As you may have heard, our neighbor Mrs. Foster has rescinded her offer to sell us her 2 acres of property to our east so that she might build a small home and live there. She wanted to be sure I expressed her thankfulness and apologies to the congregation. While this is a disappointing development for us, there is a silver lining.
First, we’ve built a good and positive relationship with Mrs. Foster and we will gain an excellent neighbor. It also opens the possibility for a potential future purchase in the years ahead if she is so inclined.
Second, many of the donors have agreed to convert their gifts from property purchase to mortgage debt retirement, or helping to pay for the new sanctuary rooftop furnace that failed (approximately $75K cost).
With $350,000 gifts in hand, that means between the furnace and the mortgage payoff, we are now less than $90,000 away from being completely debt free, which is miraculous considering we had somewhere north of $825,000 of debt when I arrived three years ago.
So while disappointing, there is some Good News in it all. Thank you to each of you who have given generously to the property purchase, mortgage retirement, or sanctuary furnace.
If you have have not yet made a special gift to these projects, please prayerfully consider doing so. I am confident that St John can be debt free (and warm in the sancatuary!) this fall as a result of your generosity.
A special thank you to Clint Lentfer, Jon Dawson, Hugh Miller, Craig Floerchinger, Kenny Gerondale, David Nicolai, Aimie Chase, Rick Clark and so many others who worked hard to make this possible. I am so blessed and honored and humbled to be your pastor. God bless you all.
Pastor Andy
Extravagant Giving
My dear and generous friends,
I cannot even begin to express my joy and gratitude for the amazing work you have done in such a short amount of time.
Back in 2003, you recognized the need for new and different space for St John, and you stepped out in faith to build the All Saints Wing, housing our gym, commercial kitchen, fellowship hall, youth rooms, and classroom space. (Its hard to imagine ministry at St John without the use of those spaces today!)
To make this dream happen, you pledged millions in gifts to support the project, and borrowed $1.75 million. Nine years later, in 2012, St John refinanced $1.1 million. When I came to be your pastor in 2015, just three years ago, we still owed over $825,000.
A year ago, our neighbor Mrs. Foster approached us about purchase her land. After many months of conversations and negotiations, Mrs. Foster rescinded the offer for now, choosing to keep her land and potentially move back in. So many of you gave generously in support of this effort, and then allowed your gifts to be redirected toward debt reduction.
A few months ago, when the trustees learned the rooftop furnace for the sanctuary had failed, you didn't flinch at the $61,000 replacement cost and many of you gave generously.
As of today, St John is debt free. The mortgage is paid. We are awaiting the final invoice on the furnace, but the money is in the bank, all because of YOU and your extravagant generosity.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your faithfulness. Dave Ramsey is famous for quoting Proverbs 22:7 The borrower is slave to the lender. Friends, we are slaves no more! I am so excited to see what God has in store for us in this next chapter of life in being debt free.
Truly I tell you, I am humbled and honored to be your pastor and I thank God for each and every one of you. May God bless you and yours as richly as you have been a blessing.
Your fellow disciple,
Pastor Andy
Eating a Wrath Sandwich
It can be very tasty if you think about it. But it requires a shift in our definitions of "wrath". When the bread is made of love, it can be quite a satisfying sandwich. Here's an example of a blog post, although yours may be much longer.
