CHESTERFIELD, N.J. (BRN) – God stirred His people through the Gospel Mission series we had at Fellowship CrossPoint Church in Chesterfield, New Jersey, and we received a record offering of over $43,000 on June 26 for a Gas Giveaway!
Candidly, I was hoping to hit $25,000 that Sunday, but God did increasingly more than I could have asked for or imagined (Eph 3:20). This generous giving personified one of our core values at Fellowship CrossPoint: Joyful generosity. God has been so generous with us in Jesus, and we respond to the gospel with joyful generosity for God’s glory.
We designed our Gas Giveaway to surprise people at the pump, but the QuickCheck employees posted it to social media and, unbeknownst to us, the word was out. When I arrived an hour before the event, there was already a long line of cars waiting!
Our volunteers rushed over to join me, and we unleashed a tidal wave of generosity for God’s glory. We shared the love of Jesus with every person who received free gas. They heard that Jesus loved them so much He willingly died for their sins so they could receive God’s love and forgiveness for free by faith.
They also heard about this church in Chesterfield that gave away $43,000 in free gas, no strings attached! We prayed for scores of people: For their marriages, for their wayward children, their addictions and that God would demonstrate His love for them.
After an hour, the line of cars was backed up for a mile! Bordentown Police were dispatched to QuickCheck to deal with the traffic, and I had the opportunity to tell them about our church and what we were doing. They were shocked and graciously helped us deal with the traffic and wind down the event safely. We closed with public prayer in the QuickCheck parking lot, asking God to leverage this curious act of generosity for His glory.
Gospel Reverberations
Just fifteen hours later, the countdown began to start our 9 a.m. service, and a woman walked up to me and said, “Remember me?” I interacted with hundreds of people at the Gas Giveaway, so it took a moment to register before I exclaimed, “The nurse!”
She stopped into QuickCheck to fill up on her way to work and was so moved by our generosity that she “had to come and check out this church.” After the service, Donna Hull bumped into her in the bathroom, and she was in tears. Donna asked, “Are you alright? Is there anything I can do for you?” and she responded, “The service just got to me…the whole thing.” This woman encountered the glory of God and the hope of the gospel.
The next Sunday Beth Giobbie said, “You have to hear this story,” and introduced me to a first- time visitor. She was in the checkout line at the Acme in Fieldsboro (less than a mile from the QuickCheck) and overheard two customers conversing.
One woman asked, “How can you afford all that food?!” and her friend responded, “You won’t believe it, but a church filled my gas tank for free, and I have more money for groceries.” Another customer chimed in, “Yeah, me too; that free tank of gas went a long way. I’m able to buy more groceries for my kids.” Someone expressed skepticism that a church would fill up people’s tanks for free, and a customer responded, “It’s true. My husband’s a cop and confirmed the story with the Bordentown officers who were there. The church is called CrossPoint, over in Chesterfield.”
Our first-time visitor heard the whole conversation and told me, “I just had to come see this church for myself.” Turns out she grew up Catholic but drifted away and the Catholic Questions series resonated with her. Did you catch that?! She wasn’t even at the event, but the story of radical generosity drew her to CrossPoint.
God is on the move and will glorify Himself in and through His people when we live on gospel mission!
