BCC Update

I shared an update Sunday on our giving toward the "Branching Out Campaign" for our children's wing. If you missed it, we now have well over $300,000 in the bank with over $500,000 pledged over the next three years, with a total of $804,509. Praise the Lord!
I also shared some attendance numbers that help explain the need to continue to expand our facilities. Our average Sunday attendance year-to-date in 2023 was 306. However, in 2024 year-to-date, our average attendance has grown by nearly 20%: 369! While this is not the largest we have ever been, I believe it may be one of the fastest periods of growth we have ever seen. This growth is reflected in the children's area, as well. Our Sunday preschool number has gone from 7 last year to 11 this year, and the K-4 Children's Church has gone from 26 to 34!

I share this with you to both celebrate what God is doing, as well as to convey the rationale for a new children's wing. At Bailey, we are committed to reaching the next generation for Christ. Thank you for the part you play in helping us do that!

We always have to keep in mind, though, that numbers are not everything. Having more people show up to our building on Sundays or Wednesdays is no guarantee that lives are changed. However, numbers represent individual lives. Each life matters to God, and we want every single one who attends--both young and old alike--to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and a growing relationship with him. For this to happen, it requires more than showing up on a Sunday. It involves seeking to live daily for him, doing life with other Christians, praying, studying God's word, and serving one another.

As a result, we try to count numbers other than just attendance and giving. The old metrics for a "healthy" church tended to involve counting "nickles and noses." That is, how much was offered, and how many people showed up? For a church to truly transform and be a faithful witness in our community, we must each grow to look more like Jesus not only while we are in the church building, but at home, at school, at work, and when no one else is looking. Those are the marks of a healthy church!

Of course, those numbers are harder to "count." However, if each of us continues to strive--and encourage each other to strive--to become more like Jesus, eventually it will show in our marriages, in the breakroom at work, in our language at ball games, in our attitudes toward our enemies, etc. As this type of growth continues to take place, it will be seen and felt in the community around us, and BCC will shine like the lighthouse of hope God intends us to be!