Here are some of the risks (FAITH) that we have taken at People's Church.
1. Tiffany and I left what many would consider a very successful traveling ministry to start People's Church. God had blessed us with a full speaking schedule, spiritual results and financial blessings, but we left it all to start a new church called People's Church. We sold our home in
2. We had no fat cats that promised to give us money to start the church. We just moved here with Brian and Alicia (our programming directors) and prayed like it depended on God and worked like it depended on us. THIS WAS A HUGE RISK!
3. We started a brand new church in May of 2002. Starting a new church in May is not the smartest thing in the world to do. Matter of fact it is called STUPID! I was depressed all summer long and I was even wondering if I missed God's will for my life. Churches normally don't grow in the summer and we didn't break that mold with our new church plant :)! This was more of my stupidity than a risk :).
4. We started our second Sunday service when we were a little over a year old. God blessed that risk in a wonderful way.
5. We bought 50 acres of land when we were just a little over two years old. We also kicked off a stewardship campaign around the same time to build our first facility. We raised money to build our current facility from many people who had been attending our church for six months or less. That's a huge risk, but God blessed it!
6. Our first Sunday in our new building we added a third Sunday service. Most churches drop services after they build a new facility but not us, we added a service. We just had faith that God wanted to bless our church and BOY DID HE EVER!
7. We added two Saturday night services in January of 2007. They were successful but they didn't accomplish the mission of our church so we stopped them in December of 2007. Of course, both of those moves were risky.
8. We added a fourth Sunday service in January of 2008. God has blessed this step of faith!
9. We kicked off our second stewardship campaign in February of 2008. We haven't even been in our new building for two years but because of the tremendous growth, we are building again. It's a risk but I know God is leading us.
10. Our stewardship campaign commitment Sunday was February 24 and we broke ground and started building our new building on February 25. We didn't let any grass grow under our feet. We made a lot of the preparations for this new building long before we knew what our people would commit. We even ordered the steel for this building a month before commitment Sunday. It was risky, but once again God blessed it and People's Church pledged 3.1 million and our church family is already giving generously and aggressively above their tithe to build this 42,000 square foot addition!
11. Invite everybody you know to our 5 EASTER SERVICES! 8:30AM, 9:45AM, 11AM, 12:15PM & 1:30PM. God is going to do awesome things this SUNDAY!
12. If you are following God, it's RISKY BUSINESS!
