Churches, like people have personalities. And like getting to know new people, it takes time to get to know a church. We're still very much in the "just getting to know you" phase with the Burleson Church of Christ, but a few personality traits of this congregation are beginning to show. One such trait is generosity. I can honestly say that if I've ever been around a more financially generous body of believers, I wasn't aware of it at the time.
The Burleson Church of Christ not only meets it's weekly budget through its Sunday offerings, it quite often exceeds it. Rather than having to cut items from the budget, this congregation could add items if it was necessary. This tells me that the people of this church have bought into the vision that the leadership has cast.
For the past several years on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, BCOC has celebrated the Day of Thanks and Giving. Initially it was a way for the congregation to pay down debt on building projects, but eventually it expanded to include a number of charities and mission organizations. Last year the church decided to make sure that every penny raised through the Day of Thanks and Giving went to something beyond the congregation. Their goal was to raise $225,000 in a single week. They wound up bringing in over $297,000! So, this year's goal was to raise $280,000. I'm delighted to write that we raised over $302,000 through our offering Sunday! But the most amazing thing that happened on Sunday at BCOC was that a man gave his life to the Lord and was immersed into the body of Christ!
The Smith family has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, 2015. In the forefront of our minds will be the fact that though we left an amazing spiritual family in Dublin, we've been blessed with an equally amazing one here in Burleson. And though we still have a lot of "getting to know you" to do, what we know for sure is that the Burleson Church of Christ is generous body of believers! - Shay
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