November 13th, 1966 was a beautiful day for a month that started and ended with over four inches of snow. It was the day that construction began on the amazing church facilities that we enjoy today. Each stage of building throughout Maranatha’s history has been a time of much prayer and provision that has been called “The Miracle of Maranatha.”
It is impossible to imagine all the prayers, time, work, and money that have been invested in the church campus that we enjoy now. It has been a blessing to several generations, and the ministry of the school is incalculable. However, with the school closing, we now have opportunities to use our facilities for other avenues of Kingdom growth. In the words of our Building Use Policy, “we want to use our property to advance the mission of this congregation, and to be of assistance to others.” We all know our mission:
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age
So as leaders, we are continually praying and considering how we can be godly stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us. Some of the ways that our facilities have been able to bless our community are: the Streams of Water home-school co-op uses them for their ministry, we have local baseball and soccer teams that have been able to use it for practices during the winter, the Board of Elections using them for training and a polling location, the Trabue Woods HOA uses it for their annual meeting, and many of our members use it for a variety of needs and ministries.
Even with all those wonderful uses, we would encourage you to pray with us that God will provide even greater opportunities for our buildings to be used to reach the lost and strengthen the Body of Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to help us all dream big dreams. Our facilities are so fantastic that the possibilities are almost endless.
As God opens new venues to use our facilities to build the Kingdom, we will need your help in several ways. First, we don’t want to exclude our members from using the buildings for their own needs and ministries, so we want to encourage you to be sure to schedule any personal uses as far in advance as possible. You can do that by stopping by the office and filling out a blue card or online with the Building Request Form (https://www.mbccolumbus.org/forms).
Second, we may be asking for volunteers to be available to hang out on campus when groups are here. The goal, of course, is to build relationships with the people in our community and pray that they lead to gospel conversations and lives eternally changed by grace.
Third, be actively praying (maybe on Witnessing Wednesday) that every use of our facility would lead to people growing in their relationship with Christ, that it’s not about buildings but about the Kingdom.
Finally, we recognize that expanding the use of our buildings for Kingdom work may have an impact on your regular, ongoing ministry at Maranatha. If there are any problems or challenges you face, we invite you to let the leaders know.
Thank you for standing with us as we seek to be wise stewards of all that God has entrusted to us as a church and we continue “The Miracle of Maranatha!”
