When he came to First Baptist Church, Springville, in 2012, Pastor Chip Thornton saw a church sitting on the edge of taking the gospel to the world.
But there was something tethering them to the spot right where they were — debt.
For six years the congregation had been giving faithfully toward the nearly $1 million bank note it had taken on to purchase land for a new church facility.
They had made a significant dent, but the debt still weighed them down, Thornton said.
“When the pastor search team told me in 2012 that First Baptist Church was more than $200,000 in debt, I knew we needed to address that for the sake of the gospel and for the glory of God,” he said.
But the church didn’t start a big push to get rid of the debt. Instead they started a new disciple-making strategy called “Know, Grow, Go.” It “seeks to move people to deeper levels of discipleship in Christ: from knowing Him to growing in Him to going for Him,” Thornton said.
And as church members grew, the debt shrunk — something God helped with in a big way, as no large donations paved the way for the payoff, said Scott Corbin, the church’s worship pastor.
Thornton said the whole group of committed Jesus-followers at First, Springville, gave from the heart as Scripture prompted them to do.
The church knew that “eliminating our debt for the glory of God would allow us to expand His kingdom both locally and globally,” Thornton said. “We felt like if we could remove the bank note, it would free up more resources to make His name famous in other places.”
And it has, he said.
The St. Clair Baptist Association church sent three missions teams in 2014 and two more this year to help plant a church in Gonzol, Ecuador, a village of 1,000 people in the Andes Mountains.
Twelve Christians currently meet as a church in Gonzol.
“Freeing ourselves from one master allowed us to pursue our greatest passion — spreading God’s glory to all people in order to teach all people to know Christ, grow in Christ and go for Christ,” Thornton said.
First, Springville, is celebrating the debt payoff with a noteburning service June 28. They’re thrilled, he said, and they know exactly who gets the glory.
“No man can take the credit,” Thornton said. “God did it, and to God be all the glory.”
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