The 2024 Christmas Offering
A highlight for our church every year is the Christmas Offering, a special over-and-above offering we give to raise necessary funds for ministry projects inside and outside our church.
Over the years, we’ve given over $1.1 million to local partners, international ministry, and special initiatives through our local church.
This year’s Christmas Offering will:
Help a long-time sister church (Alhambra) recover from a devastating fire.
Invest in developing a Special Needs Kids Classroom at Ironwood.
Improve our capacity for providing digital discipleship resources for our church and beyond.
Project #1
Alhambra Fire Restoration
Our friends at Alhambra Beloved Community (formerly Redemption Alhambra) recently endured a horrible tragedy when their gym was set on fire and suffered significant damage.
This gym was a hub of ministry to their local community, where they shared meals, hosted outreach events, offered heat relief, celebrated parties, cheered on competitions, witnessed baptisms, and housed refugees.
Additionally, they were able to generate rental income by offering the gym to schools, sports programs and other businesses and non-profits. As an inner-city church, this financial loss is significant.
Good news: Much of the damage is covered by property insurance.
Bad news: The significant professional fees (lawyers, real estate professionals, architects, etc) to navigate the loss and rebuild are not covered by insurance.
Part of our Christmas Offering will go to help Alhambra stabilize their ministries, assess their options, and move forward with rebuilding.
Report from ABC15
Project #2
Special Needs Kids Classroom
Kids and families with special needs are precious to Jesus, who said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16).
So to meet the growing need and opportunity to better minister to families with special needs, we’re converting our studio into a Special Needs Kids Classroom.
Not every child adapts well to the traditional environment of teaching and lessons and so we are creating a room where children can come and be taught in a calm, sensory-friendly environment to experience the love of Jesus.
Building this room will create a space where children can find a calm environment. Where they can meet with volunteers who are trained and ready to teach at the level the child is at cognitively, emotionally, and physically. A place where, if a child is overstimulated and needs a break from the normal routine of the classrooms, can come and calm, feel grounded again, and then bravely and confidently re-enter an age-specific Sunday classroom.
Project #3
Studio for Digital Resources
For the last few years, we’ve begun to leverage technology to develop digital discipleship tools to equip our church.
We’ve used video to share beautiful testimonies or encourage guided prayer practices, and we’ve used the King & Culture and For Jesus podcasts to help us navigate culture through a biblical perspective and be encouraged by the life experiences of our elders and members.
Consider this example that illustrates the impact:
We release King & Culture episodes twice per month
Each episode gets over 500 downloads within a month of release
Can you imagine an in-person class that would get 500 people to attend twice per month?
In 2025 and beyond, we want to build off of this momentum and create additional resources, digital classes, and online training for the sake of our disciple-making mission.
As the room that has functioned as our studio becomes a Special Needs Kids Classroom, we are repurposing a space in the church office to meet the needs of this digital ministry.
