Ephesians 3:20-21: 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
1 Chronicles 29:10b-13: “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
Not quite four years ago, as a church, we began a journey that we called NEXT. It was the name of the capital campaign, and process where we moved from meeting at the Middle School, to our current location. It was spring 2011. As we began this journey of NEXT, our prayer was that the following six things would increase. We prayed that…
- Our trust in God would increase.
- Our prayer lives would increase.
- Our obedience to Jesus and His Word would increase.
- Our generosity would increase.
- Our love would increase.
- Our view of God would increase.
And I believe God has been doing all of that over the past four years. When it came to the financial side of things…
The cost of the building, the land, the remodeling, all the furnishings and materials, totaled about $1.7 million. The consultant that we were working with thought that if we were able to raise about 2 to 3 times our budget for this new endeavor, meaning about $600,000 at the time, that it would be a huge success.
But God…
Instead, through the generosity of God’s people, the Lord raised over $1 million dollars for this vision of NEXT.
For those who were there at that time, we were blown away, and still are. It reminded us of the faithfulness of God and that He was going to provide for His church in ways that were far more than we could ask for or imagine.
About a year later, at the end of April 2012, we moved to our current location. Then fast forward to last spring, the 3 year campaign of NEXT was over, and we had around $200,000 left to go on the mortgage. And so our encouragement, our prayer was borrowing a phrase from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:11 to finish the work. That by the grace of God, our prayer was that within a year, by March 2015, that we would be debt free as a church. Again, such a prayer was far more than we could ask for or imagine honestly.
But God…
Crosspoint, I’m excited to share with you that we are debt free, the mortgage has been paid in full, and God has done far more than we could ask for or imagine.
Now, that announcement might lead you to then have a couple questions.
One being this…if you’re currently giving to NEXT, should you continue, and if so, where will that money go?
We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you, not reluctantly but cheerfully. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We’re so thankful for how God has and is growing in us a heart of generosity. Money that is given to or marked as ‘NEXT’ will continue to be put aside into our building fund.
Many of you are faithfully giving above and beyond, as the Lord leads you, and the campaign wasn’t just a 3 year thing to you, but it was more of a way of life, and so our encouragement would be to continue in the grace of giving. Because our work as a church has not finished, but is only continuing. There are more people to reach, and more work to be done, and we’re really excited about the future.
The other question that this may raise is this. Now that the mortgage is paid for, are there future plans to add onto Crosspoint’s existing building?
We anticipate at some point that we will add on to our existing building. Being able to have more space would allow us to do more ministry and serve the needs of our community in greater ways, beyond just Sundays. As far as what we would add on, or when that would take place, we don’t know. But thankfully God does. So we will be seeking the Lord for His direction and wisdom, and we would encourage you to be doing the same, alongside us as leaders. We want His will to be done, because at the end of the day, this is His church.
May God get all the glory!
Dave
The Crosspoint Blog 