Why We Keep the Lights On

Sometimes it gets dark, but that’s not a problem at Galilee. Like in the parking lot, for instance. At night, we have big bright lights that come on. We cheerfully pay the our electric bill so that visitors can come and go safely.
 
That isn’t cheap. It costs a lot of money to run those lights. We also pay for heating and cooling, and all the utilities and maintenance associated with a building like ours. So why do we do it? Is there an upside to paying these bills?
 
You bet there’s an upside!
 

The upside has a boring name in our budget: general church operations. That means keeping our lights on and our doors open, 365 days a year. Look who we touch when we do that:

  • The family who tells us that a child, parent, or sibling has died and wants to hold a funeral. Maybe they haven’t been in our sanctuary in years. Maybe they’ve never been here. But to them, at this desperate hour, Galilee is their church. We don’t charge them a dime. We provide food for the reception, if necessary. To a grieving family, we show love.
  • The children learning about faith every Sunday morning with Suzie Leftwich and her team. Oh, the supply costs! It might look like our Sunday school deals in glitter and paper plates and modeling clay…but it doesn’t. It’s about teaching God’s love, and the children get it. They talk about it at the dinner table and know they are loved by so many people.
  • The alcoholic man, the addicted couple, the woman barely holding it together, who meet every day in our rooms to support one another in recovery. What do our lights mean to them? Just a place where they can receive the grace they need to be with their families, hold down a job, rebuild their lives. How many souls have been saved in that battered original sanctuary over the last 55 years? If they could be counted, it’d be hundreds. Thousands?
  • The teenagers who meet at Youth Group. What are they doing when they get together with church friends, except building a community in Christ? They speak life into prayer for their friends and their families. Our building is a bright, warm, safe place for teens to ask, “Can you walk with me through this…because I’m not sure I can do it by myself.”
  • The friends who find purpose and fellowship in using their gifts. The ringers of handbells, the singers with sheet music, the musicians with instruments that need tuning—all these talented people with their “stuff,” this ordinary, material stuff, that we turn to a higher purpose when we worship God. The stuff has a home here. These people have a home here.
  • The women of the Altar Guild, who dust and decorate our sanctuary, water plants and flowers, stock our pew racks with donation envelopes, tissues, pencils, and “Scribble Sheets for Little United Methodists.” These are the beloved women who bring the communion elements for worship. They bake our bread, but it’s here—in this building—that they find it made into the body of Christ.
  • Voters! You might have only visited Galilee on a Tuesday, never a Sunday, because we’re a polling place. We are the place the community comes to exercise their right to BE a community. But seriously, come back on Sunday and sit with us as we humbly worship the God who created us all equal and endowed us with certain inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  • The voice on the other end of the phone (phones cost money) that tells our secretary, “I’m in the hospital and I have no one else. Can you feed my dog?”
  • The athletes who use our gym for volleyball, soccer, basketball, pickleball, even cricket. Our building held a sports camp this summer to disciple the next generation of Christians. Some 4 year old attendees were later spotted at a nearby Costco screaming, “THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS!” We’re not recommending screaming, but they learned that at Galilee.
  • The Scouts who meet each week and who learn about faith by walking in faith and duty together.
  • The Iranian immigrant who came from off the street and asked, “Can I pray in your sanctuary for a minute?” YES, YES YOU CAN. Because the roof was repaired and it’s not leaking. Because the cleaners cleaned it last week. Because the electricity and the heat are turned on. In the name of Jesus, YES – come in.

Your church has needs.

But guess what? Money isn’t “the need.” It’s a solution. The needs are what show up at our door every day. The grieving family, the friends in fellowship, the troubled teenager, the praying stranger, the lonely soul, the soul needing Christ.
 
It’s our lights they see, and it’s God’s light they need. That’s why we keep the lights on.  
Give Now
When you give to God through Galilee Church, we pledge to act with integrity to put your offering forward in a way that honors your faith and God. Your giving makes our ministries possible and funds our volunteer efforts to share the Gospel, to encourage full devotion in the followers of Christ, and to feed and comfort the under-resourced in Loudoun County.
Among other things, your giving supports:
Sunday school curriculum, snacks and supplies; youth group events; Bible studies; congregational care; worship and communion; volunteer teams; choir; audio and visual equipment; prayer ministry; mortgage and utility bills; facility maintenance; staff salaries; local and international missions – and more.
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