MOVE-IN READY | A November Stewardship Journey
In Exodus 3, God miraculously appears to Moses and casts an awesome vision for the rest of his life. And in Exodus 4, Moses complains, argues with God, and basically spends a whole chapter of the Bible coming up with reasons why God’s vision won’t work and how God should give this vision to someone else.
I so get that.
In the early days of big dreams there is such great distance between what you believe COULD and SHOULD BE, and what IS right now. Crossing that distance can feel impossible. And in the midst of Moses’s very relatable doubt, he asks God, “what if they don’t believe me or listen to me and say, ‘the Lord did not appear to you’?”
And God responds, “What is that in your hand?”
When Moses is tempted to doubt that he has what it takes to fulfill God’s vision for His life, God invites Moses to consider what has already been placed in his hands, and to imagine how God might work through the things Moses ALREADY HAS to part oceans and change the world.
During the month of November, we will focus on STEWARDSHIP as a church, through a journey we are calling “Move-In Ready”. At The Mission, we define stewardship holistically. It’s not about ONE part of our lives, its about ALL of our lives. We believe it’s an important part of our discipleship to—like Moses—spend intentional time considering what God has ALREADY placed into our hands as a church family—our financial resources, our spiritual gifts, our time, and our passions to reach and heal a hurting world—and then to imagine how we might offer these things back to God, so that He might work in and through them to part oceans and change the world in our lives and in our city today.
We want to be clear that this is NOT a building campaign. While our recent building search survey will greatly inform our Vestry’s continued consideration of when, if, and where a location move will serve our church, our focus in November is this year’s version of our church’s annual rhythm of setting aside intentional time to focus on holistic stewardship including pledgeship, vestry nominations, and more for the year to come.
The phrase, “move-in ready” is a metaphorical picture to guide and focus our journey. If you own a piece of land on which you plan to build your dream house, there’s some work that needs to be done to transform that land into a home that’s ready to live in. This image helps us consider our own hearts before the Lord in this season as a church: what steps might God be inviting each and all of us to take, so that we might grow together to become a community of people who are able to step forward into the vision He has for us as a church?
This will be our focus over the next few weeks, and here’s what you can expect:
Sunday, October 30th - our Vestry Treasurer, Nelson Wesley will give a preview announcement about our upcoming annual Pledgeship Process. If you are a member of The Mission or have gone through at least 1 stage of Mission Pathways, you will also receive a mailed letter from Nelson inviting you to prayerfully prepare for and participate in pledging.
Wednesday, November 2nd - the Mission Minute will include links to a Biblical Theology of Generosity, as well as an explanation of “What is A Vestry?” so that you can prepare both for the pledgeship window as well as our annual Vestry Nomination window.
Sunday, November 6th - Vestry Member Sarah Love will give a preview announcement explaining a bit about the Vestry nomination process, and how you can nominate fellow members to serve in this key leadership role.
Wednesday November 9th - our 2-week Vestry Nomination & Pledgeship Window opens, and you can participate by nominating fellow Mission members to serve on our Vestry, and by submitting a pledge indicating your planned giving in support of God’s Kingdom ministry through The Mission Cincinnati in 2023.
Sunday, November 13th - Fr. William will preach a special message on the vision of our church for the coming season, and how our faith-filled stewardship in all of these areas as well as service and evangelism will be essential to us stepping forward as a church into everything God has called us to.
Sunday, November 20th - we will share our quarterly prayer service where we will pray into all of this and into our next season together.
Wednesday November 23rd - the Vestry Nomination & Pledgeship windows will close. We will share the outcomes of these processes with the congregation in December.
We are so excited to share this journey with you all, and we are expectant for all God will do in each of lives personally as well as in our entire community corporately! Please pray for the Holy Spirit to cover the entirety of this journey with the peace and grace of God. May a posture of Christ-centeredness be evident in all of this. And may the fruit of this journey be provision for our church’s mission, clarity for our collective next steps, and increase joy in the goodness and kindness of our God!
If you have any questions about this process, you’re invited to reach out to Fr. William Eavenson at william@missioncincinnati.org.