Freedom For Our Future

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• Accounting
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• Involvement
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General Questions

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What is “Freedom for Our Future?”

Freedom for Our Future is a 36-month giving program with the goal of raising $13 million. As we celebrate 25 years of Ministry this year, we believe that we have only scratched the surface as to what God has called us and empowered us to do!

Why do we need a campaign?

Every 5 years our loan is due in full (a balloon payment). Typically, at that time, we renegotiate the loan for another five-year term. The issue lies in the fact that our mortgage mostly covers interest, keeping us from paying the principle balance indefinitely. We pay a financial institution interest to the averaged amount of $70,000 every month!

Who is this campaign for?

Freedom for our Future is for EVERY family at The Rock Church and World Outreach Center! We believe that when we come together and sow into the house of God, that we can make a difference. We don’t have any formulas, or any ideas that if everyone made a certain commitment we would reach our goal, but rather we believe that God has given each and every one of us something we can give. Its not about equal giving, but rather equal sacrifice.

How will I know how much to give?

Pray daily and allow God to open your heart and direct you about your commitment. Through prayer and personal assessment, you will know what to give. You can also the Get Involved page for more information.

How is this different from my tithe?

During this period of expansion and growth, the ministries of The Rock Church will be working harder than ever to meet the needs of people. Because of this, we ask that your "Freedom For The Future" gift and faith commitment be above and beyond your tithe. This way, the vital ministries of the church will not fall behind, but keep pace with the ever-growing needs of our church, community, and world.

Accounting Questions

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Will there be two accounts: one for help for now (current funds) and one for the money we owe? – Myriam

The church has to continue functioning during this process, so we will still have our general funds, or things that we are currently doing, and we will separate that which comes in towards the pledge for its purpose, paying off the church.

Is this money going to be put into savings and then pay the balance all at once? – Art

That really depends on the amount that comes in. Likely what will happen is that we will hold the money until there is a significant amount to give. We will have a “first fruits” opportunity for the church to bring in the first gift toward their pledge on our 25th anniversary celebration. The funds that are brought in from that will likely be sent straight to the bank. Then we will hold the funds as they come in, and when they get to a significant size to pay down principle, we will send that money off. Its much like paying principle off a car or house—sending one dollar at a time doesn’t make much of a difference, but if you can save those dollars to a larger sum, the difference is clearly seen.

Will there be accountability for the pledge? if so, what? – Jeremiah.

Yes. We are building a system that will enable you to see online the amount pledged, the amount needed, as well as the amount paid. During the course of the three years, the site will constantly be updated, and we can track the progress. Also during the three years, we will continue to have financial classes, follow-up correspondence, as well as reporting to keep it in front of the congregation. The last thing we want to do is spend all this time and effort planning, and to stop pushing once we get the commitments.

Will we have a fee (quota) for weeks or months?

The Rock is working on developing a gift chart, a guideline to see how we can raise the $13 million. Obviously not everyone is capable of giving the same amount, so there will be many different levels of giving. This is not a concrete plan but should at least set the groundwork for us to see what is needed to complete this adventure.

We have already been saving and giving extra to pay off the church. Have we been able to pay any extra on the principle? – Mariane

Yes, we have! The last “Miracle Birthday Offering” in 2011 was “His House, My House,” and since then we have put nearly $300,000 towards the principle balance of the loan.

Idea Questions

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There are curriculums that circulate about financial freedom from various leaders around the U.S. Will we incorporate any of these into the church?

We have been looking into various financial curriculums, from leaders such as Dave Ramsay, John Maxwell, and so on. There are so many, and we would love to incorporate some of the ideas into this program. Ultimately, our goal in a “stewardship program” is teach the church body how to be good stewards of what God has given, not just financially, but with resources, time, family, etc. We do plan on having classes and special events during the three-year process to keep the vision alive as well as continually push ourselves to become better stewards of what God has given us.

Will we promote bricks or something with our names on them?

We have thought long and hard about this idea; there are clear positives and negatives to doing something like this. We have decided that for this process we will not do bricks or placards to those who can give a certain amount. While it encourages some to give more than they would have previously so they can have a name on a brick or something of the like, it also discourages those who cannot afford to give so their name is on a brick or the like. The heart of this program is “not equal giving, but equal sacrifice.” There are those who can give thousands without making a change in their lifestyle, but there are those who will have to dramatically change their lives to give $10. We believe that EVERY gift is valuable, so the placard or brick is a physical reminder, but the eternal reminder will be what will be accomplished for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! And everyone who gives into that will be blessed by it.

Will there be fundraisers to help raise money for this program? Things like bake sales, rummage sales, music festivals or conferences?

The heart behind this journey is for us to examine our hearts, and see what we can contribute. Fundraisers are a great idea and a legitimate way to raise money for the cause, but ultimately, they lack in generating the amount of funds we need to accomplish our vision. We encourage you to begin to pray now about what you can do to give into the program; perhaps it is cutting a cup of coffee, or a meal out, or that new pair of shoes you’ve been wanting… When we sacrifice our wants for the house of God, God sees our heart. In 1 Chronicles 21:18-30, King David was offered the goods for a sacrifice for free, but his heart wouldn’t allow him to give to God what cost him nothing. In 1 Chronicles 29, David led by example in giving toward building the temple by giving many things.

Collecting change or cans or even a bake sale or yard sale is a great way to raise funds, but we want to challenge you to look into your life, and see if there’s something you can give or give up so that the House of God can flourish. We encourage you, go have a yard sale or a car wash to raise funds toward the program; just because the Rock doesn’t host it absolutely does not mean you can’t or shouldn’t do it!

Involvement Questions

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What can teenagers do?

This program will cover all aspects of our church. In the Youth and Children’s ministries there will be teachings and resources for your children to get involved as well. We hope that every person, young and old, will get together to put into the Kingdom of God!

We have a testimony regarding giving and finances; will we be able to share?

Please do! We love to hear these stories, and throughout the process we will be sharing similar stories and testimonies of God’s faithfulness. E-mail us, or write in your story—we may even ask to video it for a testimony!

Will we still be having major events like 4th of July and Harvest, etc? – Barbara

Yes, we will continue as we normally have, but as you probably have already noticed, we have cut out a great many things over the years. Instead of having large events every other month like we used to, we have a few a year: GNO, Men’s Breakfasts, Man Day, Harvest Carnival, etc. We feel that we can better focus our efforts into a few larger events rather than staying busy with many large events. Things like 4th of July and Harvest are dependent on the calendar day in which they fall. If they occur on a day when we have Church services, then we will do something special for them; typically when they fall on a day we do not have services, we do not have a large party for them.

Things like outreach and missions will remain what they are. We do not intend on cutting back reaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus during this process in any shape, form or fashion.

What can we do to help?

Start praying about what God would have you to do to get involved! Spread the word, to your friends, family and anyone else about what God is doing at The Rock Church and World Outreach Center, as well as in your life. As we spread the word person by person the momentum of this program builds, there is an excitement in the air for what is going on, and we have so much more in store for the house.

Vision Questions

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When will you put the blueprints up for the new Iglesia la Roca building so we can see a visual of the future? – Cheryl

Iglesia la Roca’s building has not been drafted as of yet, just planned out in the pre-construction phase; when or if we start working on that is dependent on this campaign. Before we add, we have to reduce the debt of this building, and when this building is paid off, then we can look into building the Spanish church’s new auditorium, without leveraging more debt.