We've reached 50K!

Twelve years ago, I did one of those foolish things that people do when they have too much free time and not enough common sense:  I trained 10 hours a week and ran the St. Jude Marathon.  I was very intentional and methodical about my training which meant that when race day came, my friends knew what I was doing, my family was there to cheer me on, and the race was much easier than the work to get there.  A few years later, when living in Alexandria, Virginia, I remembered the ease of running that marathon while forgetting just how difficult the training was, and I signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon.  I wasn’t very methodical, but I finished.  It just sort of happened.  It was painful.  No one was paying any attention, not that it really mattered.   

That is the best metaphor I could come up with for our Pew to 50K challenge.  It has just sort of happened.  Last year, our Pew to 10K challenge to understand our outreach relationships and the larger impact of our church in the community was methodical, well-advertised, and when we crossed the finish line, our whole community was there to celebrate.  For me, and I suspect many others, recognizing that we touched at least 250 different organizations and interests in living out our Christian mission was a powerful testament to our church and her larger impact.  

 So, this year, when we stepped up the challenge and added worship and prayer to the mix and asked our congregation to commit to 50,000 hours of intentional Christian growth, I was excited and hopeful.  And maybe because we simultaneously launched a Capital Funds Drive, which we successfully completed in less than three months raising almost $900,000, I think we all stopped paying attention to how we were counting our growth as faithful individuals.   

But our staff has been logging the hours that each of you have been spending in programing through Saint Stephen’s activities.  And together, we have just crossed the 50,000-hour mark.  And a few of you have been sharing how you have been growing and serving on your own.  There wasn’t a lot of fanfare or a big finish line, but we should stop and pause and marvel for a moment at just how remarkable this is.  We did it!  Not very methodically or intentionally (in the counting), but nonetheless, it is a huge testament to the commitment of our community to grow in our walk with our Lord.  If you would like to know how the hours were counted, here is a more in-depth report.   

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  • 16,137 hours spent in worship on Sundays

  • 2,973 hours spent in worship services outside of Sundays 

  • 2,118 hours shared in prayer 

  • 7,859 hours of service through outreach projects

  • 15,352 hours in formation programs or study 

  • 5,579 hours spent in our weekly programming activities (included in formation hours)

  • 368 people worshiping on average on Sundays

Well done Saint Stephen’s!

John+

Stasi Bara