Pledge Progress
Update: 1/12/06
by Steve Bauer
Campaign Success!
Underlying these projects is the amazing way God delivered funding, way beyond expectations, to make these forays in spiritual battle possible. With $7.4 million pledged, we can move ahead and make solid plans for the future. Knowing we have funding allows us to make decisions and commitments that will ultimately save money and time in construction, since we won’t have to waste resources on contingency planning and alternatives.
Update: 11/28/05
Update: 11/18/05
Update: 10/17/05
by Gary DeLashmutt
In war, when there is a break in the enemy's line, the attacking army must exploit this opportunity by pouring through the breach in the line and penetrating deeply into enemy territory. This calls for strong leadership, because soldiers tend to relax and become more self-protective in such situations.
We are now in a similar situation. With the amazing outpouring of generosity this morning, just over 600 pledgers have almost covered our $5 million capital campaign goal ($4.6 million). Less than half of the major donors have pledged, less than half of the FST has pledged—so we will undoubtedly have exceeded the goal when we call on the rest of our home group people to pledge.
Praise God for this amazing answer to prayer! This is a tremendous victory, but it is a preliminary and partial victory. The landscape has now changed—and there are a new set of dangers. Now Satan will tempt our people that they don't need to sacrifice. We could fail to "pour through the breach" and gain the unexpected ground that God is giving us the opportunity to take.
If God answers our fervent prayers and explodes us into a church planting movement, we will need much more money for sphere planting—both for facilities and for salaries for adequate home group oversight. In the early 1980's one of the main reasons we couldn't sustain a church planting movement was financial—we simply couldn't afford to provide adequate coaching and leadership for so many home groups led by inexperienced home group leaders. We have the chance to provide this now by retiring as much debt as possible through this campaign. If we retire all our debt through this capital campaign, we will have $400,000 more per year to keep pace with the explosive growth God wants to grant us.
So now more than ever, it is important that we do a strong, Spirit-led job challenging our people to join this campaign. Let's stress the urgent importance of taking advantage of this unexpected opportunity. We can now help Harambee School more. We can now get the 4th St. facility ready for adult spheres. More importantly, we can still capture our people's hearts for God in a deeper way if we give sacrificially. And we can keep pace with God as he grants a church planting movement by retiring our debt. Let us seize this opportunity!