Future Ministry Direction
Posted by tom | May 15, 2006Dear Family and Friends,
Our first decade with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (IVCF) has been a great joy. By God's grace, we can testify to seeing Students and faculty transformed. Campuses renewed. World changers developed. As our next step in ministry, IVCF has asked us to become catalysts for the further development of workshop and networking models for faculty ministry in the Mid-Atlantic area. We are enthusiastic about this opportunity to use our gifts and experience to inspire and equip faculty to engage the whole campus with the whole Gospel through their whole lives . . .
As part of this new assignment, we will be relocating closer to family to receive support for Eden's care as Tom focuses time on an itinerant pioneering ministry, which will serve both the Lancaster County, PA, and Pittsburgh areas. For us, returning home evokes memories of idyllic rolling countryside and quaint Amish farms. Since farming is so central to the identity of Lancaster County, we have adopted the theme of barn-raising to represent our transition.
A barn-raising is an event in which a community (men, women, and children) come together to assemble and erect a barn benefiting a family in that community. It is an event that is not possible without the cooperation, planning, and hard work of everyone involved. In a similar manner, this new phase in ministry is not possible without a tremendous amount of support from you, our community. We need a foundation of prayer, tools of your knowledge and expertise, and walls of financial, emotional, and practical support.
As such, we would ask you to prayerfully consider:
1. a one-time gift to enable us to once again finish in the black. Through May 12, we have received $65,595 toward a June 30th end of fiscal year budget of $82,048. Note: To support this strategic ministry send a check made out to "InterVarsity Christian Fellowship" P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895. Please enclose a separate piece of paper indicating that the gift is for the work of "Tom Grosh." On-line giving can be found at http://www.ivcf.org/donate.
2. a commitment to smooth our ministry transition. With the various costs involved in the move, the new approach to ministry, and annual fluctuations in our support base, we anticipate an additional financial need of somewhere between $10,000-15,000 to enable us to reach next year's ministry budget of $85,000.
3. hosting a small social with a group of your friends to introduce us to others who might have interest in supporting our work.
4. sharing our vision with your local pastor and/or missions committee to explore the possibility of having us work alongside your local congregation in shared Kingdom ministry.
To learn more about the transition, please keep checking back here for updates (note: some specifics have begun to be posted at partner in ministry updates -- keep clicking on the pieces of interest for enlargement -- and this will continue to be a location for updates in the coming months), drop us an email, or give us a call. We would love to share more about this new opportunity for ministry with you and we have lots to say about the new modular home going up next to Theresa's parents, when we finally get through the building permit process.
Christ compels,
Tom and Theresa
PS. to our friends in Western PA. Even though you haven’t seen the last of us, we want to share with you how much we have appreciated your hospitality and care for our family. So please join us on Sunday, July 9, 2-4pm for a Send-off Party at the Schenley Park Ice Rink Party Room. RSVP to grosh at groshlink dot net
