Year-End Giving
We’re asking you to PRAY about giving to our year-end giving mission! If you’d like to give, click the link above & give to the “Year End Giving” Fund.
A message From Pastor Zack
Looking back, I'm officially deeming 2023 "The year of the long leg of the trip." For the Blair Family, air travel will likely be sparse for as long as the Lord blesses us with 5 kids. But driving to our destinations brings long stretches of difficult driving to and from where we are heading. This year in our church history felt a little like our drive back from vacation this summer — rather than stopping and resting, I decided to drive the entire family another 6 hours to get everyone in their beds a night sooner.
In the same way, Hill City accomplished a few complex tasks in 2023 to land us in a predictable rhythm for 2024…
Gatherings: We doubled our services from meeting every other week to meeting every week. And in doing so, we developed our teams, stretched our resources to their capacity, and created reflexive processes to make up the differences. We moved to a 4D approach in services (Delight, Discover, Discuss, and Deploy), and we're seeing 70% of our church remain for discussion after the message. This shift in our approach to "Church Anywhere" was so important to me as we desire to build a relational, discipleship-oriented church.
Discipleship: We launched a discipleship pathway to take everyone in our church on a journey from coming to Jesus to walking in their purpose. We've created years of content, but even better than the content is what has been taking place in the lives of those engaged.
Digital Ministry: Interestingly, focusing on online gatherings has allowed more connection each week and brought in more guests than we have seen in the last few years. Out of the many guests we have had in 2023, I've only spoken with two who did not join us online first. As I write this, I just received note that a woman who has joined us online since the pandemic will be with us at Carlynton Sunday for the first time.
Next Gen: Our kids ministry has expanded, which is excellent news for the future. Not only did we increase our teams and engagement, but the overall excitement in kids is at an all-time high -- you can feel the momentum. Even more, our youth team has also developed a thriving relational culture in our youth ministry that meets at HQ.
Missions: Next, we have begun refocusing our efforts on missions. When we started the church, we did so with a mission trip. Over the past couple of years, we had to focus on rebuilding, which meant we had to eliminate great things from our calendar. This upcoming year, we are offering three trips. Back at it!
Building Project: We're on the verge of receiving the necessary variance from the municipality that will give us the greenlight to be able to build. We've done some initial research on designing a capital campaign and we completed the early site engineering. At the same time, we await what we anticipate to be our final architectural designs, which are due to hit my inbox by the end of the week!
And through your giving, you have been a part of every win within these key areas. Each gift represents your hard work, sacrifice, and belief in our vision and mission. I pray as you give, you never feel manipulated or coerced to do so but are genuinely led further into the heart of the Father to do what He is calling you to do.
This year, year-end contributions will go directly toward helping our staff, covering rent for HQ and Carlynton, and opening a new storehouse for the Mission Co…
Helping Our Staff: Without a sense of economic predictability, we have not provided raises for our staff, but we have instead provided cost-of-living bonuses as we have been able. Many of the staff have a "side hustle" to help make ends meet, and they have all felt the pains of inflation, just like you and I have. Paul wrote to Timothy along these lines in 1 Timothy 5:18, saying, "For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and "The laborer is worthy of his wages." I must communicate that I do not directly benefit from this initiative as our elders and apostolic overseers determine my salary.
Covering Rent: Next, we need to recover from a $24k deficit for rent at Carlynton and HQ. We do good deals and always do the math. However, this year, we have seen a $28k decrease in overall donations compared to last year. We are asking God to help us make up the difference so we can use our savings for our quickly-approaching land development costs.
Mission Co: Finally, I believe in what Mike and Ari are doing at the Mission Co. Mike recently had an opportunity for space open up in Sewickley, allowing Mission Co to get food to more areas with food insecurity. Mission Co has taken over a million pounds of food to these areas over the past couple of years. Most importantly, each time someone receives a meal, they also hear the gospel. I'm proud of our friend for his efforts, and we want to see more people reached through his mission. Our donations will help purchase a forklift, refrigerators, and necessary materials to store and transport more food to these areas to reach more for Christ.
This year, we are asking God for $50k extra to see these initiatives come to pass. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer and giving as we point people to Jesus and purpose by awakening our city to the goodness of God together! I'm not asking you to do the math; I'm simply asking you to do what God leads you to do as we close out the year in faith for God to do exceedingly more than what we can ask, think, or even imagine.
Thank you, church family. We love you so much!
Kind regards,
Pastor Zack