Jeremy L. Berg

Thanksgiving week has a special significance for me around God’s calling and my obedience (along with Keri) in saying “Yes!” to the ministry we’ve been doing the past many years at MainStreet Covenant.

MainStreet Covenant was just a dream, a crazy idea in our head, on Thanksgiving week of 2010. That’s when I spent days agonizing over every single word and sentence as I tried to craft the perfect thanksgiving letter to send out to every person we knew.

That fateful Thanksgiving letter announced God was calling us to step out in faith and plant a new church in my hometown of Mound. I was raised up to become a hardworking, responsible and self-sufficient member of society. Now God was calling me to pursue a life where my income and livelihood would depend on the charity of others.

It’s humbling and faith-stretching to “beg” for a living. :) That’s not how we usually word it, but that is very much how it feels. And I don’t like it. But I’m part of a peculiar segment of society, tracing our roots back to the Hebrew tribe of Levites, down through the monks of various monastic orders, missionaries sent to far flung corners of the earth, to the paid staff at your local neighborhood church. What we all have in common is this: we get to do the work God has called us to do in the world because other hardworking people support us financially.

I hate being a burden, but I love teaching and preaching the in-breaking Kingdom of Jesus full time and being a happy sower of gospel hope!

God saw fit to bless that imperfectly written Thanksgiving letter sent out all those years ago, and moved in the hearts of many to invest in the work of launching MainStreet Covenant Church. Generous people have continued supporting MainStreet and my full time Kingdom work for nearly 15 years. Amazing and humbling!

Here I sit on another Thanksgiving week, trying to put into words what God has been doing among us and through us as this past year. Once again, I humble myself and admit my utter dependence God and his people to raise a modest salary to continue this ministry. I don’t like it, but humility is a Christian virtue and crucifying one’s ego a worthy spiritual practice. ;)

As I share my 2024 Thanksgiving letter below, I want you to know that MainStreet consists of only about 25 people these days (including children). Like overseas missionaries who depend on monthly supporters, so I am a local missionary pastor depending on donors (outside of MainStreet) like you to keep leading MainStreet and continue my Kingdom outreaches. Please consider becoming a monthly supporter. Learn how here. Now on to my letter and a video I made for our sister church at Excelsior Covenant.

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Thanksgiving 2024

Greetings in Christ!

Another year of wide-reaching ministry both inside MainStreet Covenant and beyond our walls is coming to an end. My personal highlight was baptizing our son Isaak (11) under an oak tree in our yard after leading two services that morning at a nursing home. Coming out of the baptismal waters, we wrapped Isaak in a white blanket that had been passed around the chapel and prayed over by a hundred old folks that morning.

MainStreet’s regular ministries include weekly Sunday gatherings at 5pm, three spiritual support groups called “Huddles,” youth outreach events led by volunteer youth pastor Brendan being attended by 95% non-MainStreeters (!), and kids Sunday school led by Keri. Pastor Mike Fox is spending his retirement pastoring people 1-on-1 over coffee.

We invested 10% of our budget into mission partnerships again this year including anti-human trafficking partnership (FREE); Advocates for Victims of Abuse partnership (AVA); the Jurgenson family on the mission field in Nicaragua; and church planting efforts of the Northwest Conference. 

In a day of declining Sunday attendance and churches focusing on self-preservation, MainStreet is staying true to our original vision of finding ways to shine Christ’s light beyond our walls “in the marketplace daily with all who happen to be there” (Acts 17:17). A great example of this was taking our Easter service on the road to Harrison Bay Senior Living, and in a few weeks we’ll take our Christmas Eve service to Lake Minnetonka Shores Senior Living to bless the residents there. 

MainStreet sends me (Jeremy) out on mission each week as a local missionary pastor sowing Kingdom seed and sharing the gospel in a number of “fields” including:

• 70 college students in my “Christian Thinking & Living” class at UNW
• 500+ people—especially seniors—with my music ministry at several locations
• 334 regular listeners to my Anchor Podcast
• 200+ subscribers receiving my weekly writings at http://www.KingdomHarbor.com.
• I recently spoke to students at Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at MWHS
• I published 3 short stories and have 3 other book projects underway

As you can see, MainStreet is far more than the small fellowship who gather each Sunday. We are a fruitful mission outpost “gathering to go out”, and we’re reaching more people than ever before! But our core of 25 regulars cannot fund our ministry without additional support. We are seeking new mission partners to help us raise $15,000 so I can have a salary to continue leading MainStreet and doing all these hometown ministries in 2025. Our giving so far in 2024 is as follows and covers all our ministry expenses, rent, and payroll:

MainStreet Tithes YTD: $46,000

Other Supporters TYD: $24,000

Total Income YTD: $70,000

Huge thanks to our faithful givers! Would you consider becoming a MainStreet mission partner in 2025? You can give online at www.mainstreetcov.org/donate or send a check payable to MainStreet Covenant to 2801 Westwood Rd., P. O. Box 38, Minnetonka Beach, MN 55361. 

With gratitude for your prayers and partnership!