Seed Money Blossoms in Urbana

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Pastor Ray Branstiter, Messiah, Urbana, recently wrote with exciting news. 

“We will stream our first service this week with our in-place streaming system at Messiah,” he began. “I want to thank the ‘Outside the Box’ team from the Synod for the $500 seed money you gave us a year ago when we started our project. I had figured it would take two years to raise the money,” the elated pastor continued. “In fact, it only took about 9 months. The members of Messiah responded with enthusiasm, not to mention those folks from Arizona, California, Florida, and other areas that supported the project. Please pass my thanks on to the team.”

Messiah, Urbana, was one of 50 congregations that took part in Mentoring Sessions led last year by our synod’s Outside the Box Team. In addition to providing technical advice and sharing creative digital worship ideas to improve the digital ministry of participating congregations, the OTB Team also provided $7,500 in grants. One of those grants went to Messiah. (Note: OTB will be announcing new initiatives later in 2022.)

Congratulations, Pastor Branstiter, and all our friends at Messiah, for bringing those seeds to fruition and exemplifying how Thrive! is helping us be stronger and better together.

What about you? Ready to schedule your congregation’s Thrive! campaign and discover how your ministry can blossom? Contact the Campaign Manager, Pastor Larry Donner at Thrive@SouthernOhioSynod.org and learn how you can sow seeds for the whole Church.