Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have come to that time of year for our annual church commitment campaign and sermon series. This year our series is called “One Step Closer”. During this series we will be looking at each of our Connection Points and asking the question, “what is one step I can take to get closer to what God envisions for me?” We are not asking ourselves this question but instead making this a prayerful question to God. During this stewardship season we are seeking God to direct our steps and trusting the Holy Spirit to equip our way forward.
Central has six different Connection Points that are ways we seek to connect to God and grow in our faith. We believe if we are intentional about each of these Connection Points, we will experience God move in our lives. I consider these Connection Points as a path to developing a mature faith where we experience the joy, peace and goodness of God in deep transformational ways. Our stewardship season in the church is about being transformed by our relationship with Jesus Christ. The goal of the series is to think intentionally about leaning into Christ and our Connection Points help us do that.
Connection Points
Grow Deeply
Worship Fully
Love Unconditionally
Share Passionately
Build Community
Give Freely
I shared a passage on our first stewardship sermon from a letter from James in the New Testament. James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” As I said on October 19th the idea here is that when we take a step closer to God we discover He is already close and ready to do a good work in our lives. It is my prayer for you that during this series you will draw near to God and discover His presence, plan, and vision for you in a whole new way.
I want to highlight two dates for you during the Stewardship Season of our church. The first is November 9, which will be our Connection Fair. This will be a time where we feature the many ways you can connect to this community of faith. Each way to connect is an opportunity to not only serve but to ultimately walk closer to God by allowing Him to use how He has made you. Enclosed in this mailing is a 2026 Ministry Opportunities brochure asking how you plan to participate in Jesus’ call in the coming year. Please take time to pray about how God is leading you to serve and connect to the Central family in 2026.
Next, I want to invite you to be a part of our Commitment Sunday on November 16th. In each of the services we will be talking about our commitments and turning in the enclosed 2026 Ministry Opportunities brochure as well as the 2026 Giving Commitment Card. We need to grow our budget so that we can expand our ministries and continue to pay down our existing capital debt which we have now rolled into the general budget.
In May 2023 we celebrated the end of our 9th consecutive capital campaign “What If”. This campaign started in 2019 with the goal to significantly reduce our building loan debt of $4.1 million over 4 years. If we were close enough to our fundraising goal of $3 million, we hoped to roll our remaining debt payments into our operating budget and finish our 25+ years of capital campaigns. Since July of 2023 the remaining debt has been in our budget and has been getting lower. This past September we announced that we had received several substantial donations that reduced our current debt to under $370,000. This is an amazing blessing for the church as we are close to experiencing the dreams of the “What If” debt reduction campaign when we asked ourselves, “what if we had zero debt?” What could we do then? We are almost there and I thank you as a member of Central Rogers for your generosity and prayers. Most of all I give praise to our Lord who has blessed us in incredible ways.
Thank you for supporting Central Rogers. I am truly blessed to be a part of this dynamic and faithful formative community. I am excited to see what the Lord does in and through this church in 2026. Prayerfully consider how the Lord is calling you to take one step closer in witness, missions, growing in faith, worship, being a part of the community, and giving financially. Each step supports the church and allows God the opportunity to work in your life drawing you closer in relationship. Please pray for Central during this series and season and plan to be with us on November 16th for the big day and make sure to join us for a churchwide lunch at 11:30! We will enjoy great fellowship and food provided by Golden Corral. Thank you again for all you do to connect people to Jesus Christ in Northwest Arkansas and beyond!
And never forget, You Matter to God!
Rev. Rob Holifield
Sr. Pastor
Central Rogers United Methodist Church
