I am so humbled and honored to be your pastor and I am extremely grateful to be working alongside so many of you who faithfully serve the Lord at Idlewild. It has been my joy for 29 years now -—time has flown by, but we have seen God move exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
Once again, we have an opportunity to see our church go to a new level. With great anticipation, I cannot wait to share with you an initiative we are calling, “Accelerate.”
You will hear information coming out over the coming weeks and months about our desire to aggressively retire our mortgage debt. Can you believe we are so close? After a $100M project to the glory of God, we have only 14% of that left to pay down. Not only will it be a wonderful victory to burn the mortgage papers, but there is something even more special than that.
For years, I have continued to imagine and dream in my heart about the many open doors of opportunity we have to reach anyone and everyone for Christ. In fact, our mission is “Giving ourselves daily to help each ONE live in the rescuing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” We have been working hard on plans to re-invest the money we were giving to mortgage payments to Accelerate living out our mission! Imagine new churches starting and new ministries thriving and the under-served in our community being served even more effectively. Who knows what God will do through us in just the next few years?
So, please be praying around your involvement, attend worship, and come to meetings regarding our Accelerate Capital Stewardship Program, and. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Let’s do this together!
Pastor Ken Whitten