Journey of Faith

Below is a story shared by Peggy Ann Garver. I had heard that she had a testimony that others might find encouraging as they consider their campaign commitments. When I asked her to share it, she was gracious enough to provide this post. I’m so glad I was encouraged to find out her story, it truly is comforting and inspirational to know that God is working through all details of the campaign and our lives as we consider what our commitment to the campaign will be.

I have a long history at Tenth Church. When I was a little girl, friends of my parents took me to Tenth to hear Dr. Barnhouse. We arrived early and I was delighted and amazed at the building structure. Philadelphia, itself was always a wonderful place to visit. I never dreamed that one day I would be a resident! Years later after our son became a member of Tenth, we visited off and on especially for Christmas Eve services and during our summer vacations. Several years back my husband had the privilege of marrying our son and daughter-in-law in the Tenth sanctuary. We certainly enjoyed the ministry of Dr. Boice and now of Dr. Ryken and the other fine men who are a part of Tenth Church.

Last year we had planned to give to a church my IRA money which was required to be withdrawn. This was not a difficulty for us since we had planned on giving this as a charitable gift since the government at that time allowed for this to be tax-free income! We felt that this was just good stewardship. Many things happened in our lives and we felt drawn to Tenth Church where we found worship in the true sense of the word. After a few months I joined the membership class and last August became a member of Tenth. When it came time to withdraw those IRA monies Tenth was the choice and that was our mutual decision.

My husband and I have been home missionaries for over thirty-eight years and we felt that the gift we were able to give to the Capital Campaign last year was, in fact, not enough. We should do more. We began to pray and so many infinite details came to us that we could hardly believe what was happening. First, we looked at annuities that would benefit us and the church, but after further observation and talking with our financial person, etc. we decided that this would not benefit our church in the way we would want. Two groupings of monies were coming to us in late January and early February. These monies were to be invested in the event we need some day to go to a retirement facility. The financial market was far from good and our financial person gave us the rates he had obtained and both of us had done computer lookups to see the best rates for CD’s in the US. This money was definitely in the CD portion of our finances. The credit union in my hometown was offering the best long-term rate of any place, however, we did not have the money just yet to invest. Time went on and it got near the time I would be having money to invest so I talked with one of the people at the bank. They in turn talked with someone higher up and decided they would hold that rate for us for a time. The first CD matured and was moved to a money market and then electronically to my checking account. It was a day late in arriving and we got a phone message that they could not hold the rate longer since the market was down and to give them a call. This was a Friday but the rates did not change and on Saturday the money was in our account. They seemed to indicate they would hold the rate. The following Monday the bottom dropped out of those CD rates! When we were going to bed my husband said that the Lord would give us the rate he wanted us to have. Even with some money in our account it was not nearly enough to get the rate we had asked for. However, God had a plan – the second CD was coming from a bank in another state and they did not have a system that would wire the money. They did agree to send it FED-X. The money arrived on the very day needed and we drove to the credit union window and deposited our check. The man at the credit union knew that we wanted to give a portion of this money to our church. Later that day both accounts were put into one CD with the best rate in the US. I had never ever heard of a bank holding a rate for a customer for such an extended period of time. Once the monies were reinvested and all the paperwork cleared we wrote a check for the Capital Campaign. That all these rather small pieces came together shows God’s protection and care for us. This very day another bank called and asked what they could do to get our business back and since they called me I did tell them about the providence of our Great God in giving us such a good rate, etc. The woman on the other end agreed they could not match that story.

We not only are blessed in being able to teach in Tenth’s Bible School, but we are truly enjoying the worship of our great God in the fellowship of believers. It is something new and special to me to Enjoy God! I feel certain that there will be many more stories to tell by our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God which is exactly what Tenth Church looks like to us. This is our journey of faith.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS--Our Journey in Faith

Today's post is a piece written by Elmer Snethen, Capital Campaign Chairman. While many of you may have heard him share this before, such as at the January congregational meeting, I encourage you to read it as it serves as a reminder of why this campaign is much more than a fundraiser or list of projects to check off.

“It is January 20, 1852. Dr. Henry Augustus Boardman has invited several gentlemen belonging to Tenth Presbyterian Church to his house to discuss plans for founding a daughter church. They believed the time was right and by June had purchased a lot on 17th and Spruce. Then everything went wrong. They raised only half the money they needed. The help from other churches fell through. And within a year, Dr. Boardman seemed to be heading to Princeton. Then, the country entered a full financial depression that began developing in 1854 and did not let up until 1859. What did the people do? They thought it was the right time to move forward. In 1855, they laid the cornerstone, and in May 1856, the colony of thirty-six people began worship. See the sanctuary they built in 1857. You can’t see the steeple that towered 250 feet as the highest structure in Philadelphia. What vision they had!

Now think about this: their vision was too small! The sanctuary cannot hold half of Tenth’s membership and associates. And the only reason we can crowd the numbers who come for worship and study and fellowship and ministry is that one generation bought the Delancey building. Reception Hall was the office facility. The pastor’s study was up by the choir loft. What would we do without Delancey, which doubles as Sunday school classes? What would be have done if that same generation had not dug out the basement and created the classrooms and worship space of the Catacombs? What would we have done if our own generation had not purchased the 315 Building to fill up with more classes? And we still do not have enough space! Our vision has been too small!”
- Pastor Marion Clark

But let us go back to the end of the first paragraph. What vision they had. Yes, they truly had vision, but what they demonstrated the most and what they brought to 17th and Spruce was their tremendous faith. They were the first generation to fill this incredible place with faith and all the following generations have compounded it. That is what you feel when you come into this building and that is what makes this place so special – their tremendous and uncompromising faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can feel it, can’t you? I know you have either brought people to Tenth and have had them share “There is truly something special here!” It is so so true. You can have a beautiful building, which it is, but it is only a building. But, to have a building filled with faith, that is a treasure given by the hand of God.

To me, this is not a Capital Campaign, but a Journey in Faith. Our session has spent a great deal of time and especially prayer discerning the Lord’s leading in His vision for the next generation. They unanimously believe in the Lord’s calling at this time in our church’s history to move His vision forward. His call, our response. What is Faith? We are clearly told in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

How do we get faith? Once again, the bible clearly gives the answer in Romans 10. “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.”
There is no other place that I know that teaches the word any clearer and more consistently, for almost 179 years, than here at Tenth Presbyterian Church.

Hebrews 11:6 reads, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him…” Oswald Chambers shares, “Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life.” Faith always works in personal ways, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children. The life of faith says, “Lord, you have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in your word.” “Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

This is His call and His gift to each and every member and regular attendee, as well as the corporate church, to grow in faith. He is offering this amazing gift to all; no one is to be left out. This is our time, our turn. His call, our response to pass on to the next generations our filling of His church with our generation of faith. If we accomplish everything on the Capital Campaign list - renovations, organ, elevator, etc., and as individuals and as a church have not grown in our faith, to me we have truly failed. Through faith all things are possible. Through faith we will accomplish both. But most importantly is to pass on our faith to the next generation. We are here for such a time as this. His call, our response.

The Children of Tenth

This Sunday during the 9 am children’s program Dori Baggs will share details of how the children of Tenth can be involved in the capital campaign. As her testimony below demonstrates, Dori has thoughtfully considered why these programs are integral to the campaign. So, before you hear about what is in the works, be sure to read Dori’s piece and consider why it is so important for the children of Tenth to be engaged in the campaign.

As many of you were, I too was motivated by Dr. Cassidy’s sermon during the Global Outreach Conference in November. [To link to the MP3 of this sermon, click here.] The quote he used from Martin Luther… “There are only two days…today and that day…” what a thought! What fresh energy for the task before us. In my own reading in scripture I too have been challenged recently by a passage in Psalms that Dr. Cassidy referred to in his TenthPress article. The article was a charge from Psalm 71 for those of us in the “second half of life.” Verse 17-18 reads, “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.”

This verse has also given me a deeper desire…by God’s grace I want this to be the verse our children are quoting 30-40 years from now! How does that happen? By being a living word now in front of them…living out the gospel in our families, in our ministries…in our communities. Carefully teaching them from the Word during the few short years they are in our midst before they graduate from high school. Many people discount the impact children can bring to a campaign like this. I’ve been dismayed by comments I’ve heard from people who find the idea of “shaking up little kids for a few pennies” laughable, saying it really won’t do anything! If some adults think this is true, how many children will believe so too?

My goal in this committee is to teach the children from scripture that children are important to God! That God has used children (and continues to do so), to teach important spiritual lessons. God has asked children in the Bible to make sacrifices…not just the adults around them. This is a concept many parents avoid. We may suffer, but we want to insulate our children from it. We all know the very familiar verse in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Teaching our children the spiritual discipline of stewardship and sacrifice is part of that training. How can we expect our children to sacrifice as adults if we’ve shielded them from it all their lives. We need to teach counter-culturally to our children who hear from the world around them, that the very best life is the accumulation of “stuff and things.” We need to teach them from the Word, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:34

I look at the biblical example of the child Samuel in 1 Samuel 1. We tend to look at Hannah’s sacrifice, what she gave up…but I want the children to see that Samuel sacrificed too. He sacrificed growing up in his parent’s home in order to serve the Lord. You have to believe, even though its not spelled out in scripture, that Hannah spent those early years with Samuel before he was weaned, telling him over and over again about the goodness of God and the joy of obeying him and serving him. Now…I do a good bit of babysitting and I can tell you that most young children cry when their parents leave…for a few hours! Do you marvel like I do that Samuel did not pitch a fit when his mother left him with Eli? Why not? He knew literally from his mother’s knee, that God was good, that His plan was perfect.

Look also at the biblical example of the boy with five loaves and two fishes in Matthew 14. We look at the miracle of how Jesus multiplied the meager meal into a feast for 5,000, but I want the children to see the sacrifice the little boy made. I mean…here he is…the only one in that vast crowd who thought of packing his lunch! Next thing you know these men, the disciples, are sniffing around for food and find him! Can you imagine how he may have felt initially? “You want my what?!” But, when the disciples told him it was for Jesus the boy willingly gave it to him, not knowing the miracle that was to come. Why did he do that? Do you wonder if he heard his own mother and father talking about Jesus at home…was he learning from them to love him, to trust him…trust him enough to give him his food?

I want to teach the children to give joyfully, as it says in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Contrast this mindset to the fictional character Charles Dickens portrays in “Bleak House” in Mrs. Pardiggle. She showcases her five sons to Esther, proclaiming their overwhelming generosity in giving to the poor and to various charities…however, as she recounts what they have “sacrificed” the boys all make angry, irritated and insolent faces. You can see from their body language that the “sacrifice” was made for them…not by them willingly.

God can use our children to teach us about faith…real faith, believing that he will do that which he has promised. I want to encourage each of you, along with myself, to commit ourselves in spending the “the last half of our life,” as Michael Cassidy puts it, by obeying the directive in Psalm 78:4, “…to teach the next generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done.”