DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. (BRN) — $61,000 for a heating and cooling system.
$2,700 towards Operation Christmas Child.
$100,000 for a mobile sonogram van.
Depending on the context, and your perspectives on finances, those numbers either put a smile on your face or made you sit back in your chair and go, “Phew…that’s a lot of money!” Both would be appropriate responses in this case, because those numbers are, in fact, only a fraction of the funds God has, and is, providing to the congregation of New Hope Baptist Church in Duncansville, Pennsylvania.
In 2020 alone, God has provided more than $63,000 for necessary renovations and ministry endeavors at New Hope, shared Lead Pastor Doug Pilot.
“We ran into a whole bunch of things about the same time as COVID. One of the problems we had was our heating and air-conditioning was shot. We had no air-conditioning [and] the only heat we had was emergency heat, [which] in the wintertime cost us about $2,000 a month,” he said.
Pilot explained that, at the time, the church had roughly $13,000 in hand to put towards a new $60,000 heating and cooling system.
“So, I stood up February – a year ago – and said to the church, ‘We’re not going to go to the bank, we’re going to trust God, and we’re going to raise $60,000.’”
This “not going to a bank” mentality was nothing new to Pilot, who originally implemented it at his first appointment in Green Castle, Pennsylvania.
There, “we bought four acres of ground and built a 6,300 square foot building debt free. We had a very small congregation and I challenged them to ‘build without borrowing,’” said Pilot.
“By God’s grace in about a year and half, or two years, we raised enough money to buy that four acres of ground and build that building. It’s still there today, and they’ve added on to it.”
However, at New Hope ‘build without borrowing’ was a brand new concept.
“When we got to the point of being able to challenge them, ‘We’re not going to the bank, we’re going to God,’ that was a new approach for them.”
Pilot continued: “I talked to them about equal sacrifice not equal dollars. Don’t expect everybody to give the same. [I] suggested if they had some gold jewelry and things like that they weren’t using anymore we could cash that in… We did get about $4,000 through that.”
Slowly, but surely, the people of New Hope became more confident in the Lord’s provision, taking hold of every opportunity He threw their way to reach their financial goal – including scrapping metal.
“I guess God put us in the scrapping business… We have a lot of property, and we had room. There’s three or four of us who have been at it [scrapping] pretty steady, and we all have our specialty. We may not be able to put things together, but we sure tear them apart,” said Pilot.
Through diligent scrapping, the church raised between $3,000-$4,000, moving closer and closer to their $60,000 goal. Other church members contributed to the funds by giving their stimulus checks.
“One of our ladies when the first stimulus checks came out, put on Facebook, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we tithed our stimulus checks?’ And people did.”
By October of 2020, New Hope had exceeded their financial goal for the new heating and air-conditioning system.
“In October – from February to October – I was able to stand up and say to the church, ‘We broke $61,000.’ They put our new system in February…[we] paid cash for it and it has already been saving us money,” said Pilot.
Little did the members of New Hope know that God was just scratching the surface of financial provision within their community.
“During that time, I had also challenged our church – we had done like maybe 50 shoeboxes for Christmas for years – and the Christmas before that February I challenged them to 100. We ended up with 112 [and] last year I challenged them for 300.”
The shoeboxes were a part of the church’s annual involvement with the global ministry of Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child. Roughly, each box cost $9 to ship, plus whatever the cost would be for the items going inside the box. Shipping 300 boxes alone would cost the church a minimum of $2,700.
“I announced that [the challenge for 300 boxes] on a Sunday. The following Sunday my treasurer said we already had $2,300 for shipping…I mean trying to teach them about faith! We wound up with 306 shoeboxes that went to seven countries, and I’ve been talking to them this year already about maybe going for 400,” shared Pilot.
“I always say trust in God and give what you can – and I try to stress [that] all of this is above the tithes and offerings. All the things that go on in this church still go on, and that includes our tithes and offerings, so everything we do in these other projects has to be above and beyond.”
Now, still amid an ongoing pandemic, New Hope continues to place their finances in God’s hands as they partner with one of their sister churches to raise $100,000 for a mobile sonogram van.
“Their dream is to get a portable sonogram in a van for $100,000. So, I talked to the pastor about that…and I said, ‘I’m going to challenge our church to raise the first $5,000.’ Well, they raised $6,600…[and] with all the sources we’re almost to $8,000,” said Pilot.
“I’m trying to ask our sister churches if they would help us with this project, because we know sonograms save lives. Our church has gotten committed to the unborn.”
Through this newfound passion for the unborn, New Hope has also started a baby pantry. The ministry will offer formula, diapers, wipes, and other needs to new parents in the area.
“We got hooked up with a group called Love Them Both, and it’s one thing to ask the girl to not abort the baby, but if she chooses life, there’s formula, diapers, [and] wipes…we had opened a baby pantry. We haven’t had our first time yet, but we’re there to fill that gap in the beginning stages,” explained Pilot.
“We’re expanding it to where it could even be a young couple, that they have their first child and they just can’t make ends meet. We wanna be there, but especially for a woman who chooses life over abortion.”
Time and time again, Pastor Pilot and the people of New Hope have seen God provide faithfully, even amidst the most challenging of times. These moments have strengthened the congregation’s trust in the Lord and stretched their faith in transformative ways.
“We trusted God. God did it and He gets the credit. So when we bring other projects before them, it’s not so scary anymore because they’ve seen God do it,” said Pilot.
“What we have to do is not rest on what God has done– that’s great – but what else are we supposed to be doing? What else does He want to do for us if we trust Him?”
Listen to the podcast interview.
The “50 Stories of Transformation” series, told in honor of the Baptist Resource Network’s 50th anniversary, highlights the many ways God has moved throughout Pennsylvania, South Jersey and beyond. Your generous support of the Cooperative Program makes this ministry possible and fuels evangelism and outreach in our local churches and all over the world! Thank you!
