A few weeks ago, in the second installment of our burgeoning Generous Campaign, Pastor Mark wrote about orphans in need of Christmas benevolence.

Thanks to the generosity our readers, 136 orphans in India received new clothes, a simple toy, and a new toothbrush. We are so grateful to have a group of readers that are generous with the gifts God has given.

This Sunday, January 11th, Mars Hill will begin the sermon series Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter. Look through the below resources, and pray that God would use this series to draw thousands of people to Himself.

Resources on the Trial Preview Page

• Trial Study Guide (Will be handed out at Mars Hill services)
• Invite a Friend (feel free to use this to let friends in Seattle know)
• Recommended Reading
• Series Downloads

Watch this clip from our sermon series Generous about how generosity is measured proportionately. Watch the whole sermon here.

The “Changed by Jesus” series features stories about how Jesus is working through the ministry of Mars Hill Church to change lives. If God has used Mars Hill to transform your life, please consider emailing your account to testimony [at] marshillchurch.org.

The following story is by John, a member of our Ballard campus. Today he celebrates his three-year anniversary of following Jesus.

Happy New Year — Changed By Jesus #24

I was running from God—and I mean running hard for about 12 years or so. And then I was 24, at the end of my rope, and lying in a backroom in Kent when I decided, “Alright God, I’m yours.”

Growing up in a Christian home, I knew Jesus but he was a long way down the list in things that I was interested in. One of my excuses for avoiding Jesus was that I didn’t want to be a hypocrite if I was to become a Christian. I wanted to be able to do things that I wanted to do, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do them anymore if God was in the picture. In all honesty, I was scared to death of giving my life to God because I didn’t know what to expect. Satan really had a hold of me with fear and doubt.

I tried everything that I thought was more important—or at least more fun—than God. At a very young age (10 or so), I began to get sexually involved. That escalated at age 12, when I also added weed to the mix. When I left home, I started using cocaine and ecstasy and other drugs. This whole portion of my story is pretty involved, so I will leave it at that.

I knew about Jesus the whole time, but I was running. I moved to Las Vegas and began attending a large church down there, which is where God’s pursuit of my heart began to intensify. Every time I sat down, or whenever the band sang, I would burst into tears, which was embarrassing. I remember hoping that everyone would just bow their heads and pray already so I could wipe the tears and snot off of my face. I would play it off as a cold (in the middle of the Las Vegas summer), all the while looking like George in the Wedding Singer without the eyeliner.

Eventually, I broke down and moved back to Washington. I was 23, and I felt very strongly that God had forced me out of Vegas. Yet I still refused to surrender to him. The major transformation finally occurred about a year later. Seriously major. Two days after my Kent experience, I drove up to my parents’ house to publicly give my life to God. It happened to be New Year’s Eve, 2005. That night at the party, you wouldn’t believe the reactions I got when my old friends asked what was new with me.

I got baptized at Mars Hill (crying, of course…I’ve come to accept that), I became a member, and now I am involved in serving and community groups and the whole nine yards. And all the “exciting” and “fun” stuff that I put in front of Jesus seems so unimportant that it is almost comical. I guess I just had to go through a few things to learn that first hand.

I love Jesus dearly, and I owe him so much. I feel like I am making up for lost time, and I can’t help but marvel and repeatedly thank God for the protection placed on me and the patience he had in pursuing me as I chose to run to my death. I now know first hand that there is absolutely no lasting joy in anything other than Jesus. Period.

This month, most of our campuses organized a seasonal community service effort (Downtown’s coat drive, for example). Here is an update from around the Mars Hill community…

West Seattle

Twenty-six families and community groups participated in Mars Hill West Seattle’s seasonal Adopt-a-Family campaign to provide gifts and necessities for families in need. Nineteen families were adopted for a total of 77 people who were directly impacted by this program.

Lake City

In addition to a regional Adopt-A-Family program, some of Mars Hill Lake City’s community groups banded together to serve at North Helpline to help distribute food during the holidays. The campus has also organized a food drive (through New Year’s Eve) to benefit the local food bank. Finally, Lake City donated items for Child Play’s Silent Auction, contributing to an incredible effort led by local gamer celebrities Penny Arcade that raised over $200,000 for Children’s Hospital.

Shoreline

Mars Hill Shoreline helped fill all of the needs on Richmond Beach Rehab’s annual “giving tree.” Also, after two dedicated members at the campus lost their jobs, various community groups chipped in–with no prompting by Mars Hill staff–to ensure that these families had a great Christmas. Here’s a letter from one of the families:

We would like to thank everyone for the gifts you have given to our family during this season. We are looking forward to an enjoyable Christmas, because of your generosity. God has done far and above what we could have ever imagined, to provide for our family. His grace towards us has been amazing.

That’s just a small taste of the many incredible things Jesus is doing through his people at the Shoreline campus. Read a few more stories over on the Mars Hill Shoreline website.

Here’s to some “healthy competition” between all of our campuses in the New Year…

Christmas Eve services this evening in Ballard, Downtown, Shoreline, West Seattle, and Lake City.

On Sunday, we concluded our two-week series, Generous. We studied two chapters in 2 Corinthians, gave an exhaustive year-end explanation of where we’re at as a church, and learned some valuable lessons along the way (if you were among the many who couldn’t make it out due to the snow, the sermon is now posted online).

Once again I joined Pastor Mark (and Pastor Tim Beltz) on stage at the end of the sermon to explain some family business, including the state of our finances. We’re planning on scaling back in ‘09 (see below), but in the meantime we’re still praying for the $530,000 we need to finish the year on budget. If you’d like to make a year-end gift to help the cause, please visit our secure giving website.

Last week I summarized Four Big Questions about Mars Hill and Money. To cap off the Generous series, I’d like to add three more questions to the list:

How do we ensure godly stewardship of money at Mars Hill?

• Financial Controls. From the Sunday giving to the annual budget, multiple checks and balances at every turn serve to maintain our financial integrity.
• Salary Determinations. We use outside data to establish an objective pay scale that ensures everyone receives fair and reasonable compensation. Nobody at Mars Hill sets their own salary, and the salaries of the executive elders are determined by the audit committee of the Board of Directors of Mars Hill Church.
• Annual External Audit. Every year we voluntarily undergo an organization-wide audit by third-party CPAs. And every year thus far we have received a sterling report.
• Staff/Attendance Ratio. We operate with a lower-than-average overhead. The national church average is one staff per every 45 members of the congregation. The ratio at Mars Hill is about 1:85. This means that our staff works really hard, and we’re reliant on many faithful volunteers.

What are we doing with proceeds form the sale of The City?

Last month, we were excited to announce that Zondervan purchased The City. Specifically, here’s how we will be using The City funds, which total $4 million:

• Escrow & potential taxes = $1.6 million. At this time we do not know for certain how much (if any) of the proceeds will be taxable. Therefore, we’re saving a large portion of the money to guard against any unexpected fees.
• Cash reserves for safety = $800,000. Giving fluctuates throughout the year, which is to be expected. We don’t want seasonal dips in giving to inhibit our ministry, however, so our plan is to increase our cash reserves to over $1 million to increase stability within the church.
• Shoreline Campus building fund = $500,000. The Shoreline Campus has been operating out of a rented facility since its launch in January 2006, and is now in need of a more permanent location. These funds will be a lead gift to the Shoreline Campus building as further funds are raised and a new location is sought.
• Ministry, technology, and capital needs = $500,000. There are various crucial projects that we have delayed but are now able to fund. These include replacing some outdated pieces of technical gear, improving our satellite reliability, and increasing some staff office space.
• Church & campus planning = $400,000. We want to start a lot of new campuses and plant a lot of new churches. In order to accomplish this goal, we need to build up our leadership training infrastructure.
• Generous campaign = $200,000. Pastor Mark debuted the Generous Campaign a few days ago here on this blog. With $200,000 from the sale of The City, we’ll be providing small grants for community groups and campuses to serve their neighborhoods and meet needs within the community. More details to come soon.

What is our economic plan for 2009?

• Praying to finish 2008 on budget. This month’s crazy weather makes this a particularly difficult goal, but we’re asking you to join us in prayer that 2008 finishes strong: $530,000 in one week. You can help.
• Reducing budget and scaling back. While cuts are taking place across the organization, the Ballard campus, with its large deficit, will bear the brunt. Last week, six staff members at the campus lost their jobs, and a few more were transitioned to other parts of the organization. Please pray for Pastor Bubba and the rest of Ballard’s remaining staff, who will assume the extra work without replacing any of the lost positions.
• Budgeted giving = $210,000/week. In order to live within our means, we are reducing our fiscal year budget to match recent giving trends. This giving target will require the church to operate with a very lean staff and budget.
• Continue to fund church planting and Vision Nationals. As a church, we always have and always will give away a portion of our money to help start new churches and to help fund faithful ministries such as Vision Nationals (an orphanage, school, and seminary in India).

For a more detailed explanation of money at Mars Hill Church, please download this month’s Stewardship Update.

Join us as we’re trying to get as many Christ-centered resources as possible into the hands of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Details on the Resurgence blog.

Note: This blog is not edited as everyone is on vacation and Pastor Mark had a few final thoughts before watching the Unit, eating chips and salsa, and passing out after the last day in a long and weary year so please forgive the poor grammar and punctuation.

After more than 12 years at Mars Hill I have found days like today are great learning opportunities and I want to share them with you before I log off and start to focus on the holidays:

1. We learn who sees Mars Hill as a calling and who sees it as a job.

Those who see it as a job are the first to call in and cancel their duties, not show up, dog it, or leave early. Those who see their service at Mars Hill as a calling go beyond the call of duty to cover for everyone else. Today, for example, we had a staff guy walk a few miles to work in the snow as his car was totaled by a drunk driver. We also had a volunteer catch a ride many miles in to serve the evening services and worked both evening services even though he had no way home and was just trusting that God would allow him to catch a ride with someone.

2. We learn about our own heart.

If we are depressed, complaining, or secretly wishing we could be home there is something wrong with us. Days like today are opportunities for us to love our volunteers, pour extra appreciation on those who come, and make sure that we do not neglect those who join us. Charles Spurgeon once said that when you pay attention to the seat that is empty, you are paying a disservice to the one that is filled. This fall we got as high as nearly 8000 people. But, today we dropped down to a few thousand for the worst snow and ice I have ever seen in Seattle. But, we were still statistically a mega-church today (around 2000 people) which only roughly 1500 churches in America are. Of that, about 2/3 of the attendance was at the video campuses and I spoke live to the campus with the greatest percentage decline. The total attendance at Ballard where I preach live was…666 people of all things. I preached to 80 people at the first service in a room that seats 1300, and the best attended of the four services today was about 250 people. But, those are people who Jesus loves and our attitude toward them says a lot about us. Even if there is one person, that one person is someone God has brought for us to minister to and if they are willing to come we must be willing to love them with Jesus love. I walked the floor acting as a greeter today, thanking the volunteers, and one kind woman asked me if days like this bummed me out. I said no and explained that I can still remember the days when even having 80 people at one service would have been a huge win. When you’ve pastored a church from your living room onward you learn that your job is to love everyone that God brings and search your heart if you cannot do so wholeheartedly because the attendance is not high enough for you to feel that so few people are worth your time even though Jesus considered them worthy of dying for. So, on days like this I try to get up early, have four contingency plans to get to work, work hard all day, and pray the Psalmists plea for God to search my heart. I know this can sound proud. I’ve failed at this for years. And, more and more this is a lesson God is teaching me. As I learn it bit by bit, I love our people more and appreciate that I get to pastor anyone.

#3. We learn about the deep love some people have for our church.

Today I met, for example, a couple who drive in nearly every week from over three hours away and they left very early in the morning before the sun was up to be at the morning service. Last week I met a couple that is from Virginia and listens online. They were coming to Portland for a Christmas break with their extended family and they so wanted to attend Mars Hill that they braved the snow and drove from Portland even though the wife was pregnant. On a good day it takes about three hours to make this trip and my guess is that it took them maybe 10-12 hours round trip to attend one Mars Hill service as they drove in, worshiped with us, and drove out. The commitment of some people is completely humbling and noble. The fact that they love Mars Hill is infectious and encourages me. Even if there are 80 instead of 1300 in a service, if they are 80 people who want to love and worship Jesus and are willing to do whatever it takes to get to church then those people are the hardcore of the hardcore and from what I heard they out sang crowds ten times their size because they were determined to fill the room with worship to Jesus.

On the worst days, we learn the best lessons. So, they are often the best days.

So, I want to thank Jesus for giving my saving my last Sunday in the pulpit for 2008 on the lowest attended day we have had in many many years. And, I want to thank the hardcore of the hardcore who made it to church, some even on sleds, and on snow shoes. You all were inspiring. I learned a lot, which made it one of the best days all year.

Attention Mars Hill,

All Mars Hill services will remain open during this inclement weather.

Please make wise driving decisions, and keep the safety of others in mind. Any new information will be posted here.

Click here for locations and services