It's been over a decade after Encounter Church's launch, the time has come to invest in a permanent home. After prayerful consideration, we had entered into a "Rent with the Option to Buy" contract for the building at 8110 Corporate Blvd. Taking into consideration many factors, such as the impending rise of interest rates, we have prayerfully decided that this is the right time to purchase the property. A down payment of $220,000 and $230,000 in essential renovations are needed in order to make 8110 Corporate Blvd our "home for good."
May we invite you as lavish custodians of God’s resources and cheerful curators of our church’s future to give the most generous and cheerful gift you can give?
Western worldview encourages us to see ourselves as owners of our resources. In the Biblical frame of reference, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” [Psalm 24.1]. Hence, the Biblical worldview envisions us not as the owners but as stewards who have been trusted with resources and the care of everything—Creation, gifts and talents, money, time, the gospel—for the sake of God's purposes in the world [Genesis 1.28; 1 Peter 4.10]. The idea of stewardship implies that we are accountable to God for what we do and with what he has trusted to us.
This notion of stewardship changes how we approach giving as Encounter church. On the one hand, giving is not an optional extra reserved for wealthy members of our community but rather a shared responsibility for the advancement of the mission that God has entrusted us with as a church. On the other hand, giving is not constrained by any predetermined giving level or percentage of income, but rather invites a thoughtful and prayerful pondering of the strategic and effective ways of investing lavishly of God's resources entrusted to our care. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” [2 Corinthians 9.7]. Hence, as stewards of God-given resources we seek to cheerfully and lavishly invest what God has entrusted us with for the sake of his glory and the advancement of his kingdom.