"The PMC is therefore going ahead"
Rick Smith made the following announcement at the Annual Parish Meeting on March 18, 2007:
We have proposed a Parish Ministry Centre. A centre from which many diverse ministries can operate from. A facility that we pray will be a tool to continue to enable us to reach more, and care better for people right across the many ministries here. No, it doesn’t solve every issue that we face.. nor would any project that we could have undertaken, however it is a great start... a bold start... that I’d thought may have been beyond us. However we forged ahead in faith. Trusting that the outcome would be prayerfully decided by us all and not by me in a melancholy moment.
The result has been that we have received pledges representative of 70% of our Sunday attendance. This, of itself, is cause for thanks. It is personally a great encouragement – not that I should be surprised to witness such readiness or to see people’s willingness to say; “Ok, lets get stuck in, and work towards this place being a viable, bold and growing witness here into the years ahead.”
The outcome of our pledge period is that, as at the 18 th March, the parish has pledged to give a total of $2,753,238 over the next three years.
My friends, I must say this is amazing. It is truly cause for great thanks. I am humbled. I am very very thankful Parish Council is humbled and very glad. I have always been aware that we are a people on a mission together, with gifted potential, which I desire to do well, faithfully humbly. It is testimony to a body working together, accomplishing more in God’s given strength than any one part could have hoped for.
I don’t consider we blow trumpets about money. I don’t want to be seen as a church that is rolling in it. But I do want to be a church that gets on with things with a minimum of fuss.
The PMC is therefore going ahead.