By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

Four and a half years ago, as my wife and I were preparing to plant our current church, we faced a dilemma. Should I take a secular job, so that we would have some income, and be a part-time pastor? Or, should I become a full-time missions pastor and live off our savings until the money ran out, hoping for the best?

Waymon Ahart, a certified public accountant, said to me recently that anyone contemplating starting a new business should really plan to operate for two years before realizing a profit. We didn't have enough money for two years.

At best, we would be able to live off our savings and accumulated vacation pay from my previous church for a maximum of four months before our accounts would be empty. My wife was still a year away from completing her master's degree and was in a rigorous program that demanded her full attention. She would not be able to work and go to school. We agreed that she needed to stay in school.

I had already determined that we would take no salary from the new church for the first four months so that we would be able to purchase the many things that are needed to establish an office and offer services of worship. We would need a copier, bookshelves, a telephone, advertising, a desk, chairs, file cabinets, telephones, and other items that I didn't even anticipate.

We would also have to have a keyboard, microphones, bulletins, prayer books, vestments, a chalice and paten, a processional cross, altar cloths, altar ware (a church like ours needs expensive items, even a mission congregation) and other materials and necessities not anticipated.

There were no denominational funds available and there were no wealthy benefactors on board. In fact, we didn't even know if anyone would show up for the very first meetings.

We had worked hard for many years before we approached anything resembling prosperity and now we prepared to lay it all on the line. We even emotionally prepared ourselves to have to give up our home, if necessary. We put the matter in God's hands and determined to trust him for the outcome.

In the first gathering, 11 people joined the members of our family to unofficially begin the new mission. For the first month, we received no offerings at all and began to tap the savings account.

Over the next few months, the congregation would grow slowly and, little by little, we began to purchase the things needed for the church. Early in December, the fourth month, I realized that I had not factored Christmas into my personal family budget.

Our savings were nearly gone, there was little money in the church account, and we had no money to buy gifts for our family, which included children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.

I calculated and recalculated our budget but, no matter how I tried to tweak the figures, the money just wasn't there.

On a Saturday morning, I sat with the family and explained our situation and related that, for the first time in 25 years, we would not be able to have a "normal" Christmas. We would have a tree, a Christmas meal, and token gifts for the smallest children, but that would be the best we could do for this year.

They received the news wonderfully and tried to convince me that gifts didn't matter. But it mattered to me.

After the meeting, I left home and began to do the Saturday morning errands. For the first time in months, I was depressed, dejected and anxious.

Before returning home, I stopped at the post office to collect the mail. Scooping the letters and flyers out of the box, I walked to the table in the lobby to go through the mail and toss the junk stuff into the trashcan.

I picked up one envelope, opened it, and pondered the irony of receiving the first Christmas card of the season after such a meeting earlier in the day. I opened the card and a slip of paper fell out. I bent down to retrieve it and discovered, to my surprise, a check written to me from a former church member in a previous congregation.

The check was for several hundreds of dollars. The note written inside the card said, "Dear Pastor David and Cindy. Today during our prayer time, the Lord impressed us that we were to provide Christmas for your family. The enclosed check is not for your new church but for you to have a Merry Christmas. God bless!"

As a lump formed in my throat and the tears spilled down my cheeks, I realized, for the first time, that the church would succeed. Before that day, I had believed that we would make it but, now, I knew it.

I was humbled to realize that, even before I was aware that our budget didn't include Christmas, this precious young couple had already written their check. I was even more chastened when I realized that, while I was having the meeting with the family, the Christmas card was sitting in my post office box just waiting for me to discover it. Before we had prayed, God had already answered.

The next month, we began to receive a salary and, over four years later, we have never missed a meal or have been late on a bill.

The church has acquired nearly 12 acres of land, we are planning to build our first church facility, and we give, as we have since that very first Sunday, 10 to 15 percent of our offerings to missions and to the poor. We still have our house and have never missed a Christmas.

"Trust in the Lord forever. For, in God the Lord, we have an everlasting rock" (Isaiah 26:4 NASB).

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church in the Fayette/Coweta area. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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