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A Letter from Mark
As I prayed about becoming our Senior Pastor, one of the priorities I felt the Lord laid upon my heart was for us to be a debt-free church. Certainly, there is a scriptural principle that we are to “let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” from Romans 13:8. I feel strongly we should seek to embrace this principle!
In addition, I believe the Lord gave to me and to our pastoral team the vision of so much freedom for us in ministry when we are no longer encumbered by the debt remaining from building the sanctuary. All the activities within our covenant community provide a beautiful picture of generations of our church family with life-changing memories within the walls of our sanctuary. Holding to His promise to be faithful to the generations, we want to be wise caretakers of that space and all that happens in it. May it be an ongoing blessing to our congregation and community now and to our spiritual children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to come as He calls them to faith, worship, and work in this church family.
How did we get here?
About a year ago, I gathered a small group to join me in discerning what the Lord would have us do in response to this prayer of paying off our mortgage. That team included: Tammy Provost, Ronda Webber, Ben Commerford, David Cowen, Rick Endean, and Bobby Pepiot. We met together for prayer and discussion.
As is often the case, what we sensed from the Lord in terms of what to do and when to do it, was not what we expected. Unanimously, we felt Him calling us not to begin a campaign to pay off the debt as the vision might suggest from earthly eyes, but to a season of prayer as our only action step. Despite circumstantial factors that would suggest it would be expeditious to start working on at least a silent portion of a campaign to be launched later, we committed ourselves to prayer alone and waited on the Lord.
We remained in that posture for the past year when I reconvened the group to share a pretty incredible development. In His providence, the Lord had uniquely provided $1,000,000 earmarked for debt elimination for TCPC. We took time to praise Him and seek Him once again what he would have us do.
This time, it seemed clear to everyone, including the Finance Committee and the church officers, that the Lord was leading us to join Him in what He has already done and will continue to do. Join me as we look to our God, ask what He would have us each do, and then move forward to do that in faith.
Mark
Our Family Financial Context
We are a church family. Like in every family, it is important that our members have a shared understanding of our finances and enough information to engage well in our plan for our family’s financial well-being. In addition to the scriptural principles, vision, and calling the Lord has given us, there are contextual reasons why paying off our debt now is particularly advantageous. Those become clear when you look at a few key factors in our finances:
$16,000/month mortage payment ($192,000/year).
About 36% of our mortage payment is interest (about $70,000 year).
In three years, our interest rate will change, and will almost certainly go up.
The 23/24 budget was $2.9 million, and we received $2.7 million in giving. Since we can’t cut back on our mortgage, we will need to cut back on worship, fellowship, missions, ministries, outreach, and more.
In short: it’s becoming more and more costly to carry this debt.
We currently owe almost $2.2 million on our mortgage. Anything we raise above that through the Forward in Faith effort will be used for upcoming, anticipated capital expenses, including roofing and replacing 39 distinct HVAC units.
How You Can Be A Part Of Moving Forward In Faith
The plan is simple and grounded wholly in God as our provider and the One to whom all glory is due.
Join us in prayer through the month of November using the Forward in Faith Prayer Guide (see below).
Ask the Lord what he wants you individually, as a couple, or household to do as part of this effort. This includes but certainly is not limited to what he would have you give or pledge to give over the next three years above and beyond your tithe to the Forward in Faith effort. We believe he will use this effort to teach us far more than to pay off a mortgage. Ask the Spirit to open your heart and mind to all that God has for you through this season of prayer.
Wait for his answer.
Decide in faith to do what he has asked.
Let the church know what that is during our response week, from December 1-8, on this website or in-person at church.
Join us in praise to the Lord
Forward in Faith Prayer Guide
Acknowledge who God is:
Heavenly Father, you are Jehovah-Jirah, the God who provides. We praise you for you alone can meet our needs. You hold all things. Thank you for seeing our every need. It is out of care for us that you provide. You are our Good Shepperd. We consider the ravens, the lilies. We see your tender provision for them and thank you that we are far more valuable to you. Every good and perfect gift we have is from you.
Repent of who we have been:
Forgive us Father for worrying, doubting, trying to work it all out ourselves. We believe, help our unbelief. We repent of the hold the things of this earth have on us and the security, comfort, and identity we seek in them rather than in you. Loosen their grip on us; transform our appetites. We turn to you as our security, our hope, our provider. Make us cheerful generous givers. Help us to not worry but seek your kingdom and your righteousness trusting that all the things we need will be given to us.
Praise for our riches in Christ Jesus:
Jesus Christ, we have been transformed through your life, death, and resurrection. We praise you as those who have experienced and continue to experience your saving grace, mercy and unending love. We ask that whatever we do in response to this opportunity, that it would be an outflow of that grace. In you, we have all of God’s promises and an inheritance of eternal riches beyond our imaginations.
Thanks for our church building:
We are so grateful that you have blessed us with our facilities. Thank you for our sanctuary! We praise you for your faithful provision for the initial costs, regular ongoing payments, renovations over the years, and maintenance and repairs when needed. We thank you for all the many ways you use our church building for worship, work, outreach, missions, education, and fellowship. Now, as you have called us to pay off the remaining debt from building the sanctuary, we ask that doing so would be pleasing to you as an act of obedience and wise financial stewardship. May being debt-free lead to increasing opportunities for your gospel message to go deeper and farther into our beloved congregation, community, and partners. You are able to do immeasurably more than we imagine. You have proven that once again. We praise you for already providing $1,000,000 towards our debt-elimination. You called us to it by leading in it. You are so good.
Ask what He is calling us to do:
Help us Lord to lean not on our own understanding, our own thoughts on what we can or should do to contribute to this effort. We acknowledge that your ways are not our ways and that they are best. We submit to them and ask that your Spirit reveal to each one of us what you are asking us to give or pledge for this effort. Give us each the faith to give whatever you put on our hearts and to do so cheerfully. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of what you are doing in and through our church. You could have met this need any way you pleased. What an honor and joy it is for you to use us.