Dear Friends,
For pastors and churches, the call for help is
a not a new call. It seems like we are always being asked to help
someone, some church, or some para-church organization or program. It is
to the point that when we do get a call to help, we many times do not give it
as much consideration because we cannot help everyone. Most of the time, we are
stretched to the breaking point as it is. But lest we forget, our mission
is to help and that all starts with the local church. One of the Bible
commands to help is found in Galatians 6:10, "As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith." I believe many churches are missing greater
blessings because we are not doing what we can to help others. Instead, we tend
to concentrate most of our resources almost exclusively on our own needs as a
church, and others are left fending for themselves. When it comes to
church planting and helping young churches, I have wanted to do more as a
pastor. This year when Hurricane Sandy struck the North East, I asked our
church to help young churches specifically; and for God’s glory, we were able
to do that as well as an help an established work. Now another need of a
young church has come to my attention, and I want to lead our church in helping
them. But I want to do more for them by asking you to help as well.
The following letter is from Pastor Barnabus Schwanke of the Faithway Baptist
Church in Lowden County, Virginia. Although I am not a close personal
friend, I have preached for Bro. Schwanke, seen his work, felt his heartbeat
for the ministry, and feel compelled to help him as this great opportunity has
presented itself. The following letter explains the opportunity, and I
would like to challenge my preacher friends to take an offering to try to help
this young church establish itself in the spiritually needy area of Northern
Virginia. Please feel free to contact me or Bro. Schwanke directly for
more information. Our church is going to take a love offering and send a
minimum of $1,000 to help them reach their goal. Maybe you can do more or
perhaps not as much, but I know if all of us did something this would not be a
difficult goal to reach. I have counseled Bro. Schwanke that Faithway
needs to bear the brunt of this load as a local church, but we certainly can
come along side and help them for the glory of Christ. Please read the
following letter from him and prayerfully consider what you or your church can
do. We talk of joining together for the cause of Christ, now lets put our talk into action by helping this young church plant!
Thank you,
Bro. Brent
Greetings!
In March of 2008, Faithway Baptist Church was born for the Glory of God.
Since then, we have seen many people saved, baptized, and added to His Church.
What God has done in restoring lives and mending broken hearts the past four
years is truly miraculous. In 2012, we have been averaging about 85 people for
Sunday attendance despite meeting in three different locations throughout the
week for services.
The Realities of Church Planting: For the past five years, we have been
praying for God to give us a permanent place to call home. Since Loudoun County
is one of the most expensive places in America to buy real estate, the dream of
having our own church building has seemed impossible until now. As our church
grew, we spent over $150,000 renting various churches and schools, further
evidence we desperately need a church building to call home.
A Gift from God: After waiting the Lord’s timing, He has provided an amazing
opportunity we KNOW is from Him. We were recently notified that we had received
the commitment of a $450,000 interest-free loan to aid in the purchase of
Faithway Baptist Church’s first permanent facility and we are praising the
Lord!
The Search for a Church Home: We immediately went to work trying to find
property that we could purchase for $450,000 and quickly realized nothing in
that budget within Loudoun County that could accommodate our church.
Subsequently, however, the Lord led us to some industrial–flex space warehouse
units for sale in a prime location. Amazingly, if we landed this location, there
would be an estimated 50,000 cars that would drive by our church sign every
day!
The only contingency for receiving the $450,000 gift is for our church to
remain debt-free. Although we are able to purchase this building for the amount
given to us, we will not be able to adequately build-it-out and turn it into a
church with the savings we currently have in the bank. In researching the cost
of the buildout, it was established we would need a further investment of
approximately $250,000. Over the past five years, God has allowed our church to
save $55,000 in our "Vision Fund” and is committed to giving an additional
over the next three months towards this project.
We need your help: Our Faithway Family has prayerfully committed giving
almost $100,000 in order to make this dream a reality, but we still covet your
help and partnership in the following ways:
Finances: We need to raise $100,000 for the buildout costs by the time we
close on February 15th.
Labor: We are praying that God will allow us to occupy the space by the
first Sunday of June and consequently would need help with construction.
Prayer: Please pray for the many logistical and technical details that need
to be worked out as Satan would like nothing better than to hinder the Lord’s
light from from shining here in Loudoun County,Virginia.
Our vision is to hold our first service in the new facility on Sunday, June
2nd, 2013 to coincide with the celebration of our fifth anniversary. Though
plans are tentative and dependent upon the Lord answering every prayer, we
firmly believe that we are headed in the direction of His will. Should God lay
it upon your heart to partner with us as we cross the Jordan and journey to the
promised land of our first building, we rejoice greatly because the time is NOW!!
We look forward to seeing God’s hand continue to move as we press forward
towards the future in honoring and serving Him.
Serving Him,
-Pastor Barnabas Schwanke
