Some Statistics on Giving

Here are some statistics our pastor, Pat Hood, recently posted on his blog.

"80% of the world's evangelical wealth is in North America and that total represents way more than enough to fund the Great Commission... We must give generously in order to be a Sending Church...

In 2007, 1.9 billion worldwide (28% of population) had yet to hear the gospel...we MUST be a Sending Church...

In 2004, church members gave 2.5% of their income to the church.  If they had tithed obediently, there would've been an additional $164 BILLION to fund the Great Commission.

Annual giving $19 billion between now & 2015 could eliminate global starvation.  An additional $15 billion could provide universal access to clean water.

Conservative estimates indicate that $1 billion a year could be all that's needed to complete the Great Commission.

In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 TRILLION in income.

Only one third to one half of all American church members support their church financially...

In 2007, it was estimated that Americans spent $40 billion on their pets... by 2010, Americans will spend $60 billion on weight loss... How much on the gospel?

America has 40% of the world's wealth & only 2.5% of the population.   We are blessed to be a blessing.

Income has increased 10 times in the last 20 years while giving has decreased by about 50%...

These stats are shocking to say the least.  They reveal that Americans have major spiritual heart disease when it comes to giving.  If every Christ follower would obediently tithe, the church could eliminate poverty, provide clean water for the world, provide loving care to all the world's orphans & send missionaries to preach the gospel to all peoples..."

November 15, 1989/2009

My father, Bill Christensen, died on the first day of gun deer season a half mile from his house in Peck, Michigan, 100 miles north of Detroit. After Christmas and Easter, Nov. 15 is the next major holiday in that region. Some schools close for the day, people get off work for the day and there are those who don't just go. My brother and my Dad were hunting together and had walkie-talkies. My dad shot a large buck first thing in the morning and called my brother to tell him that he was going to wait for a while before he did anything else so that he would not interfere with anyone else's hunting chances. After that last communication, my brother didn't hear anything for a really long time so he went to check Dad. He was dead from a massive heart attack. It was very shocking, of course, because he was only 54.

We had to drive up to Michigan as quickly as we could. We drove through a tornado in Kentucky, just missing it by half an hour. We drove through a terrible thunderstorm; the wind was strong and stuff was blowing everywhere. When we finally arrived in Michigan, the weather there seemed to match our mood as well. The graveside service was very cold and wet, really miserable. But lots of people came to the funeral and told us that Dad was a wonderful man and that he made a big difference in their lives.

My mother Carol contracted breast cancer the following year. She had a mastectomy, went through chemotherapy surprisingly well and seemed to settle in to her radically different life. She was more active in her church; she traveled with her sister and friends. In 2006 the cancer came back and she went through everything again, bouncing back well and continuing her life as before. In the fall of 2008 she had back pain, leg pain and double vision. Again she went to all of her doctors and they sent her for test after test, but they couldn't find anything. Then, in the spring of 2009, my brother went with her to the doctor to find out what was going on and they finally figured out that the cancer had come back and that it probably had spread throughout her body. There was nothing that could be done except hospice care, and one of the hospice nurses said Mom had two or three months left.

She doubled the time they thought she had left and she lived it to the fullest way possible while using a walker, then being confined to a chair with electric lift. My aunt and niece, with help from my brother and sisters, did a wonderful job helping her. I went through 150,000 airline miles to visit her once a month.

Even toward the end, she was always positive. Lots and lots of people from her church visited her and brought her food over and over again. When I saw them they reported to me that they always came away very blessed after visiting Mom. Eventually the disease progressed and she became bedridden, but she continued to be a blessing. This was a lady who served her church and community well. She just kept on the best she could, accepting whatever came her way, still blessing everyone around her. When she made it past September, I predicted to Elizabeth that she would die on Nov. 15, 20 years to the day after my Dad passed away.

Thanks to Skype, I was able to talk with her very often. We would tell her that we loved her and she would tell us that she loved us. We told her that we were going to Belgium, and for a second she was shocked, but then realized it would be OK because she would be in heaven. I told her that the reason Christians suffer is so they can glorify God by testifying to how wonderful He is in the midst of their suffering and that she was finishing the race well. That made her happy.

As predicted, my sister called at 5 a.m. Nov. 15 with the news that Mom had gone to heaven. We were ready. We left soon after we finished the laundry and called our sons to keep an eye on the house. The weather was beautiful, too. It was a happy funeral because a saint had gone home. Mom was running now, not confined to her bed.

I have been blessed by wonderful parents. Their love for God and each other has molded me into who I am today, giving me a legacy to give to my children and grandchildren.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Our Story Part II (LifePoint's Story)

Several years ago God gave our church the vision of a mission partnership on every continent. Our church had always been involved in missions through giving money, praying for missionaries, and sending teams for a week at a time. In January 2004 our church began to feel that God wanted us to be involved at a deeper level. We began to pursue some long-term partnerships with missionaries on different continents. This led to three families from our church going as missionaries to South America, South Asia and Africa.

Then in the summer of 2007 our executive pastor, Kyle Goen, began noticing the country of Belgium. He began to feel that this might be a country where God wanted our church to become involved. In Belgium only 1/2 to 2 % of the population are Christ-followers. 80% of people say they are Catholic, but of these only 4 - 8 % attend church on any given weekend. Many people in Belgium do not have any idea what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. We feel God wants us to be a part of making that happen. We will be part of a team of five families who are committing to live in Belgium for at least three years.

We have a three-fold vision. We hope to start an English-speaking international church in Brussels. Brussels is the home of the European Union. It is a very cosmopolitan city. Out of that church we would train internationals, who are living temporarily in Brussels, to start churches in their home countries when they return. Also out of that church we would train native French-speakers to start French-speaking churches in nearby French-speaking cities.