Level Three Faith — A Personal Update

Article 19 of 37 from the Ponder This - 2004 series

May 2004 - LEVEL THREE FAITH””A PERSONAL UPDATE by Ray Pritchard During the Legacy Campaign last September, I preached a sermon called “Level Three Faith and How to Get There.”� Whenever a church enters a stewardship campaign, there is danger and there is opportunity. The danger is that by talking openly about money, people will begin to equate the whole of Christianity with money and will therefore begin to equate spirituality with how much or how little they give. But a stewardship campaign also presents us with an incredible opportunity to trust God in new and exciting ways. In particular, it challenges us to move out of our personal comfort zone and stretch our faith to a new level. There are basically three levels of faith when it comes to giving: Level 1 represents what you know you can give. It's an amount you come to by looking at your budget, considering your obligations, and then coming to a certain conclusion. The amount will vary from person to person, but the principle is always the same: It's what you know you can safely give. Level 2 represents what you would like to give. That's a larger and more challenging number. It's the amount you would give if you had more money. Level 3 is something else entirely. It's the level of faith that lies beyond what you can see with your eyes. It's the amount that your faith tells you that you ought to give. Level 3 faith says, “This is what I believe God would have me give.”� It's a “God-number”� that causes you to say, “Lord, this is impossible without you.”� I told the congregation that Marlene and I had committed to give an amount equal to three times our annual giving to Calvary. That is, we would continue to give our usual amount to the church each year, and then we would give three times that yearly amount to the Legacy Campaign Building Fund. We were both nervous about that commitment, because it was definitely Level 3 for us. We knew that without God's help, it was impossible. So how are we doing seven and a half months later? By God's grace, we have almost reached the halfway point of our commitment. The money has come from many unexpected places, and in some unexpected ways. And God has enabled us to continue our regular giving””and to also pay our bills. With God's help, we hope to finish our entire commitment by the end of 2004. It was Level 3 going in, and it's still Level 3 for us. We have felt stretched out of our comfort zone, and we have also felt great freedom and growing excitement as we have watched God help us meet our commitment. I ended my sermon with these words: “May God bring us to the place where we trust him more than ever before.”� God has done that for us, and I wanted to share the good news with you.