On November 8, 2011, about 200 champions of life, including 22 pastors, 34 churches, and 12 Life 
Teams, packed an elegently-decorated hall at Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church for our first banquet - Get Into Life with Churches for Life.
The evening flowed with good music, fellowship, dinner, and then a lively program celebrating God's work in establishing and blessing CFL. We heard a wonderful biblical challenge to be gospel-driven champions of life from Dr. Dan Doriani, Senior Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, MO. The evening concluded with a look at what God is poised to do through our ministry, including bringing Patrick Weston on board as our first Regional Director of the St. Charles/St. Peters region, growing our national partnership with Lutherans for Life, and expanding operations to serve churches and Life Teams.
You can still Get Into Life with Churches for Life:
Churches for Life and Rev. Merkey thanks all those who made our first banquet a success: Jesus Christ, our Great Rescuer in the gospel, our Board of Directors (Tom, Dave, Tracy, Jay, and Pam), the Banquet Team (Tom (Chairman) Sylva, Patrick, Carol, Dave, Fran, and Diane), our video genius (Andy), our A/V guru (Zach), the Molbach family, our photographer (Dennis), the Twin Oaks facilities staff, Twin Oaks Christian School (Cathy and Kelly), our energetic and generous crews (set-up, bussers, and clean-up), our cheerful and hard-working Ministry Assistant (Carol), and our life-affirming banquet underwriters:
- MD Flooring Contractors, Dave at 314-494-4376
- Cass Commercial Bank, Brett at 314-506-5534
- Hands-On English, Fran at 636-527-2822
- 360 Restaurant, 314-241-VIEW
- The Sylva Spoon Catering, Sylva at 314-285-7643
- Clemmer and Associates Accountants, Linda at 636-946-1523
- Remax Real Estate, Doug at 636-256-8200
- Chas. W. Dewitt Insurance, Vickie at 314-966-6300 x201
- Violin and Piano Lessons, Prudence at 314-852-1622
- Dennis Scanio Graphic Design, Dennis at 314-600-6215
- Large Ink printing, signs and graphics, Tim at 812-514-7636
- Continuum Home Health Care, Bart at 314-863-9912
For further encouragement, read this email Rev. Merkey sent to those who prayed for our banquet to celebrate its success:
How should a Christian ministry like ours determine whether or not its first banquet was a success?
Attendance?
Financial responsiveness?
Cooperation, teamwork, and enthusiasm in those serving?
Logistical excellence and efficiency?
Seeing attendees “move up” in their level of engagement in ministry?
Certainly, all these measures are important. So, I’m extremely thankful to report that God granted us tremendous success according to each one! Here is a response from one pastor:
“The banquet and the gospel presented there was very encouraging! I had a deep appreciation for the gospel centeredness, the local church focus and the emphasis on rescued rescuers. I appreciated meeting you. I spoke with my wife and the two ladies who joined us for the banquet and we are certain we would like to start a life team in this church.”
And while we wholeheartedly thank God for the success He’s given us by the measures listed above, our thanks would be incomplete if we missed God’s primary measures of success: goodness and faithfulness. These are what Jesus commends the interest-earning servants for in Matthew 25:14-30. By good (Greek agathos), Jesus meant their moral conduct and uprightness. By faithful (Greek pistos), Jesus meant their trust in God and in His goodness and power. It is interesting that Jesus does not commend the servants for fruitfulness (Greek karpos); that is, results. While God is obviously glad for fruit/results (like our list, above), we see that His measure of success in the kingdom centers on goodness and faithfulness. These attributes show up in how we treat one another, where we place our trust, and how we conduct ourselves in general.
With this in mind, and still with thanks for the results God’s given us, I am most grateful to God for working His goodness and faithfulness in and through all those who helped with and attended our first banquet. It is the combination of all these things by which we can thank God for making this banquet a success! Praise God!