My hopes and dreams for 2020…

This is the month of new beginnings!  It is also the month which we celebrate that lauded humanitarian, visionary, and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  So in that spirit, I wanted to share with you my hopes and dreams for our church in the year 2020.  

• Increase in outreach – The mission of every church is to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  And our church vision which we crafted together of “Transforming Lives Through Christ’s Love” is part of that mission.  To do that, we need to reach out into the community more often and in new and different ways.  It will mean embracing our community and its people with love and kindness, celebrating their differences and realizing they have something of value to contribute to God’s work in this place.  

• Less dependence on fund raising – My hope is that our long term goal (over the next five years) will be to become less and less dependent on fundraising and instead use those donations to do outreach, fund mission work, donate to disaster relief, help the homeless in Berkeley, offer vaccinations to children internationally, fund microbusinesses in developing countries to make them self-sustaining, or any other projects we can dream of!  Let’s raise funds not to turn the lights on, but to turn on the world to the love of Christ!
  
• More active stewardship – Part of our calling as disciples of Christ is to be good stewards of the gifts we have been given.  But stewardship is more than just saving money or going to the dollar store.  It’s about our intentional drive toward making this a world that knows God and loves God.  How we spend our money is only one small aspect of stewardship.  Stewardship is an overall strategy about how best to use our gifts and resources to accomplish God’s work in the world.  How do we grow new disciples for Christ?  How do we deepen our own faith?  These are the types of questions we ask as we discern what to do with our gifts and graces and hopefully, we’ll explore that more together this year.

Which of these most resonate with you?  Which ones would you be willing to pour your heart and soul into to make BMUC reach more people with the love of Christ in 2020?  Share your thoughts with me and together let’s make our hopes and dreams come true.  May the New Year be filled with God’s blessings on you and your family.

Peace in Christ,

Craig

Come Out and Root for Our Basketball Teams!

Basketball season has begun!!!  BMU is featuring two teams again this year.   One with high school boys and the other with an all 8th grade team.  Both teams are playing in two leagues this year, with EBYAL games played on Saturday and ACBA games played on Sundays.  League play will go til mid-February, followed by playoffs and tournaments.   If you’d like a schedule to root for these basketball teams, contact Jaime Fukumae at bmuchurch@gmail.com for a copy of the schedule.