A Vision for Building Children’s Ministry –Pt 1 of 4

 In the next several posts you will read the narrative of how Osceola Grace leadership has arrived at this point right now in the building program.   It is going to take a few posts so please be patient and read these thoroughly over the next few days and you will be amazed at the way that God has doubly blessed Osceola Grace! 

Almost exactly one year ago, the Lord laid it on Pastor Greg’s heart to share with you all as a church that our next step in 2015 would be the hiring of a Family and Children’s Pastor to begin the process of rebuilding the solid foundation of Children’s ministry for which Osceola Grace Church has been known for so many years.  It was not as though what was happening was bad or ineffective, the leadership simply felt that the best way to grow this entire ministry was to focus from the youngest to the oldest.  

Therefore, our focus was going to begin with ministries from cradle to the upper elementary ages.   If you recall, Pastor Greg’s challenge was to see what could be done to increase the weekly giving in order to hire that Pastor sometime in 2015. 

Within two weeks a couple from the church contacted Pastor Greg to go out to dinner together. This dinner proved to be a turning point on the timeline and a reassurance of the current direction.   As talk surrounded the vision that was shared previously, this couple shared what God had laid upon their heart. 

When Pastor Greg had shared the vision, it confirmed to them something that they had already been thinking.  As a result, this dinner was to share that they were donating almost $2 million for a number of things! 

• The bulk of the gift was to go toward building a new Children’s Wing for the next generation of ministry and toward a Commons Area for the body of believers to gather in since the current lobby space is more of a large hallway than a gathering area. 
• Part of the gift was directed toward the General Fund and a couple of other areas
• Another part of that gift went toward the salary and benefit package for the very pastor toward which vision had been set! (ENOUGH TO COVER 3 YEARS!)

At the start of December 2014, the announcement was made about this gift and the process was set in motion to do two things:

1. Search for and hire an active and successful Family and Children’s Pastor (a committee was formed to accomplish this)
2. Create and empower a Building team to guide through this monumental task

Both teams began their work early in 2015 and on October 25, Pastor John Contreras joined the church staff and began his ministry here as our new Family Pastor!   Isn’t it exciting to see him at work and building relationships already?  As the Building Team began rolling along they were very deliberate in their process in order to try to avoid many of the common mistakes that churches make in building projects!  The next post will have more about the process they went through!

Stay tuned…