By Michael White, Lead Pastor, Harbor Covenant Church
“Money follows mission.” I’m sure lots of people have said it, but I first heard it from Walter Contreras. It gave me a lot to think about. The churches I have served, like many others, always struggled with finances. There was far more ministry than there was money. “Money follows mission.” I rolled it around in my head for weeks. And I began to ask myself and my staff and our leaders about whether or not we really had a vision for mission or we were just trying to keep our doors open. It was brutal when I saw that we had not, ok, I’ll take responsibility, I had not cast an effective vision for the mission to which I believed God was calling us. People were not motivated to give, because we hadn’t really given them something to give to.
Over the next couple of years, we worked really hard to figure out what it was that God called us to do, to do that, and to communicate effectively what we had done. As we did that, money began to follow mission. I was a bit of a late convert to this idea. I always felt that people should give money simply because they love God. And they do. But, they get more excited and they give more when they see the impact that there giving is making.
Two years ago, we decided that we were going to have a capital campaign to pay off our mortgage. We were driven by the possibilities we would have if we could free up over $50,000 per year for ministry instead of debt service. We decided that as a part of the campaign we would tithe to something outside of our walls. The tithe ended up being about $75,000. We made some plans for what we were going to do with that money. They were good plans. We donated about $25,000 to fund those plans. And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
When we began to get some scope of the need created by the pandemic, we began to ask ourselves, “How can we help and make an impact in our community?” Someone came up with the idea that we buy grocery gift cards and distribute them to local restaurant workers who had lost their jobs. Over the first few weeks of the pandemic, we distributed nearly $50,000 worth of grocery cards. The thank you notes we received back were so touching. We also sent money to a collective in the Philippines and to villages in India. Our congregation was thrilled that we were able to help so many people. Then, the money was gone, but the need wasn’t.
We began to pray about what was next. Then one day, I got a call on my cell phone from some town in the Midwest that I had never heard of. It had to be a robocall, so I didn’t get it. They didn’t leave a message. A couple days later, same number calls again. This time they left a voice mail. It went something like this, “I represent a family foundation that has heard about what your church is doing and we would like to talk with you about giving you a grant.” Color me skeptical, but this sounded too good to be true. Then I remembered a passing comment that someone had made to me a few weeks before, “You might be getting a phone call from someone who would like to help our church out.” Hmmmm. Maybe this was real.
With hope overcoming my skepticism, I called the guy back. He asked a few questions about what we had done with the money that we had had. I told him about our heart for the Philippines and India and our desire to help people who were food insecure in our area with hopes of eventually sharing the gospel with them. After he listened he said, “That’s exactly the type of thing we would like to support.” He asked me to come up with an informal pitch and we scheduled a phone call for the next week.
When we talked next, I shared what I thought God was calling us to: More money for the Philippines to keep people employed, more money for villages in India to help feed hungry people and more money to help people experiencing food insecurity at home. Then he said two things that blew me away. “In this round of grants, you are the only organization that wants money to do something outside of their own walls. What if we make it $100,000?”
100 Grand?! You bet I’ll take 100 Grand! 5 or 6 years ago, we would have been one of those organizations looking for grant money to keep our doors open. But because we believed that money follows mission, we are in a position to make a difference for the kingdom of God in our community and our world.
We are currently in the process of disbursing the money. We will give to some of the organizations that we gave to in the past. We are expanding into partnerships with other ministries. Perhaps the most exciting thing is that we have enlisted our congregation. They can get 3-5 gift cards (or more!) to disburse to people who have need within their spheres of influence. We have asked them to tell us to whom they will give the cards and why. Then we’ve asked that they tell us what the response to the cards was. It’s been so encouraging to see the number of our people who have deep enough relationships in the community that they know what the needs are. Our desire is that the gift from the church will open up deeper level of conversations so that our people have a chance to share the hope that lies within them to people who are having a rough go of it during these chaotic times. We are thankful that more money has followed our pursuit of mission.
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