Sermon Central
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I Have A Friend Who Started This Church In The ...
Contributed by Peter Loughman on Jul 1, 2009 (message contributor)
I have a friend who started this church in the lower 48 that was so successful that they had a difficult time finding a place to meet for Sunday services. They had so many people showing up on Sunday they were literally standing in the parking lot waiting for a seat in the next service.
The church is located in an area where land prices are just out of sight and so it became increasingly difficult to find a place to either rent or buy for the church to meet in.
Finally the perfect piece of property came up for sale, in the perfect location (right next to a Costco) and for a price they could afford. When they approached the owner of the building to make an offer the owner told them, “There is no way in blankety blank that I will ever sell this property to a bunch of Christians.”
OK…..So the church moved on and kept on looking for property. Two months went by, then four months, and then six months - and there wasn’t anything on the market remotely viable for the church to meet in. There search was then hampered even more when the city that they were located in created a number of zoning codes that made it almost impossible to build a new church.
People were receiving parking tickets on Sunday, the city was not happy about the heavy traffic and the fire department came out on Sundays to make sure the building they were meeting in was not overcrowded.
In spite of all the obstacles against them - the church grew at a fast pace.
Still, as they grew, neighbors filed complaints against the church because of too much traffic and city officials continued to threatened to take action against the church. The very thing that created success in the church became its greatest liability, loads of people. The church leaders were at a loss of what to do next - so of course, they prayed.
Then came the phone call.
Remember the building next to the Costco? That’s who was on the line. “Circumstances had changed” for the building’s owner and the man who would never sell to a bunch of blankety blank Christians, was now offering the building to the church at a price reduced at over 40%. He even offered to help with the financing.
Imagine that.
Who saw that coming?
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