The Promise campaign was a 3-year effort that reaches full term November 1, 2007. However, many people will continue completing their pledges through December 31, 2007. The Live the Vision campaign pledge period begins October 28, 2007 and culminates with a worship celebration on November 18, 2007. The Live the Vision contribution period begins November 2007 and extends through the 3-year period ending in November 2010.

• Over $3 million made principal and interest payments on the mortgage of our new church home.
• The Promise Campaign provided $800,000 which, added to $1.2 million in special gifts, built the new home for A Beacon of Hope and the Summit Counseling Center.
• Over $960,000 went to support Mount Pisgah’s “Everywhere” global ministries.
• $1.5 million from the Promise campaign will be added to funds from the Live the Vision campaign to build a permanent Student Ministry home on North Campus.

Yes. Promise pledges were $2 million for a new Student Ministry facility. Actual collection was 80% of the pledged amount, or $1.6 million. Approximately $100,000 was used to purchase sound and lighting equipment for current student worship needs, leaving $1.5 million. When the new student ministry leadership team was installed, a task force comprising staff and lay members formed to consider a more strategic and longer-term view of student ministry needs. A new vision for a student ministry home on North Campus was born in their working sessions. This new vision—one that would serve Mount Pisgah for several decades—was larger than the original vision, and larger than the $1.5 million available from the Promise campaign.

Parents provided significant input to the task force. A recurring concern of parents was the need for their older children to attend worship on a different campus than they or their younger children were attending. The concern was particularly acute for middle school students. The parents felt that families should be worshipping together on the same campus and that the perpetuation of separate campuses would be a significant deterrent to future growth. Also, only two building site footprints remain available on the entire church campus for future construction. Good stewardship dictated that the available land be considered for its highest and best use and developed to realize its full potential. The task force saw a great need for tens of thousands of North Fulton teenagers to have a “destination place” providing fun, wholesome, Christ-centered activity where they can gather.

Rather than drawing upon Mount Pisgah’s credit line to fund current operations, thereby incurring a much higher interest rate than would be earned by leaving the funds in an interest-bearing account, the decision was made to use the available Promise money for operations. When the funds are needed for construction of the new student ministry building, they are readily available and will be replaced from the Mount Pisgah line of credit.

Absolutely not, the gifts collected in the Live the Vision campaign will be held in interest-bearing, designated accounts and will be used only for the four pillars of the campaign as outlined in the campaign literature. However, we believe it is prudent that the percentage of funds targeted for the mortgage reduction pillar of the campaign be applied to reduce the mortgage as they are collected and not be held back.

The church must always prayerfully seek to balance mission and debt as we continue to move forward with the vision God has given Mount Pisgah. The new student ministry team has created a great deal of momentum in addressing the tremendous need to reach thousands of North Fulton teenagers. One of Mount Pisgah’s top priorities in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ here, there and everywhere is children and youth. We must reach students at the time in their lives when they are struggling the most with their beliefs and identities and give them a destination that excites them and reaches them with the Good News and love of Christ. If we slow the momentum our team has built, many teenagers will find other “exciting” destinations that are less healthy and may become lost. In moving forward, Mount Pisgah is committed to not incurring any new long-term debt, while continuing to expand the mission and ministry.

Mount Pisgah is making an eternal difference for those we reach who are “lost” and/or searching. The Live the Vision campaign funds are targeted for mission and people. Even the dollars that go to mortgage reduction free up more and more resources for mission and Kingdom building. Our very wonderful new church home was not built for us, but for others yet to join with us. Mount Pisgah is living out the great commission by directing the resources God is blessing us with to the task of bringing people around the world to the foot of the cross and to eternal salvation. What else could we possibly do with our resources that would approach this kind of significance?

There are no hidden agenda in this campaign, no “earmarks”, no “pork barrel” projects. The funds will go where the campaign literature says they will go. Should God bless Mount Pisgah by providing more than the top-level goal we have set, the extra resources will go towards mortgage reduction.

Yes, our tithe is the minimum of what God asks of us and the Live the Vision Mission Capital Campaign gives us the opportunity to step out in faith with our offerings. Since it is a three year pledge, we can give weekly, monthly, or annually because we have three years to complete the pledge.

If God blesses Mount Pisgah by reaching the Live the Vision Campaign goals we have set forth, we are but one more capital campaign away from being debt free. Mount Pisgah has a strategic vision that a “culture of generosity” will envelop everything we do, and that as a church family we will grow in our stewardship of the enormous blessings God entrusts to us to the degree that special campaigns will no longer be necessary. To realize this vision of generosity, Mount Pisgah has established a growing focus on teaching God’s way of managing resources. Many in our family have already completed one or more of the financial bible studies begun over the past year such as Crown, Managing our Finances God’s Way, or Dave Ramsey. In fact, almost 1,000 of us have completed at least one of these studies, many having realized life-changing results in the process. We are now teaching these concepts at the high school level and will soon be doing so for our younger children. Building this foundation of biblical stewardship at the individual and family levels is the precursor to realizing it for our church family as a whole. If we truly live out biblical stewardship personally, in our families, and as a church it is inevitable that a culture of generosity will supplant the need for future campaigns.