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Fairfield Christian Church Supported Missions
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At Fairfield we support missions funding through a program called Faith-Promise. To see what this is and how it works, Click here
FAITH PROMISE SUNDAY IS MAY 2ND. BE IN PRAYER ABOUT HOW YOU MAY BE ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE IN 2010-2011.
Fairfield Christian Church Missions Team 2010
April 2, 2010 Fairfield CC missions team representatives Dave Shelton, Bob Seely, Marion & Linda Ellis, and Steve & Barb Wand (and other FCC contributors) prepared dinner for students visiting the Ball State Christian Campus House.
For more details on each of these missions, click the appropriate link below:
Alice Fishback: http://www.worldconvention.org/country.php?c=ZA fishback@earthlink.net
Ball State Campus House: http://www.ballstatecampushouse.org/
I.D.E.S: http://www.ides.org/
Bill & Margy Hoff: http://www.bajiochristian.org
F.A.M.E: http://www.fameworld.org/
Patrick Mahoney: http://www.oldtestamenttranslator.org/Patrick_Mahoney/Welcome.html
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What is Faith-Promise?
The Faith-Promise program is the means of supporting missions that we use at Fairfield Christian Church. It is a concept that goes all the way back into Old Testament history.
Basically, a Faith-Promise commitment is a promise that a family or an individual makes to do a certain thing, based on their faith that God will provide the means or ability.
One of the earliest recorded Faith-Promise actions was that of Abram when God called on him to leave his home and go to a strange land. In faith, Abram promised to do what the Lord had asked; he believed that God would provide the means. The New Testament says that his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
Our whole Christian life is really a Faith-Promise commitment. When we made Jesus Lord of our life, we promised to do what He asked because we believed that He would give us the power and the means to do it.
Missionaries are people who have responded to the call of God to perform a particular ministry. They, too, are trusting God to provide for their ministries. We know that it is very unlikely that God is going to provide mamma from heaven for them every day or that He will set a bag of money on their doorstep each month.
It is clear, from Scripture, that God meets the needs of His people through the added blessings that He gives other believers. This is demonstrated through the sacrificial giving of the churches of Macedonia in meeting needs of the starving Christians in Jerusalem, as well as the continued support that was given to the ministry of Paul by the churches at Philippi.
The eleventh chapter of Acts tells us that some men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and told the Good News about Jesus, and that the church grew by leaps and bounds. It was there that the believers were first called Christians. But history does not even record the names of those missionaries who went there.
Two hundred years from now, or even one hundred years from now, probably no one will remember the names of the missionaries who are working in the fields. No one may know the names of the people here at Fairfield, who prayed for them, encouraged them, or sacrificially provided financial support. But the Lord will remember those who did these things and they will share in His reward for what was accomplished in those ministries.
Philippians 4:15-17 (New International Version)
15Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.
Why Use the Faith-Promise Program?
The simple answer is that it allows you to become more personally involved in working with God in the support of missions. In the past we have simply set aside a set percentage of the general fund to go to missions.
However, the Faith-Promise program allows you to exercise your faith in making a covenant between yourself and God, that if He will supply the additional blessing, you will be faithful in giving it to the work of missions.
For this reason, it is money that is given above and in addition to our regular giving.
Faith-Promise will also help you become more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and make you a better steward of what God gives you day by day. You may find the Holy Spirit prompting you to consider if you really need some of the things you think you need, knowing that the money could be given to help a missionary win a soul to the Lord.
Faith-Promise will also develop your prayer life. As you become more personally involved with missionaries, you will find yourself praying for them more often. Your prayer life will also change in that you will no longer be praying generic prays like, “Lord, please bless all of the missionaries”. Instead you will be praying for specific needs that they have.
Another benefit of Faith-Promise is that it can draw us together as a congregation as we work together to accomplish a common goal. Nothing is clearer in the Bible than the fact that is God’s will that the lost be reached. Jesus plainly stated that He came to seek and to save the lost. When we become personally involved in winning the lost through our giving to missions, we know that we are doing that which pleases the Lord and we are blessed as individuals, and also as a congregation.
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