Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! As we begin the new year of 2012 it comes at the end of a year of tremendous blessing. Praise God, we were able to see the completion of a vision by the faithful contributions and commitments of so many. That blessing has an upside and a downside. Alongside the weight of paying off the debt to build the facilities at Wild Flower has been the struggle to provide for the operating budget for the work of ministry here. I understand that it has been a real struggle at times to pay the Pastor as well as the multitude of other bills that always seem to be pressing.

   The fundraising tradition at Wild Flower has not included the pledging and financial emphasis in the fall that is a part of the church year in many congregations. The only problem with that is that sometimes members may lose sight of the need for giving to the ministry needs of the church as the bills keep coming in. I would like to encourage each member of the Wild Flower church family to consider the amount of weekly, monthly, and annual giving to the church, and prayerfully consider if you can increase each of those amounts. Do you believe in the ministries of our congregation? Do we make a difference in people's lives? Does our church matter in your life?

   The answer is, "Yes!" and I pray that it is, then I am asking that you make a commitment to supply the financial need of our church each week- both when you can be here, as well as the times you are unable to attend. The easiest way would be to set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account, another possibility is to double up and add the offerings together the next week in church.

   Another commitment I would ask you to consider as we look at a new year ahead of us is a commitment of your presence. How has your worship attendance been lately? I would offer a challenge that you make a New Year's resolution to be in worship every Sunday, or to be in worship more frequently than you are now. Make a promise to God to make it to church and worship to give glory to God.

   Last week my laptop computer died. The hard drive closed down and quit working. On the one hand I haven't lost much since I have a maintenance agreement that will replace the no longer functioning hard drive. The more I think about it, the more I realize the greater extent of my loss. I started out by having to redo the work I had done while on vacation. I had to re-write bulletin information and sermon plans for the services last week. I am rewriting this submission (and it is coming out quite differently), and will have to start from scratch again to put thoughts together for the annual report, and go back to redo the worship plans I had prepared for the next few months when I find time. 

   The much bigger problem is that the things I have saved on my laptop over the past three months. You see, that was the last time I saved the information on a secondary location (a backup). I have a bit of sorrow over the information that I had saved for future use that is gone forever, but it makes me think about people in our community who are lost. Many are not even aware of what they are missing. Others may think they are fine, considering themselves religious, although they may have fallen out of the habit of attending worship years ago. I am afraid that many who thought they had everything under control will discover, as I did with my computer, that their faith was misplaced.

   We recognize that it has truly been the blessings of the Lord that has brought us thus far at Wild Flower, but I think we need to revive the vision to reach out into the community that surrounds us. If we can gain a unified vision, I believe that we will find the keys to making greater outreach happen and our church will grow. Please join me to make that vision a focus for our prayers and actions.

   For now, I would like to invite anyone interested in formalizing their relation with Wild Flower by joining the church to contact me as we will offer New Member Classes in January.  May your resolutions for 2012 bring glory to God and blessing to those whose lives you touch.

                                                                                                    Your Servant in Christ,
                                                                                                     Pastor Dave Ullom <*}}}><