Pastor Weekly - 3/18/26
Hello ICC Family!
Last Wednesday evening we had a great first session of The Marriage Course. We had a big crowd, and my hope is that we will get even more people to come tonight. Just like for our last discipleship course on prayer… I believe that the Lord can use this topic to bring much healing and growth to ICC. And I am excited to see the Lord bless the individual marriages and future marriages in our congregation as well. The first two lessons in this course cover connection and communication. Our homework assignment consisted of talking about several subjects, including our friendship, communication, physical relationship, and future. It was a challenge and reminder about how it is so important to discuss things with our spouse regularly in order to communicate encouragement and joy, to reminisce about things in the past, as well as tackle more difficult subjects now and then. This is part of the reason that I write this newsletter to you each week. I want you to have a taste of what I am thinking about or learning, and I want to remind you of things that are going on at the church. Even so, I realize that I probably don’t communicate my love for the church often enough. I love ICC. I love our people. I love our history. I love our name. I love our diversity. And I am excited about our future. I love our church!
As Laurel and I were working on our homework we discovered there were a couple of areas in which we had very different perceptions of how we were doing in our marriage! We were totally unaware that we saw things differently, so it was a good opportunity to communicate, which I am sure will lead us to grow even closer in our relationship!
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Going through this communication exercise this week has impressed on me that there is probably an aspect of ICC’s church health that most people are unaware of, and that is all my fault. As your pastor, I have communicated poorly about our church’s finances! This week I realized that most of you probably are unaware that on a month-to-month basis, ICC is not meeting our budget.
Before I go into more detail, let me say there is nothing to be alarmed about at this time. We are not in an emergency or a crisis. The reason being that all of you, under the guidance of Pastor Jimmy, previously built up a good-sized reserve fund. Because of your generosity and faithfulness in the past, at the end of 2022 ICC was able to bring me on as your first, full-time, paid pastor. In addition to that, the reserves were sizable enough that last year the elders decided to spend down a portion of that reserve to make long-term improvements in our facility. We freshened the sanctuary, invested in some tech upgrades, installed a new A/C unit, and made extensive roof repairs.
However, while our financial situation is not an emergency, I do want to clearly communicate that at some point in the next year or two, we will not be able to continue things as we are… unless our current giving levels increase. Last year we failed to meet budget in 10 months out of 12, although our budget was a little higher than this year. Even if our budget had been the current level of $9200/month, we still would not have made budget 6 out of 12 months. As you can see in the stewardship update below, we have missed budget in both January and February to start this year.
With the goal of better communication and clarity about this situation… I am going to start to share our monthly stewardship/financial numbers in this weekly email. That way we all can be thanking the Lord for how He blesses us, and we can be united in prayer about our need. I am also going to try to have printed versions of this email available on a monthly basis for those that don’t read email or enjoy reading on their phones.
Let me reiterate… this isn’t an emergency. I am not worried. I believe that God in his providential care for our church will provide what we need, whether or not that amount is what we hope for. I bring this up because finances are a part of life, and a subject that we need to communicate clearly about - for our long-term spiritual and congregational health. I am certain that God will provide for us as long as we have a purpose in his kingdom. I want us to start making budget not just because I think we need to keep the doors open at all costs. I want us to be financially healthy because that will allow us to do more! Not more just for us, but more for missions, more for our community, more for the lost, and more for the kingdom of God!
If any of you have ideas for how to communicate better about the church’s financial situation, or if you have any questions or concerns about ICC budget or finances, don’t hesitate to email, text, or call me at any time!
Blessings to you all!
And know that I am praying for you!
Pastor Aaron
Last Wednesday evening we had a great first session of The Marriage Course. We had a big crowd, and my hope is that we will get even more people to come tonight. Just like for our last discipleship course on prayer… I believe that the Lord can use this topic to bring much healing and growth to ICC. And I am excited to see the Lord bless the individual marriages and future marriages in our congregation as well. The first two lessons in this course cover connection and communication. Our homework assignment consisted of talking about several subjects, including our friendship, communication, physical relationship, and future. It was a challenge and reminder about how it is so important to discuss things with our spouse regularly in order to communicate encouragement and joy, to reminisce about things in the past, as well as tackle more difficult subjects now and then. This is part of the reason that I write this newsletter to you each week. I want you to have a taste of what I am thinking about or learning, and I want to remind you of things that are going on at the church. Even so, I realize that I probably don’t communicate my love for the church often enough. I love ICC. I love our people. I love our history. I love our name. I love our diversity. And I am excited about our future. I love our church!
As Laurel and I were working on our homework we discovered there were a couple of areas in which we had very different perceptions of how we were doing in our marriage! We were totally unaware that we saw things differently, so it was a good opportunity to communicate, which I am sure will lead us to grow even closer in our relationship!
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Going through this communication exercise this week has impressed on me that there is probably an aspect of ICC’s church health that most people are unaware of, and that is all my fault. As your pastor, I have communicated poorly about our church’s finances! This week I realized that most of you probably are unaware that on a month-to-month basis, ICC is not meeting our budget.
Before I go into more detail, let me say there is nothing to be alarmed about at this time. We are not in an emergency or a crisis. The reason being that all of you, under the guidance of Pastor Jimmy, previously built up a good-sized reserve fund. Because of your generosity and faithfulness in the past, at the end of 2022 ICC was able to bring me on as your first, full-time, paid pastor. In addition to that, the reserves were sizable enough that last year the elders decided to spend down a portion of that reserve to make long-term improvements in our facility. We freshened the sanctuary, invested in some tech upgrades, installed a new A/C unit, and made extensive roof repairs.
However, while our financial situation is not an emergency, I do want to clearly communicate that at some point in the next year or two, we will not be able to continue things as we are… unless our current giving levels increase. Last year we failed to meet budget in 10 months out of 12, although our budget was a little higher than this year. Even if our budget had been the current level of $9200/month, we still would not have made budget 6 out of 12 months. As you can see in the stewardship update below, we have missed budget in both January and February to start this year.
With the goal of better communication and clarity about this situation… I am going to start to share our monthly stewardship/financial numbers in this weekly email. That way we all can be thanking the Lord for how He blesses us, and we can be united in prayer about our need. I am also going to try to have printed versions of this email available on a monthly basis for those that don’t read email or enjoy reading on their phones.
Let me reiterate… this isn’t an emergency. I am not worried. I believe that God in his providential care for our church will provide what we need, whether or not that amount is what we hope for. I bring this up because finances are a part of life, and a subject that we need to communicate clearly about - for our long-term spiritual and congregational health. I am certain that God will provide for us as long as we have a purpose in his kingdom. I want us to start making budget not just because I think we need to keep the doors open at all costs. I want us to be financially healthy because that will allow us to do more! Not more just for us, but more for missions, more for our community, more for the lost, and more for the kingdom of God!
If any of you have ideas for how to communicate better about the church’s financial situation, or if you have any questions or concerns about ICC budget or finances, don’t hesitate to email, text, or call me at any time!
Blessings to you all!
And know that I am praying for you!
Pastor Aaron
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