church – Page 3 – John Markum

Dear people of the South Bay…

Posted on April 22, 2013 by johnmarkum

I’m writing this to the approximately 2 million people who live in the South Bay area whom we are compelled to relocate to this summer for the sake of bringing the Gospel. It is now three months away from the time that we will be moving into your communities, integrating into your busy streets, and sharing our lives with you. As I watch these words appear on the screen before me, I am acutely aware that these thoughts are largely meaningless to most of you at the time of my writing them. And yet I must share my heart with you in hopes that, one day, what I say here will have profound significance for many of you.
Unlike so many of your residents, we are not relocating because of the promise of a new career opportunity. Rather, we are coming because of you. You see, I have looked into the eyes of so many of you, and have listened to your stories, and have seen myself… apart from Christ. Ambitious. Driven. Opinionated, yet tolerant. Socially active, and yet somehow kind of lonely and empty when you thought no one else was watching.

But I’ve watched. And prayed. And even fasted for you. And as the vast majority of you continue to do life far from the grace that God would have for you, you have not gone unnoticed by Him, and therefore by me. I’ve always been a “big-picture” kind of guy, so here’s how I currently seen things…

I am 31 years of age as I come to you. I am old enough to have made enough youthful mistakes and have grown through them, yet young enough to still take risks. I am strong, strategic, and in my prime. I am offering to you the very best years I have to give. This is not simply the “next step” in a career path that I’ve chosen. You’re it for me. There is nowhere else I intend to go. They will bury my body in your soil one day, hopefully a long time from now. I, my family, and the several people coming with us, are laying our lives down for the Gospel… for you.

Even now, as I sit 2,004 miles from where you are, my heart is with you. I am committed to you. And I will stop at nothing to reach you. I don’t expect most of you to understand this yet, but we love you. You matter to us. The Bible tells us of a God who moved Heaven and earth to get to humanity to save us. That same God is sending me to you, not because I am somehow special in any way, but because you are special to Him in every way.

One day, as I stand before you as your pastor and watch hundreds, or maybe even thousands of you worshiping Jesus passionately, and responding in faith to the Son of God, and as I get to see Him heal relationships, and restore identities in Himself, and break addictions, and you begin to love others as He has loved you, and whole communities are renewed by God’s work through you – I will remember this moment. The moment when God breathed into my life a vision of what He would do in you and through you, and I believed Him enough to commit it to writing.

Between now and then, I’m still thinking about you and praying for you. Every one of you I get the privilege to meet is a divine appointment from my perspective. I cannot wait to see you begin to fully experience life in Christ together!

So, hi. My name is John. I’ll be your new neighbor in July. I follow Jesus, and I believe that greater things are coming here. I can’t wait to meet you! See you soon.

Blessings,
Pastor John

GIVING.

Posted on March 3, 2013 by johnmarkum

As we’re preparing to launch our church plant, we have described our partnership commitments to LifeCity Church in three words:
FAST.
GIVE.
JOIN.

Before you get all weird on me about making a case for you to give money to our church plant, I want you to know two things:

If you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ, I’m not asking you for anything. It is the responsibility of Christ-followers to finance God’s work.
If you are not trusting God with your money by tithing to your church home, you should start there first.

Now that we’ve got that established let me tell you why you should give to LifeCity Church, and give generously:

Because you give sacrificially to LifeCity Church, the people of the South Bay will fully experience life in Christ.
God will reward you for investing in His Kingdom. He always blesses generosity.
God will bless and even extend your remaining resources.
You’re not just helping us start a church. Your participating in building a church planting movement.
Your consistent giving will make it possible for us to control our budget, predict expenses, and pay for our church’s needs.
By helping us secure the finances to do this work, you enable us to spend more time focused on reaching the people of the South Bay, and less time raising funds.

God is going to call different people to do different things with their finances when it comes to partnering with LifeCity Church. Some people are going to give their tax refund. Others will begin tithing to LifeCity in addition to their church home. Some will be moved to give $25 a month, and other will sense God leading them to give $1000 or more monthly. God calls for equal sacrifice, not necessarily equal giving.

We are specifically challenging people to give on one of two levels:

$100/monthly: We’ve set a goal of seeing 100 people commit to giving at this level. We’re calling these people our “100 x 100” givers. Some have already started doing this.
$250/monthly: Each person doing this for three years will raise 1% of our total giving goal. If 20 people committed to doing this, they would raise 20% of our giving needs alone. To make that number real, it could pay for our meeting space to hold services.

We’re asking for people to consider committing to three years (36 months) so that we have the time to make disciples who begin to tithe to LifeCity Church and own the responsibility of furthering the work of the ministry in their lives.

I know hundreds of reasons why people might not give. I believe God receives greater glory when we trust Him with our resources despite our circumstances. Feel free to email us at: [email protected] if you have more questions about giving to LifeCity Church.

If you’re ready to give now at our secure online giving, click here.

For those of you who do give, I’m very grateful for your sacrifice. We promise to honor your generosity by keeping you informed with how your giving is impacting lives through this step of faith. Thank you!

Blessings,
Pastor John

The Cost to Planting a Church

Posted on February 13, 2013 by johnmarkum

I dislike using “need” to motivate people to give their money to something. I find that if it works at all, people usually only give out of guilt, and not usually more than once. I find that “vision” is not only a more compelling reason to motivate people to give, but it helps people understand the impact that their giving is making. But as I prepare to launch LifeCity Church, I realize that most people are simply unaware of the cost of planting a church.

The fact of the matter is, this is the hardest and most difficult thing I have ever done. If it were not for the confidence I have that God is calling us to do this, I would never attempt such an otherwise intimidating challenge. Continue reading “The Cost to Planting a Church”