THERE'S POWER IN THIS STORY
Who doesn't love to read a book or watch a movie where someone overcomes a giant in their life? Last Vision Sunday, we gave a name to the giant we felt God asked us to defeat as a church...and the giant's name? Debt. And together, as we gave towards Shine Bright, we watched as God allowed us to defeat a large portion of that debt - one of our two loans (over $317K!). But the war is not over yet and we won't stop until this giant is totally eliminated.
So, when you give, you make an impact both today, and tomorrow–for generations to come! With the debt eliminated, it allows the story to go on to impact more and more people (both domestic and international) and to introduce them to the greatest hero of all: Jesus.
THE FAITH & COMMITMENT TO KEEP FIGHTING
It's been said that true faith comes to the surface when things get hard, when life throws you curve balls and unexpected things happen. Will you stay committed to the fight when you aren't sure how God is going to come through? I know these sentiments and thoughts have crossed my mind, and I'm sure you've had times in life where you felt the same.
But the question it comes down to is this one: Did God tell us to eliminate this debt or not? I have to say, there have been days when I've questioned that myself. But what I love about this church–this amazing group of people and leaders–is at the very moment we start to question things, God pulls us together to reaffirm the strength of His promise!
So, what I do know is this: I believe that eliminating this debt may be one of the most important things we will ever do as a church. I've described debt like a noose around our neck, and though I'm certainly not trying to over-dramatize the situation, sending money to the bank each month and living with this remaining $750K over our heads hinders us from being the church we know we are...one that is aggressively looking to tear down the darkness of the enemy's kingdom, and see the Kingdom of God coming to earth here on the east side of Cleveland.