Jack Thomas is the pastor at LIFESTONE CHURCH in the South Side of Pittsburgh (APC's nineth church plant). Lifestone Church held its grand opening services in June of 2010 (just six months ago). In November of 2010, Lifestone held its first missions month with a goal to raise $10,000 fo missions.
All I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW. I am so proud of Jack and this young church for having such a big view of God and having such a 'kingdom' mindset. It is a temptation for a young church or even a small church to feel that they cannot afford to dream big or be generous.
Thank you Jack for leading your church to believe otherwise! Here's a portion of Jack's latest blog post which describes what is happening.
Several months ago while I was teaching a message series on relationships at our new church, I shared the vision for what would be the most challenging and stretching thing I could possibly ask my new church (of four months old) to do. Before I tell you what I shared with them, let me first tell you what God shared with me.
One day in early September, I was spending time with the Lord seeking his direction and leadership regarding a missions focus month we were going to do in November. I was asking God about strategy and vision for this month to help motivate our church to think and live missions. While I was praying for direction, the Lord spoke to me and said, “GIVE”. Seriously God? GIVE??
And thus began the argument/conversation that usually happens when God asks you to do something that seems a bit crazy or stretching. Needless to say, I lost the argument and knew I was hearing from God when I heard, “GIVE” in my spirit that day. I began to ask God, to who, how much and when should we give? God did not immediately tell me “who”, but he did smack me across the face with “how much”. He gave me the number $10,000. That’s right! $10K filled my heart and I knew the Lord was showing me that our church needed to set a goal and give $10,000 to missions in the month of November…ONE MONTH. Which can I remind you that we were only four months old and did not have that kind of money laying around to give. I heard responses from people outside our church like, “don’t you need that money?” “Why would you give away that much?”. And my answer to those questions were, “YES, we do need that money” and “YES, we do need that money”. $10,000 could really go a long way right now to further our ministry here or to help us save towards a permanent building in the near future.
However, there is nothing more important than obeying the calling of the Lord and that is what I heard and held myself accountable to. God’s Kingdom moving forward is more important to me that than $10,000 in our church pocket. So here is what the Lord showed me during this eye opening experience:
This goal is not so much about the $$$ amount as it is about the spiritual transformation that is going to happen as we pursue God to help us achieve this goal. The following three core elements are what I really wanted to see out of LSC during these four weeks:
- To develop a “Kingdom Minded” culture within the body of LSC.
- To see hearts transformed by envisioning not just South Side as our mission field, but the world as our mission field.
- To develop a culture of “Sacrificial Giving” within the body of LSC.
These three core elements were so important to me during this month because I felt they were extremely important to God. In other words, what is important to God is important to me.
So, now let me share with you what happened after that...
By the end of the month, we did not quite reach our goal of $10,000, HOWEVER, our church gave $8,000 above and beyond our regular tithe and offerings directly towards missions!!!!! THAT IS HUGE for a new church! God provided in a major way and so did the people of LifeStone Church! My hat goes off to each person that gave towards this huge goal of seeing and participating in changed lives all over the world! Thank you for your sacrificial giving!!!
YOU CAN READ THE FULL POST WITH SOME VERY SPECIFIC TESTIMONIES HERE.
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