To wrap up our series at Open Life on living with “Margin” we created and showed a documentary about the financial beginnings of the church two years ago. It’s the story of how we chose the approach of strategic generosity and how it has made an impact within the community. After watching this you can see why it is one of our key cultures at Open Life and how it is making such a huge impact within the city and even setting an example for other cities as they take note of our story. Here it is:
As the video wrapped up we concluded verbally with two things in our live service:
- We thanked everyone who had given even one dollar over the course of our first two years. We surely could not have done it without you! From the one time gift from a church or individual, the churches who supported us with ongoing resources and most importantly those who sacrificially fund the mission through their obedience to the biblical mandate of tithing.
- Our second thing was a challenge to walk in obedience to the teachings in scripture to tithe. Realizing that financial support of your church is a spiritual decision and not a financial is key. We presented a tithe challenge which is a three month window to test and see if the Lord is good. Malachi 3:10-12 gives the open door for this…a testing of the Lord in the area of financial blessing. Many took the challenge and as they did they continue to move Open Life forward in our ability to generously and strategically impact the community.
Thank you again to all who have supported Open Life financially. Your giving, be it in a service, from another church or online is making an eternal difference in the community beyond what we can even capture on this documentary. More stories will surely be making their way to this blog as we see the fruit of so much that has been sown into our city!
