Special Offering

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We take a Special Offering twice a year in hopes of us continually growing in a posture of joyful and sacrificial giving. At the same time, we celebrate how faithful you are on a weekly basis in giving of your finances. This is what allows us to advance the Kingdom of God through the work God has given us as The Bridge HTX on a daily basis. We take the Special Offering in order to be able to take advantage of unexpected ministry opportunities and to support ministry needs that cannot necessarily be supported by our weekly giving.

 

Hello Church Family,
 
It's hard to believe that we have been living in a pandemic for over a year and a half now. What we said in last year’s letter is still true today, “True to the Gospel, God works good from what is meant for destruction over and over again.” We are so grateful to see how God, in His grace, is working in our midst. We are seeing Gospel communities form that are deeply loving and living with Gospel intentionality to one another and their neighborhoods. We have seen God bring people into our midst and knit hearts together. We have seen people responding to deep needs with one another and helping each other come alongside significant needs in the lives of others around them. We are seeing discipleship and disciples being multiplied. We are seeing leaders raised up. We have 6 apprenticing house church leaders and two apprenticing elders. We have a lot to celebrate and be grateful for.
 
Twice a year, we take a Special Offering above and beyond our normal tithes to foster a culture of sacrificial giving to the Kingdom of God.  We love observing this opportunity of Advent giving for two reasons. 1) It shepherds our hearts to hold loosely to the things of this world and cling to the hope of Jesus. 2) It directly counters the consumeristic inertia of what Christmas is often made to be. Advent Giving will start now and continue for the next six weeks.
 
This year, we have three great opportunities for you to prayerfully join in with this Advent season:

  1. Advent Giving – Our goal is to be able to add $15,000 to our annual budget.
    • As we are in a season of rebuilding who we are and how we go about the ministry of the Gospel, we need help covering our budget deficit for this budget year.  $15,000 seems to be a realistic, yet faith-stretching goal that will get us there.
    • Join us in prayerfully considering what God has called you to give.  As a reminder, the joyful heart of giving is infinitely more important than any specific number. However, if a guideline is helpful, we believe that 1 week’s salary would be sacrificial for most.
  2. Advent Initiative – We want to come alongside the ministry of our church planting resident Blaine & Anna Hooper and the community of Christ Our Refuge Church (CoR) in a tangible work of helping them respond to the influx of Afghan refugees.
    • We need you and your house church community to put together Kitchen Welcome Kits* between now and December 11th. Then, all who are able will come together with CoR on Saturday, 12/11/21 to assemble the kits and then disperse to deliver them to Afghan families**.
    • This opportunity is suitable for all ages so please include your children if you desire.
      • * Your house church leaders will share the items list and other details needed to coordinate this opportunity.
      • ** Blaine Hooper will conduct a short training how to engage in these cross-cultural settings on the morning of the 11th and every team will have a team leader that is part of the CoR community in order to insure this effort advances their work of building relationships in their community for the sake of the Gospel.
  3. Stewardship Challenge – We want to invite everyone who is part of the TBHTX family to prayerfully consider increasing their monthly giving by $50 in order to position us well for future ministry through our network of House Churches. As our Advent Giving goal will help us have a balanced budget, any increase here would allow us to invest more in our current and future House Church ministry budgets.

We know that we will all participate to varying degrees. Our desire is that we would bring all that we have and all that we are as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and the way of Jesus in giving joyfully and sacrificially. We trust you to prayerfully seek and follow the Lord and we trust the Holy Spirit and the providence of God even more to provide all that we need as a community journeying together in Jesus for the glory of God.
 
Please, join in praying with us as we seek to steward all that God has given us. You can give through all the electronic methods of giving. You just need to designate “Special Offering” by selecting “Special Offering” when giving online. You can give through the PushPay app, by texting “bridgemontrose” to 833-776-4633, or by following the “give” link on our website. Feel free to direct any questions about the methods of giving to Karen at karen@thebridgehtx.org.
 
All glory to God
the elders

        CurtHeath, & Travis