Big Church - Lots of Money

NOT!

Lots of people think that big churches have lots of excess money. They think that big churches have lots of people which means lots of money to do lots of whatever the church wants.

Let me share with you some reasons why this is not the case.

Big churches have big visions which takes big dollars! At NewPointe we have lots and lots of ideas about how to "Lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ". We not only have a lot of ministries happening within our walls, but we also have a lot opportunities to reach people in our community as well as in the world (i.e. Iraq and Egypt). All of these initiatives take significant funding.

Big churches are typically growing and attracting people who have never been to church before. So a good portion of the people are new to the faith and don't yet understand the spiritual discipline of tithing.

At NewPointe we are indeed blessed with an unbelievable building. It is a great tool to reach people. It also takes a lot of money to maintain.

Just like you have to watch that you don't spend more than you make, at NewPointe we do the same thing. At the end of 2007 we worked really hard on putting together a budget for 2008. Most people would be surprised to know how hard we had to cut items in the budget to make our expenses match our revenue. We manage every dollar we spend with a very critical eye.

While we work hard to manage our money at NewPointe and don't have "lots of money" laying around, we do not view money as a problem. We believe NewPointe is God's work and He will provide the resources needed to make it happen. Its really all His to begin with.

Let me wrap-up by telling you a quick story. This past year was our first year in the new building and we really weren't sure how to budget for all these new expenses. Plus, all the experts told us that our offerings would drop for the first couple of years. So even after we cut as much as we could out of the budget, we were still expecting to fall short by $265,000. For most of the year we were tracking right on budget. However in the last two months of the year God showed up in an unbelievable way. When the final offerings were tallied, we received $268,000 more dollars than we were expecting. Which meant instead of finishing in the red, we finished in the black by $3,000.

Wow! This is one of the most fantastic God moments I have ever experienced. Its like God sent us a message, "Hey, this is My work and I'll provide the resources you need. Just keep being obedient to what I am asking you to do as a church!"

God is at work at NewPointe!!!