In need of prayers and advice

I joined in a new church plant a year ago and it has been a real struggle. My Pastor has been in ministry for 14 years and this is his second church plant, but this is all new to me.

We started Crossroads Fellowship 1 year ago , go here for details about us http://www.crossroadsfc.net . We adopted the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as our doctrinal stance. We don't have Baptist in the name because at first we were going to be non denominational but when it came down to it, we were Baptists so we went with it. But that was 6 months down the road and too late to change the paperwork :laugh:.

We started off meeting in the Pastors house in a converted basement and gaining new members is a slow and painful process. We started renting an empty church building 3 months ago and that helped out a lot. We are currently at about 30 people or so.

We borrowed a projector from the Big Emory assoc for a bit, but it died after the first service and now we are using a members 42 inch TV for a screen.

We are finally launching programs and classes, one of which I teach.

The things we need prayers and advice on are:

1. Most of us are multi-role and are in danger of burnout sometimes. Like I am a class teacher, Youth Pastor, Multimedia/video/music, Trustee and Church leadership, building committee / maintenance. Sometimes tensions get high. We are in desperate need of everyone's prayers on this.

2. Membership / Attendance : Low numbers can be discouraging to people. Granted those who we have reached, we made a real impact on them. To see someone lead to Christ is a great feeling. Like #1 states though, some of us are really worked hard and we need more people to spread the workload. "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" This quote rings so true to me now more than ever. We really really need prayers that God will bring more in to help us.

3. Money: Since we are few and we give as best we can but its not quite enough. We can pay the bills and the Pastor, but there is nothing left each month. I'm hoping more people will help with this. At this point all ministry expense is out of pocket for us. Anything I want for my class, I buy. We are in process of membership into the Tennessee Baptist convention and the Southern Baptist convention but any help there isn't going to be speedy if at all. Are there any financial programs we can get into?


Ok, I'm going to stop ranting now :laugh: I wouldn't give up the past year for anything. But we really need prayers and advice.

 

His position isn't full time right now. The sad part is, 90% of his pay goes back into his offering/tithe. So he pockets very little. Maybe $100 a month on a good month.

A few months ago we were talking and he feels like he is to blame that we didn't take a direction sooner. But then again, the first 8 months or so was all about training up the current members at the time.

We had a full house at our first homecoming service last Sunday, which was a huge boost to our spirits. We may have gained a few more families in the process.