Church Helping Church
Category: Hurricane Katrina...
Posted Monday, December 19, 2005 at 04:38 PM [GMT-6]

Our church building is constructed in a kind of rectangle shape with a large open area in the middle. Last year, the membership approved a project to enclose that open area -- to put a glass roof over it -- and convert the space into an atrium that can be used for a combination of things, including an indoor playground area, a coffee shop, a general meeting/gathering area, etc. The cost for doing this work is expected to be around $2 million, and a capital commitment program was kicked off to raise the money (we further decided not to proceed until sufficient commitments were in hand to do the project). Fund raising rocked along and by Labor Day we were at about 60% of our goal.

Then Hurricane Katrina hit.

It took a while for the full extent of the damage along the Gulf Coast to sink in, and even as a number of our members headed that direction to help with relief efforts, our missions committee and staff were evaluating how we might provide a different kind of assistance. That opportunity came in the form of a sister Baptist church located in Mississippi. The church sustained $500,000 in damages from the wind and flooding, and only $83,000 was covered by insurance. Almost every member of that congregation either lost their home or suffered extensive damage to it, so it would be a burden-upon-burden for them to rebuild both home and church.

Our congregation has stepped up and assumed the responsibility for payment of the remaining $417,000 for repairs, using several sources of funds. One primary source is the diversion of up to 10% of commitments made to our own building program, described above. Everyone making a commitment to that program has been offered the option of approving a "tithe" of that pledge or gift to be sent to the church in Mississippi...and I suspect that the response will be almost unanimously favorable.

This action will likely mean a delay in getting our own work done, but it's a live model of Jesus' reminder that it's more blessed to give than to receive. On the other hand, God's mysterious ways being what they are, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that the funds that our church members send to the Gulf Coast are replenished in an amazing fashion.

I'm sure stories like this are being repeated around the country, but possibly not getting much publicity. I'm sharing this in the hope that it might be an encouragement for others to give in a sacrificial manner to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. I'm pretty sure they'd do the same for us, if the shoe was on the other foot.