06649
December 7, 2006

California congregation reaches $1 million Mission Initiative goal in four months

Final $65,000 pledged between worship services on Oct. 29

by Emily Enders Odom
Mission Initiative communications officer

LONG BEACH, CA — When the Rev. Steve Wirth entered the pulpit of Grace First Presbyterian Church here to preach a stewardship sermon on Oct. 29, he had no inkling that a couple in the church would take up his charge to be faithful stewards quite so immediately.

     No sooner had Wirth announced that the congregation was just $65,000 shy of its $1 million goal to transform churches in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, than a couple followed him to his office, envelope in hand.

     “That’s what you asked for, wasn’t it,” said the anonymous couple, as they presented Wirth with a $5,000 check and a pledge card for the remaining $60,000. Rendered nearly speechless, Wirth found his voice by the second worship service later that morning in order to announce that the campaign had reached its goal.

     “There was quite a bit of enthusiasm at the second service,” Wirth reported.

     The 687-member congregation, which had launched its $1 million campaign just this past August, met — and has since exceeded — its challenging fundraising goal in less than four months.

     Through both its financial and hands-on commitment, Grace First is already supporting the needs of at least two redevelopment churches in the Gulf region, including Berean Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, LA, and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, MS.

     “Our people looked at the fundraising challenge from the perspective of abundance, not scarcity,” said Elder Bill Saul, co-chair of Grace First’s campaign committee and former chair of the national Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) steering committee. “People are very generous when you spell out the needs.”

     The MIJHH is a five-year, $40 million campaign to raise funds for new overseas mission personnel and for church redevelopment and new church development in this country, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.

     “For a church of our size to accomplish what we did in that brief window of time is nothing short of a miracle,” Saul said.