I think we made a good stab at this quarterly offering. As of Sunday night, we were on the edge of $30,000. I am happy at this showing.
I want to transparently share, however, that at this pace, if we were depending on quarterly offerings alone - it would take 5 years of quarterly offerings for us to build....actually, that's not accurate because I did not add inflation of 3-5% costs per year. It would be more like 6 years.
I certainly don't believe it will take us 5 more years, but I want to drive home a point; not to the church, but to you individual reader: Until each of us comes to realize that this is OUR BUILDING, OUR CHILDREN'S BUILDING, OUR GRANDCHILDREN'S BUILDING, we won't sacrifice the necessary dollars to make it happen soon.
Sacrifice is giving what it is not convenient to give. It is not giving extra money, it is giving money that you really want to spend on yourself or your family. I doubt if any good church has ever been built by extra money.
Amy and I struggled a bit with this offering. We were praying for 4 digits to give. I guess I was looking for a suitcase to fall from heaven or something. It did not fall, but God answered. God answered through the realization that we must practice what we preach. God answered through giving what was set aside for other things. Other things that we will miss. I do not tell you this to brag, make you pity, or anything of the like (my God bears witness). I tell you this to challenge you to believe as we do in what God is doing at LBC, and then sacrifice to make it happen in a more useful facility.
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
