Dear friends,
Some people in our church like the fact that we rent. Some people in our church dislike renting and long for the day when we own property. In all things we need to pray for a desire to do God’s will and a desire to do His will as we seek His glory. If we are not doing this, we are in trouble. We are always dependent on His grace and provision — please pray we develop habits of dependence on His grace and His provision. We never actually ‘own’ anything. This does not mean we should or should not rent. It just means that God is the owner — we become stewards either of the resources to ‘rent’ or the resources to ‘own’ but we are always stewards.
It is a good thing to pray for property which we own. In a city like Ottawa, we will, sooner or later, need to own some or all of the property which we use for gospel ministry. Here are some insights to help you as you pray.
There are four ‘stages’ that affect how people give money. There is the ‘blank cheque’ stage. This is the first stage when people give money because God has led them to give AND because they trust the church and its mission and vision. This stage of giving is very important — and it is also a stage where many people hold back from giving. The second stage is when the church leadership can say we want to buy this particular piece of land and build/renovate so that the end result will look like this. Most people are most likely to give sacrificially at this stage. The third stage comes when the land is bought and the work is almost finished. Some people are only motivated to give when they see — “This is really happening.” The final stage is when everyone is moved in to the new property but the church is carrying a mortgage. Some people are highly motivated to pay off mortgages. We are obviously in the first stage — ‘blank cheque’ giving where people do not know where the property will be and what it looks like.
To be clear, at any stage, God can work a miracle — the land is given or the property is sold for a small percentage of its worth. God still does do miracles. If we were to be led to a great property right now, we would need to pray for God to work a miracle, because we do not have the financial resources on hand to buy. So pray that we will be united around His will. Pray for miracles of provision as well!
Under the mercy,
George+
