It is so exciting that God has called three of Relevant’s college gals to engage a nation this summer to help spiritually transform people.  Jamie Gosch and Alicia Brown will be spending six weeks in South Africa, and Hannah Gegenbach will be spending six weeks in Uganda. 

It has been so fun to see God working in the lives of these three ladies; watching Him spiritually transform them, and giving them a heart to help spiritually transform other people.  They have all worked so hard to raise enough money to spend a large chunk of their summer in Africa working in orphanages, doing vacation bible school programs with kids who don’t know Jesus, and serving people in need.  Furthermore, it has been a blessing to financially “send” these girls and cover them in prayer as a church. 

All three of them leave this week, and need our continued prayers. I can’t wait for them to get back to hear what God did in and through them!  Please be praying for all three of them over the next 6 weeks.  Pray for God to use them in powerful ways.  Pray for needs to be met.  Pray that God spiritually transforms people through them.  Pray that God protects them!

Pastor Ronnie

At the end of yesterday’s sermon called “Worthless Investments,” I gave the challenge to commit to re-align how we handle the treasure (money, finances, wealth) that God has given us (If you missed the sermon, you should listen to it on podcast).  Afterwords, I talked to a few people who really wanted to do this, but didn’t know how.  So, here is a budget worksheet that can help you (budget-worksheet1).  Below is an explanation of how to navigate through this worksheet.  If you do this, I think this is really going to help you take steps in the right direction financially.

Pastor Ronnie

Budget Spreadsheet

Fill out the attached spreadsheet as accurate as possible with a realistic working budget.  Here are a few things to consider as you are filling out the budget

• MAKE SURE YOU ONLY TYPE NUMBERS UNDER THE MONTH SIDE.  THE EQUATIONS ARE ALREADY SET IN THE WORKSHEET AND WILL FIGURE THE YEAR AMOUNTS AS WELL AS THE PERCENTAGES. 
• Only work in both spouse’s income if you are married and will be living off both incomes
• Your over/under cannot be in the negative, so you may have to decide what expenses to cut out
• Try to keep fixed expenses as low as possible

Budget Method

Discuss what budget method will be most suitable for you to maintain your budget sufficiently.  In order to maintain your budget you must both (if married) agree on a method that suits your needs and is easy to maintain.  Here are a few examples (but not limited to these):

• Check/Debit Card System: Much like the credit card system below, but a check register is used as well.
• Credit Card System: All variable expenses and as many fixed expenses as possible are put on credit card and one check is written at end of month after recording expenses from statement
• Envelope System: Envelopes are kept in the house with the variable expenses written on the front of them.  At the beginning of the month the specified amount for that expense is placed in the envelope and withdrawn at time of desired spending

Budget Facilitator

If married, who will facilitate the budget and communicate to the other partner the progress of the budget?  How will this be done on a day to day basis (computer spreadsheet, budget book, etc.)?

If I have said it once, I have said it 1000 times.  We are not trying to build the biggest church in the city.  We are trying to lead people toward living a transformed life so that we can transform the city.  Therefore, I do not believe what is going to transform our culture is trying to get as many butts in the seats as we can.  However, I do believe that there will come a time in some people’s lives where coming to Relevant is the exact thing they will need to take a step toward Jesus on their spiritual journey. 

Most new people come to Relevant from a personal invite, but there are some people who may need to step into Relevant who don’t know anyone who goes here.  How will they hear about it?  That is why we do  “Culture Marketing.”  We don’t think any of the marketing that we do will make someone who is unchurched all of a sudden want to go to church.  The purpose of our culture marketing is to infuse Relevant into the minds of the people in our culture, so if and when they ever feel like they need some help on their spiritual journey, Relevant is the 1st place they think about. 

We have tried a lot of different things with culture marketing: invite cards, invite emails, yard signs, billboards, etc.  One of the things we have never tried is radio advertising.  Not anymore.  Starting in June for the next three months Relevant will have a commercial on Q98.5 (www.q985fm.com).

Here is what the commercial sounds like (q98-relevant-commerical2).  Please pray that people who God wants to spiritually transform will hear this and respond.  Also…I know I sound like a complete dork.  DON’T MAKE FUN OF ME!

Pastor Ronnie