Monday 25 June 2012

The NCLC Foundation

First let me say how excited I am about the season that we as a church are in. So much has happened over the past few months and God is in it all. We continue to see people make decisions to follow Jesus week by week - and that is why we exist. It's our mission, our cause.

In the past year or so we have experienced some huge changes as a church community. We have changed venue twice, welcomed new staff to the team, added robust financial policies and procedures to take us forward into our future, and not least, we have settled into our offices.

The coming year is one which we have given over to increasing our health in four main areas: Spiritual, Physical, Financial and Relational. I believe this year will be monumental for us as NCLC, because as we know, healthy life grows. We are taking the Kingdom of Heaven into areas where we have not ventured before.

We are raising up young entrepreneurs with a kingdom mentality and heart.

We are also in negotiations to purchase our own building from which we can base many of our meetings and activities, including our Sunday services.

We, as a church, are on the edge of something significant in our history and future.

There is an excitement and momentum building within our community. I am very excited about what the future holds for us as NCLC, and that is why this year we are introducing the NCLC FOUNDATION.

The NCLC FOUNDATION is one of the ways that we believe can help us strategically advance and shoulder the financial burden of our God-given vision to impact our world with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Our current "world" of Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Mwanza City is home to over 2 million people, ready to be impacted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a lot of people - and many of them are "ripe for harvest" (John 4:35).

The NCLC FOUNDATION will enable people to give strategically over and above their regular tithes to FOUR initial areas with a FIFTH to be added at a later stage.

1. Buildings Fund - this is to establish a building that we can call home. A place to base not only our Sunday Services but also many of the ministries of the church. This will initially be in the central Newcastle area, but will also establish homes for our other campuses (Haggai 1:7).

2. Missions - there is a lost and dying world needing the hands and feet of Jesus, before it will ever listen to the good news of the Cross. We have already established a campus in Mwanza, Tanzania. The Foundation will help fund this until it is fully established and financially viable. In time, there will be other campuses and churches to help plant and fund. There are also other overseas missions that we will be able to give to, including Compassion and A21 (Isaiah 61).

3. City Care - this is the local arm of our mandate to bring justice and relief to the poor. This funding will help expand Servolution and CAP but also establish our food and clothing banks (Micah 6:8).

4. Humanitarian Relief - over the past few years the world has seen some catastrophic disasters. We have been able to stand alongside many other churches to help meet the needs of tragedies such as the Haiti earthquake. We want to not only receive an offering at the time of the event, but also add to that amount, because we have been good stewards and prepared for such a time. There will also be wells to be dug and houses to be repaired (Isaiah 1:17).

And finally, to be added as soon as we have capacity -

5. Legacy Investments - we are building a church not only for this generation, but for many to come. Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to leave a financial inheritance for our grandchildren in their church building? (Provs 13:22)


I pray that this will whet your appetite for the financial future of our church. Don't despise the day of small beginnings for your own contribution. I believe that God would have us plan for, and invest in, our future.

We will commence our NCLC FOUNDATION offering on the first Sunday in July and then on the first Sunday of every month thereafter.

I want to thank all of you who faithfully give financially to God through this local church. We have grown from 9 people in Starbucks six years ago to around 500 people calling NCLC home today. We have been able to do this through all of us adding our resources together.

Let's continue to partner together to build, not just NCLC, but the church across the world through the NCLC FOUNDATION.


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