What is God going to do...

It is a question I ask every Sunday that I preach. I know God will move but I never know how. Today could have gone either way. In our worship concert, in response to Isaiah's "Here am I, send me", I challenged the congregation to live as "sent" people. For us right now, that has to include giving generously. The Pursuit continues to struggle. I shared that The Pursuit is like the Titanic: We are going down. Except, people keep getting on because they love being on it! I said we are like a search and rescue boat that is taking on water but is still going full throttle because there are so many people to reach.

I challenged those that believe in what we are doing to give 3% more of their income if their income hasn't been cut. I figure that if teachers and state employees are being forced to cut their income, maybe some of us could voluntarily do it to further God's work here. I announced that I decided to take a 15% paycut until The Pursuit's "recession" is over. I shared the generosity of our staff, ten households that give an average of $456 a month (that's 12.4% of our income). In fact, we pay for three of our staff salaries just by ourselves! I encouraged people to visit www.investinthepursuit.org if they wanted to give but didn't come prepared to do so. It could have gone either way, but it was readily apparent by the way we sang "We Shine" after we took our offering that God moved.

It isn't going to be one day, or even one month, that turns things around for us. But as I said to a few staff in the office afterwards, "If there was ever a group of people that is so passionate about God that I would expect them to step up, it is the people at The Pursuit." It is such a joy to serve such a great family. People can keep getting on the boat. We'll keep moving ahead full throttle. We are the redeemed!