Introduction

Ready to get serious with God?

This program, though simple, has been used mightily by God to propel His work forward and provide significant resources needed for missions. But perhaps most significantly, it has been a blessing to those individuals and churches who have participated in it. In Ps 34:8-9 it says:

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

A Man of Faith

This program is not a form of the "prosperity gospel". It is instead taking God seriously for serious work to be accomplished. This program, in its essence, gives a person the change to partner with the living God to be used to help accomplish the Great Commission. It is an opportunity to "taste" of God's power and goodness.

 

What is the "Faith Promise" Program?

It is a program that usually done within the local church. This conference can be a weekend or whatever length of time the church desires.  However, individuals can make a Faith Promise on their own, too!  It revolves around making a serious commitment to missions and expecting God to provide for that commitment.

The Faith Promise is a commitment to mission for the coming year (over and beyond your regular budget giving); a specific amount each person will trust God to supply through them. Before hand the church usually decides on a goal they think should be possible for the God to give through them to missions. Each person is encouraged to make a commitment recorded on a card. The total of all the cards then represents the church's faith pledge. It is a covenant of obedience between individuals and God, that the individual will be faithful to give beyond their ability as God provides out of His unlimited resources. The pledge is not binding on anyone, but only a step of faith that will cause the person to look and wait for God provision to enable them to fulfill the pledge.

Time and again it has been shown that God blesses individuals and churches who use the Faith Promiseprogram as a means of being faithful to the Biblical mandate of Christ's Great Commission.

 

A Man of Laughter

 

DOES FAITH PROMISE WORK?

The answer is yes, indeed!

We present a short history about Glen Beck's ministry that gives a ringing testimony about how God honored this program in the churches he served as Pastor.

One Pastor's Experience

Rev. Glen Beck of the Indiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church shares his story ---

"In 1968 I participated in a Mission Awareness tour to Haiti where, as Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision put it, 'My heart was broken by those things which break the heart of God.' I came home determined my local church would become more intential in fulfilling The Great Commission.

We tried some things with minimul success. At a Good News Conference in Cincinnati (about 1969-1970) I attended a seminar on Faith Promise missions led by Dr. Harold Spann, a U.M. pastor from Texas. Here was a tool we could use!

Over the next 18 years in pastorates at Emmanuel UMC in Noblesville, IN and Good Shepherd UMC in Indianapolis, IN (both churches had about 375 in membership) the annual Faith Promise missions conference was the highlight of the church's annual program.

It should be pointed out that these churches wee the most unlikely places one could expect to implement 2nd mile giving. Both churches were heavily in debt for building programs, and both had suffered substantial loss of membership for years. However, at the same point the churches began to prioritize missions, God began to bless both spiritually and financially. If you were to ask the key leadership, 'When did your church begin the dramatic turnaround', they would answer, 'It was when we began to do missions."

A Man of Wisdom

Emmanuel went from zero apportionments paid to payment in full. The heavy indebtedness was paid in full and the church added an educational wing which cost more than the original building. 2nd mile giving went from zero to $35,000. annually. Perhaps more important was what was happening spiritually. "God added daily to the church" and Emmanuel was listed among the top 10% of the Southern Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church in church growth. While Emmanuel UMC was in a rapidly growing area, Good Shepherd UMC was in an area of Indianapolis between inner city and the suburbs where there was little opportunity for growth from 'new people'. In fact the church had lost members 15 straight years, but again God's blessings came at the same point they began to do Faith Promise missions. The church went from a minimal 2nd mile giving to as high as $50,000. per year. Good Shepherd led the Southern Indiana Conference in advance special giving four straight years. Attendance for worship went from 160 to 260 and Sunday School from 115 to 172.

As someone has said, "Set the church on fire and they will come to see it burn." For both Emmanuel and Good Shepherd the fire began at the same point - when they began to "do missions". Through the years these two churches have given over 1 million dollars in second mile giving.