by Jonathan Thornton, pastor of Cornerstone International Church in Oakton, Virginia
Three years ago, my family and I had the privilege of coming to pastor Cornerstone International Church. It was a church of about 10 people on a good Sunday. They had not had a pastor in four years. We felt God’s call on our lives to come and reconnect the church people with the mission and person of Christ.
In 2015 I went to Council in Long Beach, California, and heard President John Stumbo’s challenge to our churches to give at least 10 percent of our income to the Great Commission Fund (GCF). I got excited by this challenge and wanted to make sure that our tiny church would give 10 percent of our income to the GCF that year.
I went home and looked up our giving numbers from the year before and realized we had given about $4,500 (about 6 percent) to the GCF in 2014. I went to my church and simply asked them if we could commit to giving to missions and raise that percentage to 10 percent in 2015, which we did through Him!
Bigger Ways
In 2016 we had some more focused time of prayer and attention to missions, and we continued to push the Great Commission Fund and people giving toward it. Last year we were astounded by what God had done in our church when we ended the year at about 17 percent or almost $8,000 to the GCF. We were so encouraged by the move of God in the lives and hearts of our tiny church to invest in the Kingdom of God overseas.
Then this year my whole family had the opportunity to attend Council. My wife, Erika, and I were sitting in the evening session listening to Mark Ashton preach. We felt like he was speaking right to us. He had a great message (which you should watch if you haven’t already) where he challenged all of us to give to missions in bigger and more sacrificial ways.
At one point he said, “If your church raised $8,000 last year, shoot for $10,000 this year.” When he said that, Erika and I looked at each other, and we knew that was for us and our little church. We felt if God could raise $8,000 one year, why couldn’t He raise $10,000 through our church the next year?
New Goal
We got home, and we simply asked our church, “What if we try to give $10,000 to missions by the end of 2017?” Honestly, I was not sure if we would make that number; our church is so small and does not have much of a budget. On a good week our church has about 35 people. However, we were recently going over our church finances and looking at our giving, and we realized, as of today, our church has given $10,001 to the Great Commission Fund.
My wife was so excited at what God had done that she started jumping up and down and screaming. We are so amazed at the goodness of God, and we are going to celebrate this! Then we realized that if we could raise another $3,000 in the next three months our church would have given $20,000 in just two years as a church to the Great Commission Fund. Now that’s our new goal!
Whatever happens, we’re having a blast watching how God shows up when we decide to make our lives about the Kingdom of God and seeing His Name proclaimed. I hope that you are as encouraged as I am, and I want to remind you that God can use any church, no matter how small, to fulfill His purposes.
Will you spend some time asking God what He has asked you and your church to give to missions? I eagerly await to hear all the other stories from our churches of how God showed up in your situations to meet the goals that He has put on your hearts.