Why You Should Give - Part 2

In the last Tom’s Take, I shared two reasons to consider making a gift to Rebuilt. In this edition, I will share two more. As I mentioned last week, please keep reading even if you don’t think you want to give, as this will include some spiritual nuggets.

A Third Reason to give your financial support to Rebuilt is that we are making an impact. We see growth and health in our parishes.

One of our partners, St. Hilary’s in Tiburon, CA saw the impact of Nativity’s mission work and wanted to hire their own missions director. We gave them some guidance and a simple plan to get moving. They hired a missions director and are now seeing great results. They have started mission trips to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. They are now making an impact not only in their community but also in the developing world.

We are seeing great impact at St. Albert the Great parish in Austin, TX. The parish is bursting at the seams. They are growing and reaching both the Latino community in Austin and also young adults because they have taken the principles of our Rebuilt model and applied them. They have done the hard work but our support and coaching have been instrumental to their growth.

St. Albert’s and St. Hilary’s are just two of the many parishes we are serving and helping to grow.

We are also seeing great impact and momentum in our partner parishes when it comes to small groups. The parishes that went through our small groups course over the last couple of years have had great success. Every single parish we have worked with has not only successfully launched small groups, they have successfully embedded them in their culture and exceeded their goals.

The Fourth Reason to support Rebuilt is because we have an incredible vision for the future. By giving, you are helping us set the foundation for future health and growth.

We know that parish growth and health both require long obedience in the same direction. It took time for the rebuilding process to occur at Nativity, the home parish and laboratory for Rebuilt. When people ask how long, we say 5/5/5. Five years to figure out we didn’t know what we were doing, and wasting a great amount of time and energy. Then we had five years of learning and implementing. Then five years of implementation and transformation. Our hope is to shorten the learning curve for parishes, but it still takes time. We are believing that God will do great things through our ministry. We know, as we partner with God that he is going to use Rebuilt to change and transform hundreds of parishes into disciple-making machines.

We are working so that hundreds of our partner parishes will be changed and transformed, hundreds of thousands of people switched on in their faith. Imagine an NFL stadium filled two times over with people who don’t go to church simply out of obligation but who go to church to praise and worship the living God, who serve, who give their financial resources, who support one another in faith, who pray for the world, and who share their faith with others.

Our vision is to help transform hundreds of parishes who will raise up hundreds of thousands of Christ followers who will be a light to millions of people in our country and across the world. We are believing and trusting in God to fulfill this vison.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul takes the first two and a half chapters to communicate the incredible riches and blessings that God has given them in the person of Jesus Christ. Then he sums it all up with this point in Ephesians 3:20: “Glory to him whose power working within us can accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine, by the power at work within us.”

God is able to accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine by the power at work with in us. Our dreams, our visions for the future matter. We dream dreams and visions. Then God goes to work. God responds by doing more than we ask or imagine. He exceeds our dreams and visions by working in us and through us. He gives us his power. The Greek word for this is dynamis, from which we get the word dynamite. It is an explosive power to impact the world.

It is our responsibility to ask God and imagine the greater things. It is God’s joy and pleasure to exceed our expectations. He will always do more. He will blow us away as he accomplishes far more than we ask.

Paul concludes in Ephesians 3:21, “To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen,”

The Church is God’s chosen instrument to reveal his power and his glory. It is his instrument for people to understand the truth of what God has done for them and who they are in Christ. It is God’s instrument to transform people into the character of Christ.

It is our privilege to be part of this movement. It is our privilege to serve God in our generation and to know that we are part of a two-thousand-plus-year movement that continues into eternity. A thousand years from now there probably won’t be a Disney, an Apple, or a Google; but there will be a Church.

If you believe in this vision and dream, if you want to be a part of our movement, I invite you to make a gift to Rebuilt. You can do so at rebuiltparish.com/give

Thanks for taking time to read. I hope these thoughts are helpful for you in your own personal faith or in teaching others about generosity.

As always
Rooting for you,
Tom