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Dear Calvary Family,

First of all, I wanted to thank you for your generous response to our recent updates on the financial needs of our church. We have seen our General Fund go from a $134,000 deficit a month ago to a $28,000 deficit after this last Sunday. Praise God! That’s a huge blessing. Our Reach Missions Fund is still $93,000 behind after being $100,000 behind a month ago. We continue to be wise with expenses so aren’t in trouble, but we would love to be able to give greater increases to our staff to keep pace with inflation in this difficult financial time. We’d love the same for our missionaries as well.

But the greater theme here is one of gratitude and praise to God. Please keep praying and responding to the Lord as He guides you.

You can see ways to help make a difference locally and globally by giving online at CalvaryLife.org/Give.

One other thing I’d like you to be praying about is the topic of discipleship. This is a topic I’ll be writing and speaking about quite a bit over the next year(s). Discipleship is simply following Jesus and as you receive insight, wisdom, teaching, friendship, and care from both God and people, then you give away what you have received to others. Tim Nellis shared this simple definition of discipleship with me and I love it - giving away what you’ve received.

You’ve received the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Give that away to someone else.
You’ve received care in a time of grief. Give that to someone else in the church.
You’ve received someone helping you learn to pray. Give that away.
You’ve received what it means to obey God’s commands. Give that away.
You’ve received the knowledge of how to share your faith. Give that away.
You’ve received the skills to read the Bible. Give that to a friend.

Give away what you have received. To people far from God. To people who’ve followed Jesus for years. We all need to receive and we all need to give.

So be praying and thinking about how you can give away what you have received in following Jesus.

And also be praying about how you can keep receiving the discipleship you need to be a constantly growing follower of Jesus. We make disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

This really does go along well with the beginning of the email on financial generosity. That’s part of giving away what we have received as well. God is so generous with us. Let’s respond with generosity of time and money.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Eric Wakeling