Early Caller Release

For fear of being labeled as “one of those churches concerned about numbers”, many leaders avoid talking about statistics. And though I’ve always been hesitant to talk about numbers, I think we can become too tight lipped about information that is important to the life and mission of the church. That being said, I thought it would be fun to devote this article to some numbers that are meaningful to our church family. And even if you’re not the analytic type, I would invite you to hang on for the read as I think these numbers will help to focus your vision of what is really taking place at GCC.

• 3 (baptisms in 2008) Join us in praying that this number will grow tremendously throughout the remaining year.
• 6 (paid staff members) Of this number, four are ministers, one is our administrative assistant and one is our janitor.
• 10 (percentage of our offering that GCC gives towards missions) We challenge our people to give 10% and our desire is to lead the way. Please know that a tithe of everything we bring in as a church goes back to both local and international ministries that we support.
• 25 (number of new volunteers our Children’s Ministry needs) Sha Marcum, our Children’s Minister, is looking for the following: 8 adults to help during first service, 4 adults to help during second service, 6 adults to help during our Wednesday service, and 2 adults willing to come in one day during the week for a couple of hours to stock rooms, clean toys, etc. Contact Sha at 923-8304 if you can meet this need.
• 35 (families currently taking Financial Peace University) Pray for these families that God will use this program to help them become the best managers of his resources they can be.
• 36 (acres of land we own in Harrison County) Please be in prayer as we seek the Lord’s will in how and when we are to use this property to enlarge his kingdom.
• 38 (percentage of our weekly attendance that represents children - birth through 12thth grade) It’s evident that we are reaching young families with children. That’s something to be excited about!
• 70 (number of volunteers it takes to pull off a weekend service) Are you a ministry partner, actively giving your time to the work of GCC?
• 74 (number of empty seats during our 2nd worship service) If you’re a regular at the first hour, would you consider making the switch in an effort to balance out our two services and make more room for guests?
• 90 (how much is costs to send a Junior High student to the Believe conference) Could God use your gift to send a student on a life-changing weekend? If you would like to make this happen, send a check to the church office with “Believe Gift” in the memo and we’ll pass that blessing along.
• 175 (number of years GCC has been in existence) That makes us the oldest church in Floyd & Clark Counties.
• 180 (seating capacity in our current worship center) This is if you pack them in like sardines and sit them on the front row, which we know never happens.
• 336 (average Sunday attendance in January 2008)
• 5,107 (average weekly offering in 2008)
• 7,004 (weekly need to make budget) It doesn’t take a finance major to see that our financial support needs to increase so that we can continue fund the ministry we’ve budgeted for. To date, we’re only collecting 73% of our need but we’re confident that God will honor our step of faith to increase our operating budget from last year.
• 187,379 (loan balance for our new property) Our hope is to be debt free in 2008, putting us in position to build when God gives us release to do so. If you would like to make donations to pay down this debt, over and above your regular tithe, please put “Debt Reduction” in the memo of your check.