Welcome to our Special Mid Year Check In Newsletter!

Below you will find an "Adventure Family Meeting" type email with check-ins, updates, and prayer requests for various happenings in the life of our church. Whether you are a Covenant Partner, a regular attender, or relatively new to our church family, we believe this update to be valuable, and it is a way we are trying live out being authentic and honest with everyone in our church family. If you have any questions or concerns following this update, please get in touch with your Adventure Staff or send us an email and we'd be happy to get back to you!

Giving Check In

Overall, the expected giving this year is down by quite a bit (-$35,962). There may be many reasons for this, so this update isn’t an effort to necessarily encourage increased giving. We believe that God always provides for the needs of our church and its various ministries, and we trust that He will continue to do so, but He often, regularly, provides via those in our church family, so we are just trying to be transparent and let the family know how we are doing at this point in the year.

What can we do?

• Pray that God would continue to provide the necessary funds for us to do the ministry He has called us to.
• Pray about the amount you are giving financially, and if God desires for you to change that amount, please do so faithfully, trusting that He has provided and will continue to provide for both your family and our church.
• Pray for the leadership, that they might be wise and discerning when it comes to making financial decisions for the church now and in the future.

Marriages

In early June, there was a week when several leaders in our church community were contacted by almost 15 different couples who were in crisis in their marriages for various reasons. Some issues were long-term issues that had boiled up, while others were circumstances where finances, family issues, difficulties with children, etc., had led to increased strain on the marital relationship. In subsequent weeks, several more couples have shared honestly about some difficulties they were facing. Hearing this, we believe this is a good time to consider our own marriages and the marriages of those around us, lifting them up to the Lord.

What can we do?

• Pray that God would protect our marriages and that those who are struggling would be brave enough to reach out to our Biblical Community for support, prayer, and encouragement.
• Pray against the enemy and his ploys to divide marriages and families.
• Check in with your people- whether they are people who just sit in the row in front of you on Sunday, or they are people you are doing life with, check in with one another, asking how things in their marriages are going and how you can be praying for and supporting them.
• Check in with your spouse. Oftentimes in marriage, we aren’t paying attention or making intentional investments in our relationship, and this can lead us to being in a vulnerable space when tragedy strikes. Check in with your spouse and see how your relationship is doing. Schedule times for a date night or time together to talk without kids or the stresses of life and work.

People Need People

Over the past year or so, several people in our church family have expressed some profound loneliness. Perhaps they work remote and realize they haven’t interacted with people since before 2020, or perhaps they are older and feeling more isolated. Maybe they are someone who realizes that their whole life is their work, their hobbies or their families and have found themselves longing for a friend, or maybe a life situation has come to pass and someone has realized that they have no community with which to walk during this difficult time. Perhaps someone has had on their heart to start a LifeGroup or invite that couple over for dinner, but for whatever reason, it just hasn’t happened yet. Regardless, we realize that people need people, and this post-COVID time has been a unique experience in that we may have forgotten how to “people” and are finding ourselves in lonely places.

What can we do?

• Pray that God would provide fellowship for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Pray that God would illuminate those around us in need of community.
• Pray that God would help us to be bold and reach out to others, seeking to love them well and be hospitable.
• Look around and see who isn’t here, who hasn’t come in a while, who might not be connected, and reach out to them.
• Consider who you are doing Biblical Community with- do you have people you regularly live life following Jesus with, who will be there when life takes a turn?
• Invite someone to lunch or dinner.

Things are More Expensive, but Our People are Generous

As we have probably all noticed, things are more expensive everywhere. Our gas bills are up, food bills are skyrocketing, and food prices are as well. Over the past six months, these costs have also impacted our church family. BaseCamp has spent its entire food budget for the year (though we have one more session of BaseCamp in the Fall) and we have reached 84% of our planned budget for our gas/heating bill (and Fall/Winter is coming!) Some staffing changes have meant unexpected personnel costs during transitions. Though our building is paid off, it is an aging building, so there are many maintenance issues that we have had to address that are more expensive. Even with giving down and prices going up, our church family has still been incredibly generous in that they have provided $59,656.81 towards our new HVAC system and over $9,074.97 to send every student who wanted to go to camp this June! In addition to these things, people are regularly donating to the Deacon’s Fund, Missions, and support ministries like Family Kitchen. Our church family is very generous!

What can we do?

• Pray that God would continue to provide the necessary funds for us to do the ministry He has called us to.
• Thank God for the generosity of this church family, praising Him for His faithfulness in and through them.
• Prayerfully consider how you might help with supporting these ministries financially.

Many Hands Make Light Work

We believe that the Lord calls us to be generous with our time, talent, and treasure, and while there are many volunteers who participate in various ministries in the church any given week, there are still ample needs in several areas for people called by God to serve in them. Areas such as Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, Cafe ministries, and Deacon’s support ministries. Often the joke in churches is that 10% of the people end up doing 90% of the work needed in ministry. While this number doesn’t hold for Adventure, it is a reality that those who do serve tend to serve quite a bit.

What can we do?

• Pray that God would provide the volunteers as He always has for the ministries He has called us to.
• Pray about where God has called you to be generous with your time, talent or treasure then follow where He might lead.
• Pray for those serving in various ministries (or potentially beginning to serve in ministries), for energy, for passion, and for willingness to go where Jesus leads.

Deacons Restructuring

For the past couple of years the Deacon Board has been working toward transitioning from being a board that does the ministry of Deacons in the church to being an organizing board that connects the congregation at large to be able to meet the needs of our community and beyond. The leadership of the Deacons have been creating infrastructure and seeking to work toward building capacity to get the hundreds of people who call our church home connected with the various ministries that the Deacons help with from food baskets to meal trains, from helping fix cars or houses to supporting with families during memorial services and the loss of a loved one. As this gets further off the ground, our hope is to mobilize the congregation at large to support in helping more people in our community and world.

What can we do?

• Pray that God would empower and encourage those leading this initiative.
• Fill out a Community Skill Questionnaire available in the Main Foyer and turn it into the Deacons so they know how you might be able to help others.
• Prayerfully consider joining the Deacon Meal Trail list to help provide meals for those who are in need.

New People are Coming Each Week

Each week, new people grace the doors of Adventure of Faith Church, and many continue to come week in and week out. The Lord is clearly moving in the hearts of people in our community and bringing them into our weekly services, but we also pray that they might become more involved in our church family, doing life with us as we pursue Jesus together.

What can we do?

• Pray that we would be a welcoming, loving church that invites others to participate with us in ministry.
• Pray for those who come into the building for the first time, that we might love them well and they might experience the love of Christ through us.
• Look around you and see if there are people you haven’t met. Invite them out to lunch or to participate with you in some capacity at the church.
• Watch for new people coming into church and make space for them to sit next to you!

God is Moving in the Lives of our People

So many people in our church family are growing in their relationship with Jesus and finding themselves increasingly giving their whole lives to Him. Were we to share all the ways we’ve been hearing about the Holy Spirit’s movement in individuals and families in our congregation, there wouldn’t be enough room to share them all! Even in difficulty and trials, our people are responding in faithful obedience, empowered by the Lord to live with joy, peace, and mercy even in the most difficult of circumstances.

What can we do?

• Pray that we would continue to grow in our faith and dependence on the Lord.
• Pray that we might faithfully continue to share our faith and invite others to chase after Jesus alongside us, that we may be a people that grow in their love and affection for the Lord, for one another, and for the world/community around us.