New Building Update, Pray With Me!

When will I learn? It seems to happen this way every time...
I have a big dream, like planting a church, moving from an established space to a new building that has to be gutted and rebuilt, or buying an old night club that was once a power station for Macon's trolley cars. Then I plan out how to get it done. I list out the people I think will help us financially - it all looks great on paper.
Then I begin my asks. One by one, all for good reason mys asks get the answer I wasn't planning on, "No" - "We just don't have it to give." "Oh, we're getting ready to start our own building fund." "Maybe, next time."

I am not exaggerating when I say that it has happened this way every, single time. I am also not exaggerating when I say that it crushes me.

When will I learn? It seems that, perhaps God doesn't want me taking any of the credit! 
When we started New City Church almost 8 years ago, he provided through people I never expected to give. I'll never forget the phone call that I got the week before our first service - it was a total stranger. He told me that he wouldn't be able to attend the service but was excited about our vision and asked where he could send a donation. I was so excited!  I thought wow, how amazing, a perfect stranger is going to give 2 or 3 hundred bucks! His check came a few days later - $6,600.
Then there was the couple I hardly knew. They came to 2 services. They were involved in another church but knew what we were doing. They gave $12,000 our first year.

Then there was the move into our current building. We didn't have much money but it seemed that God was opening every possible door into the building. Some how, he provided for the total gut and renovation of our space and I honestly still couldn't tell you how.

Today I am amazed again. 
The bare minimum needed to get into the building we have been prayerfully pursuing was $130,000.  OK, I thought, we have helped these churches, we planted that church, I have coached these guys - we should be able to get $____ thousand support from them and then we can raise the balance.  Once again the answers were, "no," or "we can't." UGH!
Once again God, I think, laughingly said, "Let me do this."
With a few weeks to spare and a huge surge in giving, we are at about 95% of our goal! God has provided through people I never would have imagined with gifts I never dreamed of! Just yesterday one of our folks handed me a check and said, "I'm doing this by faith! I believe that's where God wants us to be and we just need to make sure we get there!"

So, we're almost there!  God has been amazing already. 
Pray with me about the next few days!  I am praying that God would provide the balance of our goal by the 31st!  Then I praying that he might see fit to blow our goal away!
We are shooting for a mid-January closing and then it will be time to get busy.

Lord, thank you for being so patient with me!  Thank you for being so gracious to your people. Thank you for showing once again that you are far more able than I to accomplish far more than I could even dream of. I can't wait to see what's next! 

You can give in person on a Sunday morning, by mail to New City Church, Macon / 533 Cherry Street / Macon, Ga 31201, or through e-give by following the "click to give" link.