FPCO Columns - March 2008

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  Children’s

Easter Egg Hunt  

Vol 48, #3 March, 2008

page 9

THE WAY ON TH

with Dr. David D. Swanson

Dear FPCO Family and Friends,

“…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.”    Ephesians 5:25-27 The Church. What an amazing, maddening, awed, beaubeautiful creation she is! In some moments, the church functions

Brennan Manning wrote in The Ragamufn Gospel  “The church must constantly be aware that its faith is weak, its knowledge dim, its profession of faith halting, that there is not a single sin or failing which it has not in one way or another been guilty of. But if it is constantly aware of its guilt and sin, it can live in the joyous awareness of forgiveness. The promise has been given to it that anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 just as God intended, wrapping wrapping her arms a around round those in need or revealing truth in a confused culture. Yet at other times, she lives in the midst of the sin possessed by those who inhabit

That’s us. That’s the church in all her glory. And even lled  with the likes of you and me, Go God d uses us. For good. For trans trans--

her – namely, you and me. Sometimes we get it right, somesome times we get it wrong, but always, always, we desire the very thing which Paul described: to present her to the Lord as pure – without wrinkle or stain or blemish. That is our calling, and sometimes I think we forget just what a holy privilege that is.

formation. For restoration. For healing. The bride of Christ, His Church, has been entrusted to us in this place so that she can make a difference in the world, be the hope of the world. To be sure, there are challenges before us. We’ve had to adjust and adapt to the increasing cost of doing ministry downdown-

Together with our pastors and elders, we have set a vision for this church. We want to move in the ways that God is lead lead-ing us, and we strongly believe those to be in worship, prayer and community – every member in discipleship and every member actively serving. What makes the church strong, and  what makes us strong in the chu church, rch, is whe when n we worshi worship, p, when

town. Uncertain economic times create strain for all of us. Even so, our vision for worship, prayer, and community is clear and our resolve to move towards that vision is rm. I pray that you will take our call in this seriously. I pray that the church – our church – will be more to you than a place to sit on Sundays, or a comfortable place for social relationrelation-

 we pray, when when we study God’s word in communi community ty with others,

ships, but that she would be the t he radiant bride of Christ, gently

and when we use our gifts to give and serve. Without each of those elements, we founder under the weight of our humanity – under the burden of wanting to be our own Lord. One of our members, cognizant of the struggle to be the church, wrote me

placed in your hands, to be the light of the world. Join us. In  vest in what God is doing here. Take part. Give. Study. Serve. Pray. Worship. Worship. Draw together with us that we mig might ht be the church – His church – as He truly

these words:

desires us to be.

“We are a sometimes-living, sometimes-dying, breathtaking, messy example of an undertaking so great it is doomed to fail without divine intervention, right? But if it’s true, and I believe it is: I believe it with every sancti ed, immoral, immoral, bur burning ning,, fearful, fearful, furious, furious, beauti beautiful ful ber of my being... if there is more, then we have already won the day. And we won’t deserve it, and we can’t even properly explain it, but we will have been met by the greatest and most soul-rattling Love in all of history and eternity. And  He will will make up fo forr the rest. rest.”  ”  

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 With expectant hope and and joy, I remain  Your pastor and and friend,

David

Signifcant Progress Made on Immeasurably More Campaign by Dr. Keith Wright, Administrative Pastor   At the end of 2007, several signicant developments alallowed us to make some very positive progress on our Immea surably More Campaign. The Heart of the City Foundation  Foundation  made a grant to First Presbyterian Church in the amount of $780,000 to be

That brings the church’s outstanding long term debt to $6,814,649 ($6,100,899 on the ba bank nk mortgage, and $713,750 on a loan from 2000 from the Heart of the City Foundation).  We anticipate distributing distributing another $250,000 in grants to our IM Mission Mission Partners in March, 2008.

applied to the Immeasurably Immeasurably More Campaign. Campaign. This grant is  based on the current value of a piece of property received as a part of the campaign. campaign. Due to the recent downturn downturn in the real estate market, we had been unsuccessful in monetizing this dodonation of land. By taking a long term positi position on in the property as a part of its investment portfolio, the Heart of the City Foun Foun-dation was able to make this grant—providing liquid funds that advance the campaign’s goals.

 Although we were able to reduce the amount of the line item earmarked for interest payments, that amount is still $375,000 for the 2008 2008 budget. That’s still a lot of ministry that could be done! done! That’s still a lot lot of money that could be leveraged toward the 10 Vision Points that Dr. Swanson has presented to our congregation.

 Year-end gifts gifts   to the Immeasurably More Campaign  were also also very strong. All told, $1,378,964 was received during 2007 toward Immeasurably Immeasurably More! We praise God for the faithfaithful and ongoing giving demonstrated by our congregation!

Immeasurably More Campaign:

 As a reminder, reminder, the Immeasurably More Cam Campaign paign has three major goals:

1)  

To eliminate the church’s long-term debt (90% of the funds received)

2)    

To make several several large mission grants to further further the Kingdom work of selected mission organizations (10% of the funds received)

3)    

To fund 10 long-term long-term strategic vision points for FPCO (by redirecting monies currently being use to pay interest to the bank, toward these initiatives).

The combined impact of the Heart of the City Foundation Grant, as well as the strong giving in 2007 by our congregation,  was $2,158,964! $2,158,964! In accordance with the campaign goals,  we have allocated these gifts as follows: 1)  

$1,787,000 has been forwarded to SunTrust Bank  for debt repayment (90% of funds on-hand).

2)  

$234,088 has been set aside for the next round of  mission grants (10% of funds on-hand).

3)      

The interest line item in the 2008 2008 Operating Operating Budget has been reduced by $275,ooo ($650,ooo in 2007reduced to $375,000 in 2008), freeing up those funds to be redistribute redistributed d for other ministry 

 

priorities.

Here are a few thoughts to ponder regarding the

• We are half-way there! The 4-year campaign started started   on Palm Palm Sunday Sunday 2006, and will conclude conclude on Easter Easter   Sunday 2010. • Remember that the campaign’s goals were larger then   only paying off the church’s long-term debt! The   campaign was not called the “Let’s “Let’s Just Get Enough   to Pay-Off the Debt Campaign.” Let’s keep the “more”   in “Immeasurably “Immeasurably More,” More,” and trust God to exceed exceed   our human expectations. •          

Consider accelerating your your Immeasurably Immeasurably More contributions. As stated above, our annual operating budget still contains contains a large budget earmark for interest payments. If you have the ability to get ahead on your IM pledge, that would help the church church tremendously.

•          

If you haven’t yet participated in the Immeasurably  Immeasurably  More campaign, you still can do so! Perhaps you didn’t make make a pledge during the campaign…you can still give! Perhaps you were not yet a member of  FPCOat the time we had the campaign… campaign… you can still still join with your fellow church members to help us

  •            

fini sh the campaign strong. finish We have a limited number number of DVDs of the ImmeasuImmeasuably More Celebrations. This DVD contains the full full presentation made on Immeasurably More. Viewing the DVD DVD is a great great way to learn all about about the the campaign goals, the 10 Vision Vision Points, and the IM IM Mission Grants. Please contact Dr. Keith Wright if  you would like a copy of the DVD.

• You can view information information on the Immeasurably  Immeasurably    More, on the campaign website: www.fpco.org/more

www.fpco.org | 3

  A Recipe for

Restoration

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