Howdy OnFire Folks. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope and pray that your Christmas was a good one, filled with the joy and love of Jesus Christ. Our place at Christmas was a pretty exciting place. We have been planning since last spring to take the boys to Florida in the new year, but didn't tell them until Christmas. They were, and still are, excited. We're going to have a great time.

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Today in OnFire I have some questions. I hope lots of you will respond.  I'm curious to see how you will answer. The OnFire list includes people who are church leaders, pastors, laypeople, and people who attend church infrequently. It doesn't matter - I'd love to hear your answers. I'll give you the summaries after I return from Florida.

1) Your church has just been given $1 million, no strings attached. How would you like to see it used? Perhaps some of you have had to decide what to do with a large gift. What did you do? What would you do differently?

2) Is money enough to save a church? Apparently not. Recently, a historic Baptist church in Saint John NB announced it will soon close its doors. In 1997 it received almost $1 million from a bequest. The money is almost gone, only 20-25 people attend, its stately but aging building needs a $70 000 roof repair. Some of you know the situation - I'm not looking for comments on that church. Rather, what (more than money) is needed?

Hope this provokes some thought and discussion. I'm looking forward to your responses.

Be OnFire,

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis.This letter published Dec 27, 2005. www.onfireletter.com