Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon
Earlier this month, Mount Pleasant Christian Church, Greenwood, Ind., surpassed $1 million in giving through its Change for a Dollar program, which was started in July 2015 and thus far has helped 250 individuals and families.
The fund was created after pastor Chris Philbeck asked attendees to give an extra $1 weekly to help people in need.
“It’s powerful, because it’s just such a simple formula,” Philbeck told the Daily Journal. “One dollar alone doesn’t go very far, but all together, it can be a big deal.”
The ministry “allows ANYONE from ANYWHERE to nominate ANYONE that they believe could benefit from financial help and lots of prayer support,” according to the church’s website.
The church has used the fund for such things as helping purchase handicap-accessible vehicles and motorized wheelchairs for people, building wheelchair ramps, and paying for mortgage, medical, and other bills.
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News Briefs
Lincoln Christian University announced an agreement with Lincoln College that will enable students to pursue degree programs in five new areas: criminal justice, exercise science, conservation biology, jazz studies, and theatre. Students who enroll at LCU and wish to study in one of these fields will earn an associate’s degree in either Bible or science from LCU, then a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln College in their chosen major.
“Both institutions have existed in close proximity to each other for seventy-five years and have worked together in various ways in the past,” LCU vice president of academics Frank Dicken said.
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What is your church doing to make the celebration of Easter extra-special this year, in spite of the coronavirus? How is your church adapting and/or reinventing your original Easter plans? Drop us a line at [email protected], and we might contact you for additional information.
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Matt Giebler, senior minister at Greenwood (Ind.) Christian Church, gave some hard data about the response to his church’s online-only worship services.
The pastor told the Daily Journal his church normally has 180 unique devices log onto its livestream channel. That number jumped to 1,300 after in-person worship services were canceled before the March 14-15 weekend.
“We were blown away by the overall device log-ins,” Giebler said. “We had more devices log in than we’d usually have worshippers in attendance. . . . And since people were watching with a spouse or a family [or] small groups, . . . we would guess we had a substantially larger audience than we normally would.”
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The Taylor family is at it again. Last week we featured an item on the family—Chris and J.J. Taylor and their four children—for their song “COVID-19” (a spoof of “Come On Eileen”). Well, now they have recorded and released via YouTube and Facebook the song “Say Hello” (a send-up of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”). Fox19 News did a story on the family early this week. The Taylors are members of Lifespring Christian Church in Cincinnati.
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The Spire Network encourages people to join SpireApp.Network—”A Network of Solutions in a Time of Crisis.” It provides a means of coming together to share resources, ideas, and messaging . . . and to learn from what others are doing.
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Numerous online resources are popping up to help churches cope with coronavirus. One which was recommended to us is “The Ultimate Coronavirus Guide for Churches,” by Church Marketing University.
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Send news to [email protected].
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