12 May 2008
A Summary of Future Grace
Celebration caps six weeks of Future Grace campaign
by Chris Turner
The Future Grace Phase Two building campaign began six weeks ago with a challenge and ended last night with a music celebration featuring singers/songwriters who are members of Grace Community Church. In between was a strong call to discipleship for the next three years and years beyond
The concert featured David Spencer, Ben Shive, Laurianne Cates, Wendy Wills, Josh Wilson and Paul Bogart and, as Pastor Scott Patty said, was a time to celebrate God’s faithfulness to Grace and the congregation’s commitment to build for the purpose of discipleship. Patty also announced an additional $60,000 had been committed yesterday toward the Future Grace campaign.
As of May 4, total gifts and pledges received toward Future Grace Phase Two was $1,073,442, leaving Grace Community Church a little more than $1.4 million short of the total $2.5 million cost of the building project intended to provide additional educational space for primarily children. Forty-one cash gifts and 121 three-year pledges comprised the total received.
“There is reason to celebrate,” Scott Patty, pastor of Grace Community Church, told the congregation last Wednesday night in a special-called meeting. “The gospel is advancing and is taking new territory in the hearts of people which is a joy and disciples are being made so there is a lot to there a lot to be thankful for. At the same time we want to be realistic and we have several issues that need to be addressed. I think it is important to process the results. We need to think about where we are.”
The audio from Wednesday’s session is available for download here.
Patty said in wake of the $1 million-plus difference, the church needed to process events related to Future Grace Phase Two on three levels: emotional, spiritual and practical, saying that the emotional level will take time as information is absorbed. Patty then spent several minutes discussing the spiritual.
Patty said one of the questions on peoples’ minds is: “Did we miss God’s will?” He stated he believed the church is walking in the will of God moving forward with the building project.
“I don’t understand why things work out the way they do, but I do believe providing for the ministry of this church is what we are called to do,” he said. “I believe the motives for beginning this [campaign] are in keeping with what God would want. I’ve not heard of anyone say anything that would be [focusing on] ourselves. I think the process [that has brought us to this point] was honoring to God.
“I do not believe that hardship or alteration to our plans or not meeting our giving goal means that we missed God’s will. I believe there are times when we are doing exactly what God wants us to do and He orchestrates events that require a great deal of faith. I believe that’s what has happened here.
Patty said it was not the church’s desire to take on more debt but to raise the money. However, he said, the church’s leadership does not see all debt as sinful, saying debt is acceptable when there is a clear plan for debt repayment, when the value of the building project exceeds the amount borrowed and when the debt will not hinder the church’s ability to do ministry but actually helps it do ministry.
Patty continued the theme that began campaign six weeks ago when he stated that the best way to honor God for past grace is to trust Him for future grace. It is a statement that bears repeating: “We say thank you to God for everything He has done in our lives…we say thank you by stepping into the future and obeying the Lord. That’s the way the Christian life is. We walk with him by obedience in faith into the future knowing He will sustain us by grace.”
Category: Event Summaries.
