Eight Celebrations at the End of the Year
As part of our End-of-Year Giving celebration, we love to share a brief look back on the past year to remember what God has done and to fuel us as we head into the next year with encouragement and faith. As you think through your year-end giving, today is the last day to make tax-deductible gifts for 2025. You can find the link to give on our secure platform here:
https://pillardumfries.churchcenter.com/giving/to/general
Celebrate with us as we look back on this year.
- We celebrated our 20th birthday.
In March, we hosted the Pillar Birthday Ball and a special Sunday service to remember all that God has done over the last 20 years. It was incredible to have friends from far and wide join us as we recalled God’s faithfulness from our early days. - We continued to see God raise up people to send into church planting.
There is almost too much to celebrate under this one point, but here are some highlights:
- Ryan Sturgis is finishing his residency and building a core team to plant in Springfield, VA, in 2026.
- William Samadder began outreach to Bengali speakers in our region and hosted a Christmas event with 150 people.
- We sent Becky to serve an important mission overseas, and she is thriving in her life and work.
- Jake Rogers was sent out to 29 Palms, CA, where he is leading Pillar 29 Palms into an exciting mission of reaching Marines with the gospel.
- Daniel Carter and his family have said yes to planting the gospel in Dupont, WA, as part of our strategic initiative with The Praetorian Project.
- Pillar Church of Crestview affirmed Noah Clifton as an elder, and he and Alex Chatman continue to lead an incredible mission to Eglin Air Force Base.
- James Ramseyer became the pastor at New Beginnings Baptist Church in Streator, IL, as we sent him out to revitalize the church and lead a mission to the Midwest.
- Pillar Church of Norfolk was gifted a new facility to meet in as they continue to reach the Navy base and beyond.
- We continue to celebrate even more work advancing the gospel through past church plants, The Praetorian Project, and The Iceland Project.
- We added three key staff members who are blessing our church with great leadership.
With all of the sending, we have seen God’s faithfulness in providing wonderful staff leadership here at Pillar. This year, we welcomed Stuart Fugler and Bobby Gomez onto our pastoral team and Meg Moore as our Children’s Ministry Director. All of them are doing incredible work to lead us well. - We celebrated ongoing fruit from past missions efforts.
We have consistently committed to overseas partnerships over the past few years, especially in France and Iceland, and we are celebrating the ways these ministries continue to bear fruit for the gospel.
- Mauricio Prunera and his family recently shared that our brothers and sisters at Chemin Nouveau in Normandy, France, held a Christmas concert outreach on their own using the instruments we donated. This was especially exciting because our teams had led the past events and brought the instruments and vision. This year, they hosted a concert with over 150 people, many of whom heard the gospel for the first time.
- We hosted Elliot and Hildur earlier this year and celebrated that they will move to Akureyri, Iceland, in 2026 to start the second church plant since we began working there. We also supported the work in Iceland with three mission teams this past year.
- We welcomed a record number of new members this year.
The number of members committed to our common mission at Pillar Church is the highest we have ever had. We celebrate the ways God has grown the church numerically, as well as the deepening love for God we are experiencing together. - We hosted our second year of the Own It Youth Conference.
God continues to work in powerful ways among our teenagers, and our church benefits greatly from the energy and encouragement they bring to our ministries. One of the highlights was our Own It Youth Conference in July, with over 90 students and a great team of adult volunteers. We are grateful for the amazing adults who serve and support our growing Youth Ministry. - We served our community in a multitude of ways throughout the year.
Whether encouraging teachers at the middle school with lunches and gifts, teaching English to members of our community, serving families in need through the foster closet, providing an incredible Easter egg hunt for the town of Dumfries, hosting a free sports camp for kids in the summer, or participating in The Big Give—throughout the year, Pillar members could be seen serving our community with God’s love. - We saw the first phase of our building project begin.
As we continue to seek the Lord for wisdom on completing the full project that will give us a permanent facility, we are grateful to see the beginnings of the work on the property. The apartment building is well underway, and all the site work is complete. We continue to pray for God’s provision for our building and the future of Pillar Church.
There are so many other things we could celebrate and so many individual ways Pillar touches lives near and far. Thank you for all of your service to the Lord this year as we advance the gospel together.
As we close out the year, I want to thank you for the ways your financial giving has fueled our faith to pursue the mission God has given us. We are close to reaching our annual budgeted giving goal and are currently about $15,000 short of the target we set at the beginning of 2025. Would you consider a year-end gift to help us finish the year strong and move into 2026 fueled for a faith-filled mission?
https://pillardumfries.churchcenter.com/giving/to/general
On Mission Together,
Colby Garman
Pastor, Pillar Church
