In 2008, the First MB Church family rallied around a vision that God had greater things in store for Wichita. As we continued to grow, we wanted to ensure we had appropriate space and facilities to welcome new people from our community searching for the hope of Jesus.

By God’s grace, we now meet in a beautiful new Worship Center. While we love our new space, we will always be more interested in the people’s lives who are changed here. This campaign has always been an extension of our purpose to lead as many people as possible into a growing relationship with Christ.

As we wrap up our Greater Things campaign in March, we want to finish what we started. This booklet exists to give you an update on our financial situation and inform you on your options to contribute.

We believe God has great things in store for us, and we hope you’ll prayerfully considering joining us.

Brent Warkentin | Lead Pastor

WE BELIEVEGOD HAD A PLAN

FEBRUARY 2009 MARCH 2010OCTOBER 2008

Worship Center Complete Greater Things BeginsThe new Worship Center, along with new hallways, restrooms, and lobbies, is completed. The dedication service was March 3.

The second three-year financial campaign began in 2012 with the goal of completing all of our payments by March 2015.

JANUARY 2012

Harvest Project BeginsIn October 2008, we launched the first of two three-year financial campaigns to build and fund the new Worship Center.

GroundbreakingThe groundbreaking ceremony for the new Worship Center occurred on Sunday, February 21, and construction began soon after.

WE BELIEVEGOD IS AT WORK

2013 was a record-breaking year for First MB Church, and 2014 is on pace to be just the same. We continue to see increases in attendance, incredible generosity, and lives changed after encountering Christ.

This Easter we saw our largest attendance ever in our 70+ year history. 1,841 people came to one of our four services.

Since 2007, our average weekly attendance has jumped from 763 to 961 with increases each year.

In 2013, we recorded 34 decisions for Christ, 53 baptisms, and 212 first-time guests.

average weekly attendance from 2007 - 2014

763

786

806

900

939

941

955

961

WE BELIEVEGOD IS BIG $5,203,041

COLLECTED$508,215 PLEDGES OUTSTANDING$1,294,329 SHORTAGE

Our church family has given over $5 million in the last six years to this project alone--and that is above and beyond regular tithes and offerings!

Assuming we will receive gifts for the remaining outstanding pledges, we will still owe just under $1.3 million when the campaign ends in March.

In order to be good stewards of what God has given us, we want to pay off our remaining debt as quickly as we can.

AS OF APRIL 30, 2014

For the latest numbers and updates, log on to firstmbchurch.org/greater-things

$7 MILLION

“ “

-- Romans 13:8

WE BELIEVEGOD WILL PROVIDE

Our church family has a history of being extremely generous. To those who have already been contributing, thank you for your great kindness! To those who may be new to First MB or weren’t able to help before, here’s why this is important:

The Greater Things campaign will end in March 2015 regardless of our balance. Whatever payments we have remaining at that point will be rolled in to our annual budget as we work at paying off the debts in long-term loans. With our current balance, that means we will have to increase our monthly budgets by around $17,500 for the next ten years, which will be a significant addition.

Our goal is to pay off as much as possible by Sunday, October 12 to give us adequate time to plan our 2015 budget.

Write “Greater Things” in the memo line of a check and drop it in the offering bag during the service.

Current monthly budget: $156,925

Monthly budget with estimated loan payments: $174,425

HOW TO HELP:1) Give on a Sunday morning.

Log on to firstmbchurch.org/greater-things to give a gift online. You will need a MyFirstMB account to give, so follow the instructions online if you haven’t set one up yet.

THANK YOU for being a great church family!

2) Give online.

* Estimates based on the 2014 budget

8000 W. 21st St. | Wichita, KS 67205(316) 722-5885 | firstmbchurch.org

real people | real faith | real impact