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December 14, 2022

14 years ago, Joel Kurz, his wife and three friends moved into the inner city of Baltimore in order to plant a healthy church. If you are looking for stable neighborhoods, upwardly mobile professionals, desirable prime real estate, great schools and all of the other metrics used to determine an “attractive” place for your family and to plant a healthy gospel church, this was not it. Joel wasn’t drawn to this by the metrics, but by the need. 85% of the families live in poverty. 60% of the adults are unemployed. The median income is less than $16,000. And there are very few solid gospel churches. Plant a church? What was Joel thinking? Well, we know what he was thinking. The gospel will change your metrics. Need trumps business models. But this would be a challenge.

10 years ago, The Garden Church in Baltimore, Maryland was established. 36 covenanted together to form this congregation. Since that time they have met in a home, an office, a recreation center, a school and most recently an Elk Lodge. In these past 10 years, the membership has continued to grow to almost 100.

I’ve known Joel for these 10 years. I’ve been to Baltimore and have been in his neighborhood. The Garden Church is the real deal. The 2015 riots were in his streets. When reporters were talking about life in the city of Baltimore, I knew there was more to this story because I knew that The Garden Church was there. It still is. This congregation is making a difference because the gospel of Jesus has made a difference in their lives. But there is more.

The Garden Church could really use a permanent location in their neighborhood. A building became available. The members of The Garden Church and a few friends raised $500,000 and purchased it with cash. This building needs another $500,000 for renovation. The members and a few friends have thus far raised almost $280,000 toward that. Joel reached out to us to see if we could help with the remaining $220,000.

I don’t tell you this in order to take up a special offering. I tell you this because you have already contributed. Part of the budget that you voted on sets aside funds for church planting. Your personal generosity in giving week in and week out enables our church to be generous as well and this is a great example of it. The Elders voted Monday night to send The Garden Church $8,000 to help them with this needed project. We were excited to do this and knew that you would be equally excited to know that you have had a part. Here is a video link that will give you a visual.

The Lord has been generous to us. He calls us to be generous people. Our generosity allows our church to be generous which helps others be generous. It’s a sweet process to be part of. By the way, next Wednesday I will probably have another story.

I don’t say it enough. Thank-you for your faithful support of your church.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: John 1.9-13