Winter Newsletter:
Using God's Good Gifts

James 1:17 - Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I have the joy of telling you something I have never said in eight years here at Christ the King…

Are you ready?

We closed the 2019 year with a surplus.

That means that through your generous giving of God’s generous gifts, we gathered almost $5,000 in donations beyond our budgeted expenses.

And it gets better than that: we also were able to make some thrifty choices and we spent about $5,500 less than we had budgeted to spend.

When you add those two numbers together, we gave about $10,500 more than we spent. Thanks be to God for His generous gifts and thanks to all of you for your faithful giving!

Now, we have a wonderful question that we have never had to answer – how do we use this surplus? 

I believe that the worst possible response would be to say: “Well, I guess the church doesn’t need the money so now I can give less.” Here’s why that would be the worst response: not only is the need for Biblical truth and love increasing all around us, but your call in Christ to give generously has nothing to do with our church’s budget. Your call in Christ to give generously is based on His generous gifts to you. And remember: His gifts are endless and eternal. As His obedient children, we give as thanks to Him for His faithfulness; we give as an exercise in trust that He will continue to provide. These things are vital to our faith life, no matter what the church’s budget looks like.

Still, as a church, we now get to wrestle with a joyful challenge – how can we use this surplus most faithfully? Feel free to share ideas with me or with your elder, and ultimately, it will fall to the council to decide in the next month or so. But may I make a suggestion?

I believe that a significant portion should go to missions work here and around the world. We live in an increasingly Godless culture here in the US, and around the world there are tremendous needs for physical and spiritual care. We have the joy and privilege of using what God has given to us so that we can join in what He is doing, here and around the world. As I type this, we are in the midst of planning for what will hopefully be our church’s first mission trip to Eastern Africa (exact country still to be determined based on the eventual team’s skills and timeframe – more info will be coming in the weeks ahead). Whether we use some of the surplus to help this effort or something else, here is the joy: we can use God’s gifts to spread God’s gifts!

This is always the beauty of God’s plan – He gives every good gift. And He certainly doesn’t need anything from us. But He invites us to use His gifts to become a greater part of His work. Like giving a child money to buy a Christmas gift. The point isn’t the finances, the point is the heart.

Rejoicing in Christ's great gifts, and praying for his wisdom, 
Pastor Rob Morris 
 

Pastor Rob Morris

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​Pastor Rob Morris is celebrating his eighth year of serving at Christ the King Lutheran Church. He was ordained into the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod after a colloquy process that involved one semester of classwork at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort  Wayne, Indiana and a supervised vicarage here at Christ the King.  His previous training included both a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Biblical Languages from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in S. Hamilton, MA, where he also served as a Teacher’s Assistant leading classwork for both the Greek and Hebrew departments.

Before his call to Christ the King, Pastor Morris served as a full-time staff member at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Topsfield, MA, focusing on both the youth and worship ministries. Going even further back, Pastor Rob’s background was in software sales and his undergraduate work was in business and organizational behavior.

Pastor Morris is joyfully married to his high school sweetheart, Christy, and July 2019 marks their 17th wedding anniversary. They have been entrusted with two wonderful boys: Elijah, 13, and Isaiah, 10.  As a family, they love to hike, bike, kayak, explore, read, and play music together. 

In his free time, Pastor Morris loves reading, playing music on a growing number of instruments, biking, camping, woodworking, and working on old trucks – currently an old Ford and an even older Studebaker. 

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