This season isn’t just about a building – not even close. This is a discipleship moment for each of us. Will we share in the heart and mission of God?

Paul tells the church to “excel” – to go above and beyond – in generosity (2 Cor. 8:7), but not just for a building, or a campaign, or a program. Paul says that we give to become more like Jesus: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8.9). Is your life shaped by that same gospel trajectory? Does your lifestyle reflect Jesus’ call to sacrifice and self-denial?

Let’s be honest, these are scary questions. Most of us want to be more generous, but it can feel so overwhelming: Where do we start? How do we grow? Generosity sounds great, but what does it look like? The Generosity Journey is a discipleship tool to help us wrestle through these sorts of challenging questions.

As you look through this journey, consider two questions:

Where are you on this journey today (not based on ambitions or aspirations, but actual habits and practices)?

Begin asking God, where do you want me to be? How do you want me to grow?

Don’t focus on what you wish you could do… focus on the next step in front of you. What does that next step look like for you? The call of this season is a call to next steps – disciples of Jesus, growing in your generosity, as an outworking of God’s heart in you!

Don’t be deceived: this is primarily about the state of our hearts, which is exactly what makes self-reflection around our generosity so hard. The challenges are often less about the economics and more about issues of the heart: pride, control, hurt, fear, idols. The call of Jesus is to trust Him more than we trust these other voices (the pride, control, hurt, fear, idols).

LifePoint, in this season, may we come before God, opening our heart to Him, laying everything at His feet, and say, “It’s yours… I’m yours.”

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about mechanics, but I do know when my life is unbalanced, things tend to go haywire.

As we move forward in this campaign, we are going to talk about money, because at the end of the day we do want to build a new building. But, more than anything, we are praying and asking God to shape us as his disciples along the way.

Most of us see discipleship through a certain lens; depending on our upbringing, or church background. However, we can agree that discipleship is about submitting to and being shaped by Jesus in every area of our life. In order to keep our eyes on Jesus throughout this campaign, we want to introduce and use the Gospel Wheel. This tool will help us in keeping the first things first: the Gospel!

The Gospel Wheel is made up of five key areas of our life: Prayer/Bible, Character, Evangelism/Mission, Community and Generosity, and the center being the Gospel.

The center of the wheel is not only the foundation, but it is the lens by which we see and live out every other area.

The spokes on the wheel are the fruit of the Gospel at work in our lives. If one spoke is longer, shorter, or missing, our wheel will be rocky and lead us astray.

 

As you look at your Gospel Wheel, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

Do you see Generosity as an outworking of the Gospel in your life?

 

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” 

2 Corinthians 8:9

Schools are the heartbeat of any community.  As go the schools, so goes the community.  Several years ago, Quincy took a risk: an $89 million investment in our schools, our community, and the future of Quincy.  As we now know, one of the new elementary schools will be located at 42nd and Harrison, directly adjacent to LifePoint’s new property.  This school is projected to enroll 586 students from across the city’s south side in 2019.  Over the next decade, it’s easy to imagine that thousands of families from our community will be impacted by what happens at this single school.

As our community enters a season of expanding development and investment, the question that keeps resonating in my heart is this: will the church be there? For our elders and staff, our proximity to this new school site is no accident.  We want to be there – loving and supporting our neighbors. This is an opportunity to lean into one of our core values:  We are for the city. Our love for God must overflow into a real and meaningful love for our neighbors. Our love for our city is a rugged commitment to serve those in need, to care for the overlooked, to bind up the broken. Our desire is to bless Quincy for His name’s sake. We want to be a part of restoring God’s vision of what it means to be a neighbor, and what it means to see our city flourish in Him.

In short, we want to be good neighbors. We want to serve and give and care – because that’s what we do as followers of Jesus.  By building our future church home next to a school, we are saying, “We’re here. And we’ve got your back.”  This is one way that followers of Jesus live out that central teaching of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  This may mean after-school programming, mentoring in the classroom, or packing weekend lunch packs for students. The opportunities are limitless, but the bottom line is clear: we want to care, serve, and love the students and families of this school that way the Jesus would.  And I know that Jesus’ love is radically committed, deeply personal, and self-giving to the core.  LifePoint, may we love like that!

I can barely contain my excitement about a new building. Our search for the location that God wants us to have has been long and arduous, but He wanted us to be patient and trust in Him. And because we have done that, God has provided an incredible opportunity beyond what I ever thought was possible. Now that all important question rolls around in my head, “Can we afford it?”

We are in a great financial position because of the generosity of people like yourself, starting the process with a million dollars in the bank. We have had conversations with local banks and because of our financial position, they are eager to partner with us as we look to borrow part of the building costs. That final piece, when we as a congregation step up and give in ways many of us have not before, that piece has me excited as well. What will we see God do? What stories will we hear of people giving for the first time, giving regularly for the first time, giving extravagantly for the first time? I’m looking forward to being overwhelmed by the steps we as LifePointers will take together. LifePoint has a history of people being generous and I have no doubt that will continue.

As we move forward with the building design process, costs are never far from the discussion. I have been humbled by the desire of our design team to create an incredible facility, yet always centered around being good stewards. Being good stewards doesn’t mean being cheap. We want to create a space that glorifies and honors the God we serve and we believe in being excellent in all we do. It is a delicate balance, and I have been overwhelmed by our team’s ability to accomplish this balance.

As our design team, our staff, and our elders continue to work hard to make the entire process, from purchasing land to our first service in our new location, as seamless as possible, please continue to pray. Pray that God will use this new building in a mighty way. Pray that the community around us will be changed because of our presence there. Pray that we as a congregation will be overwhelmed by the generosity of our church. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us!