Faith Presbyterian Church outside Birmingham is preparing to launch its third capital campaign. Over the last four decades, the church has grown from a handful of worshippers to hundreds attending weekly services. Like many churches, they began in modest borrowed facilities before developing their own. God has used the PCA Foundation over the past few decades as part of their growth.
In the 1990’s, Faith Presbyterian had a good problem. Under the leadership of Pastor Alan Carter, they were a growing congregation with less than ideal facilities. Their building couldn’t be seen from the road, and even if it could be seen, it didn’t appear inviting. Even worse, they had no room to expand or accommodate the need for more parking space. They needed better land to build a more suitable space for worship and education.
God provided for them in the form of a phone call from a representative at the PCA Foundation. The foundation informed the church that a Christian businessman had donated a parcel of land outside of Birmingham to the foundation. The foundation’s representative was calling to see if Faith might be interested in purchasing it on very favorable terms. Faith took this as a sign of God’s providence because the ten acres were located near their current location.
The congregation purchased the land and put their existing property on the market. They hesitated to build on their new property without first finding a buyer for the current one. It remained on the market for over a year with no offers. In faith, the elders decided to begin site work on the new property, even with no offers on the table. Soon after the construction process began, the church received a call from a local businessman who was interested in buying their former facility. Being a Christian and inspired by their growth, the buyer offered a very competitive price and developed an office park on the site, now called Providence Park in homage to its former use.
Faith wasn’t finished growing. Just as they got comfortable in their new location, they discovered they were running out of space to serve a fast-growing number of children in the congregation. They realized they needed to conduct a capital campaign and expand their facility. Around that same time, Randy Stair from the PCA Foundation called them. He informed them that a recently deceased church member had a charitable remainder trust with the PCAF in which she had named Faith Presbyterian as a beneficiary.
By God’s goodness and providence, the gift the church received from the PCA Foundation served as the lead gift for their new capital campaign. Once again, the church was able to build the facilities they needed to serve the people God was bringing to them. They now had an expanded nursery, youth education space, and additional adult education rooms.
Today, the church continues to grow under the leadership of Pastor Jason Sterling and is contemplating further additions. God continues to use the PCA Foundation to supply some of their needs. According to Faith’s Executive Pastor Martin Wagner, “It isn’t unusual for us to receive checks from the PCA Foundation as a result of our members who make use of the foundation’s Advise & Consult Fund®. We are happy to promote the foundation to our members because they are able to process more complex gifts than we are able to manage.”
As history has shown, when church members use the PCA Foundation, their local church is often the primary beneficiary. The foundation is able to facilitate more types of gifts than a local church and provide church members a donor-advised fund to simplify their charitable giving. Even more, it enables church members to give anonymously.
The PCA Foundation provides devotionals and promotional materials for churches to distribute in order to help church members discover the services available to them. Encourage your members to use the foundation and discover how God uses it to facilitate generosity to advance His kingdom.