By Chuck Booher
What is the best way to conduct a financial campaign when 14 percent of your county is unemployed and your offerings are barely making budget every week? Any sane person would probably say the best answer is, “You don”t!” You just don”t do a financial campaign in a down economy.
Several months back, however, I found myself wrestling through this predicament. Truth was, not having a campaign was NOT an option. I had become senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Church three years prior and inherited several obstacles that had been worked through. The last hurdle to jump was an agreement with the city to make street improvements that would cost us $2.5 million. Our time had run out, and we needed to break ground in less PDFthan six months. Thus, waiting for the economy to turn was not in our time line.
PRAY, AND THEN PLAN
As senior pastor I have abided by the phrase, “pray, then plan.” So our leadership team decided to pray and see what God would have us do. His answer was very clear. It came to me as I read Jeremiah 33:3 one day: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (New American Standard Bible). He wanted us to pray as a church family.
Practically speaking, this answer was really no answer at all for how we were going to raise $2.5 million, but we decided to trust God and go full force with a prayer campaign. I believe God wanted to hear from his people here at Crossroads; he wanted to teach us the power of prayer; he wanted to reveal himself to people; and he wanted to rain down blessings that could be experienced only if we asked for them.
I shared our vision from the pulpit and asked people to make Jeremiah 33:3 their theme verse for the year. I challenged them to pray for a month about what their part in our financial campaign would be, and I asked them to expect great and mighty things.
One of our pastors became our pastor of prayer to make sure we kept our focus. She mobilized our prayer campaign by arranging 40 days of 24-hour prayer on our campus. People eagerly signed up for one-hour time slots to pray in our chapel for our church body and for this financial campaign.
We set up a camera in the chapel so people could log onto our Web site and see who was praying in the chapel. We also set up a prayer wall online where people could post their prayer requests and those in the chapel could see the requests and pray for them.
Our pastor of prayer organized classes to educate our members on what the Bible says about prayer. Our hope was that Crossroads would develop such a love for prayer that it would become the heart of who we are as a church.
PRAY, AND THEN WATCH GOD WORK
What started as a financial campaign turned into a powerful prayer campaign in which God revealed himself in great and mighty ways. As the prayer campaign gained momentum, the God stories filled my in-box.
Gary Gileno had been a victim of the downturn in the economy. He owned a family trucking business that was going down fast. Gary had always been committed to faithfully tithing, but there was no income from which to tithe. Spurred by my sermon to pray and expect great things, Gary felt God calling him to give to the church as if he were making money. He also felt God was telling him to make a significant financial commitment toward the church”s street improvement project.
It seemed impossible. He showed the figure to his wife, hoping she would talk some sense into him. Instead, she informed him God had spoken that same amount to her. That Sunday morning, they made the commitment and waited expectantly for God to show up. He did.
When the Gilenos returned home that afternoon, their son was on the phone with a former client whom they had lost to another trucking company. This client had been one of their largest accounts. The client asked Gary to take his account back as soon as possible. He was so desperate that he called on a Sunday.
When Gary shared this story with me, he said he never receives business calls on Sundays, much less at his home. Since that day, Gary”s trucking company has taken on three other contracts larger than the one he received that Sunday. God showed Gary great and mighty things.
Nick, who had been unemployed for more than a year, received three job offers in one week after seeking God in our prayer campaign. Jenny and Brawny found renewal in their marriage. Henry got a second job. Bob received a tax refund from the IRS from two years ago.
PRAY, AND BE CHANGED
The list of individuals who have found answers goes on and on. And the campaign also has had dynamic effects on our staff and church as a whole. Our staff has grown closer and formed new bonds. The number of decisions is higher than normal, our offerings are up, our church is more united than ever before, and the office morale is joyous.
What started out as an impossible financial campaign turned into a powerful prayer campaign through which God revealed himself to church members and leaders. This movement has spurred a ravenous appetite for prayer among our members. They have seen God fulfill his promise to tell them great and mighty things they do not know, and the people want to continue to call out to him.
God desires communication with his people. He asks us to talk to him, to call out, and pour out our hearts. I”ve seen many people this past month lay their desires before the Lord and I have seen him answer. I have witnessed people respond to God in obedience and I have seen him bless their obedience.
We brought our 40-day prayer campaign to an end by having our staff and elders fast for 24 hours before meeting in our chapel to pray together for the final hour. As we walked in, I greeted a woman praying there with her 4-year-old son.
She introduced us to her son and then had him recite the 23rd Psalm for us. His eloquence and memorization were beyond his years. I had goose bumps listening to him; I saw many of our leaders were in tears. It was an awesome way to enter into our time of prayer together. The chapel hour was filled with pure, honest, and intense prayers, grumbling stomachs, and joyful tears. It was beautiful to hear the hearts” desires of our leaders as they prayed.
At the beginning of this year, the $2.5 million mountain before us seemed like a nuisance and impossibility. God saw it as a mountain of opportunity on which he wanted to meet with his people and tell us great and mighty things. Prayer is now at the heart of Crossroads and people are being taken to new heights in their walk with Christ.
In this economy, many churches are facing what seem like impossible challenges. I hope our story encourages other church leaders to see these obstacles as opportunities to hear from God. Challenge your people to take Jeremiah 33:3 to heart and wait expectantly for great and mighty answers.
Oh, and because I know many of you are wondering, as of right now we have received more than $3 million in commitments, and the pledges are still coming in. God is indeed bigger than our downturned economy!
Chuck Booher is senior pastor with Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, California.
0 Comments