church and especially the youth area has grown so much we all just felt it was overdue and the
time had come to move forward on this important addition to our staff. Lucas has done a great job
and I have heard many good reports relating to Lucas and he has really allowed both Heath and
Randy to focus on other much needed areas as well. Please welcome him on board in his new
capacity and congratulate him for the great job he has done!

Despite all the blessings discussed above I would be remiss if I did not say that the Church could still
use your help. We have added Lucas as discussed above and any help in covering his additional
compensation would be greatly appreciated! The one accrued amount we have not been able
to quite catch up on is the accrued retirement benefit for 2008 and 2009 for our pastors, which is
just under $14,000. We also are hopeful to continue to be able to increase our savings reserve
account and any help there would be greatly appreciated.

We appreciate our Pastors so much and they have always been so focused on the Grace family.
The Board would like to give them an increase for their hard work and efforts but have not done so
because of finances for the last four years. I know they have been extremely patient and their
hearts are in the right places and they would not want me to mention this but I feel lead to bring
this to your attention now. If you feel lead to help out there please do, as it is long overdue!

There are as always some other special needs for both the church and for some of its people and if
you would like more information on specific needs please feel free to contact Becky Evans for
more information on those. We know times are tough and again are just hoping and praying that
the LORD's people who can respond will respond as we know many that simply can't right now.
Thanks so much again for all of your past help and current support and God Bless all that Grace
Christian is trying to do to further the LORD's Kingdom here on earth and into eternity!
Bill Buckles, Treasurer

Thanks Bill – now back to me (Pastor Randy): As I finish up this „State of the Union‟ email, I do want to
mention two other things. First, there is a much-needed project that we are hoping to start in the
very near future. We have made plans to expand our youth ministry area by changing the floor plan
of the youth classrooms in the southwest section of the building. It‟s hard to explain in an email what
these changes entail, but it has to do with converting one of the currently unused rooms into a more
open area that will give the youth more community room to interact with one another. If you want
to know details about this room conversion you can speak to any of the staff members and they will
show you a rendering of the floor plan. We need to do this to accommodate the expanding youth
ministry!

And lastly, according to the church‟s by-laws, whenever the leadership wants to add to the elders
and deacons of the church we first discuss among the elders the potential candidates. Then after
discussion and much prayer we then present the names to the rest of our leadership (our church
deacons) for their input. And finally, after the leadership feels confident that they have correctly
chosen the qualified men called to serve in this capacity, their names are presented to all those who
are covenant community members of the church. This is not in order to vote, but rather to allow
those who have committed themselves to the church to share with the leadership if they have any
personal concerns about the candidates. If the elders are told by any of the members of a serious
concern that they may have, then it will be addressed accordingly. If nothing disconcerting is heard,
then these men will be placed into the position of leadership. Here are the five men who the

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leadership of Grace Christian Fellowship believe should be placed into the role of either elder or
deacon:
Elder: Kirk Blank and Lucas Hillman
Deacon: Shayne Baxter, Pete Jensen, and Jeff Smith

Again, please notify the elders (email addresses below) if you have a specific and serious concern.

So, with all of this in mind, what are some practical ways that we as a covenant community family
continue to mature and move forward productively in 2011 and advance the Kingdom of God here
on earth (as we are now examining in our Sunday morning series on the Book of Acts)?
 Continue to be present at our services. Believe it or not, your presence at the church not only
will strengthen you spiritually, but it encourages the faith of others.
 Pray about, and then actively pursue those you encounter at home, in your neighborhood, at
work and/or at school who are in need of the Lord and the fellowship that comes from being
a part of a church family – and invite them to church. In the past, over 90% of our church
growth came from people in the church inviting others. Let‟s continue that enthusiastic
attitude!
 Consider how you can be actively involved in the ministry of the church by volunteering in our
children‟s area once a month on Sunday‟s, participating in our youth programs on
Wednesday night, ushering or being a greeter.
 Be involved in one or more bible study oriented small groups. This would include our Sunday
morning Reform class; Tuesday morning Romans Bible study; Wednesday night service;
Theology on Tap; Young adults; Young marrieds; Men‟s Breakfast; and the various Ladies Bible
studies. Not only will be you encouraged and challenged (and grow) in your faith, but lasting
relationships and friendships will be developed.
 Please pray for your pastors, church leaders, for those who minister in a variety of capacities
at the church, and for your church family in general. Prayer really does work.
 Continue to give generously according to your ability. Consider giving regularly through your
bank‟s bill pay option (as many are doing now) because this will help you budget, but will
also help the church whether you are able to be present at a service or not.
 Continue to love one another as Christ has loved us…
 And continue to look for that one, two, three or fifty newer people at church that need a
loving handshake, greeting, and/or an encouraging word. Your smile and sincere greeting
could be the very thing that not only encourages a person to come back to the church, but
may even save a life!

Once again, I want to thank all of you for the love, grace and encouragement that you continually
lavish on my family and me. You not only make it hard to be humble, but you make it a pure joy to
minister to the greatest congregation in America (and probably the world!). I look forward to what
the Lord has in store for all of us in 2011! God bless you all!

Pastor Randy Evans – pastorrandy@tampabay.rr.com

Pastor Heath Watson – heath@gracechristian.com

Corey Joy – corey@networkpeople.com

Steve Lee – stsulee@yahoo.com

James Gleichowski – jhgleich@hotmail.com

Elders of Grace Christian Fellowship