Our Church is AWESOME!

Chad & I have been attending Mecklenburg Community Church for over 8 years now and we love it!  It is the best church I have EVER attended.  Meck is starting a new phase - in 2009 we started a building campaign to fund an expansion to our campus.  We are also going to launch new locations around the community as well - this past weekend our Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman campuses launched.  In the near future we are also planning to launch campuses in Mint Hill and Kannapolis.  This way our church can impact even more of the surrounding community.  At the February 1st Wednesday service our pastor Jim White gave us some statistics that I thought were worth sharing, so here are some stats about Meck.

• In general 80% of churches are either plateaued or declining in membership and the average church loses 10% of their members/attenders every year.
• Between 2008-2010 Meck GREW 23.54% and of that growth 69% were people who were unchurched before coming to Meck.
• Meck has approx. 18,000 names in our database and over 5,000 active attenders - active attender is definied as somehow being on the radar through tithing, attending a class, being in a small group, serving in a ministry, etc.
• In 2008 Meck baptized 127 people, in 2009 150 baptisms, and in 2010 330 baptisms!
• Each year Meck does a special offering at Christmastime called Giving to Christ at Christmas - this is above and beyond normal tithing and the money goes to special ministries that our church supports.  In 2010 we were able to purchase land in the Philipines to build a home for rescued brothel workers - that is one example of the type of ministries Giving to Christ at Christmas funds.  In 2008 $178,888 was given for Giving to Christ at Christmas.  In 2009 we started Unhindered - our building fund, so we didn't have a Giving to Christ at Christmas collection.  In 2010 Giving to Christ at Christmas brought in $239,041. And this is all during a terrible economy as well!
• Most church building funding campaigns have about a 60-70% fulfillment rate, but Meck's Unhindered campaign has had a 94-95% fulfillment rate so far!

I absolutely LOVE being a part of a church that is doing so much in our local community and throughout the world.  I know that any money I give to Meck will go to ministries that are really making a difference.  It is such an awesome feeling to belong to a church that I feel like is really on the right track and has the right focus.  I can't wait to see what our stats will be for 2011!