Problems of the Past can lead to Victory
Recently, at our gathering where many ministers came together to honour Hervey Shank, some valuable history was shared about Northview church. The man that shared it was the special speaker that day, Rev. Dick Green. As Dick shared his knowledge and memories it opened a flood gate of other stories shared by the congregation. As a pastor of this church it gave an insight that I never had before. Perhaps it will help you also to understand.
Background History
In the late 1970s Dublin Street Pentecostal Church began planning for the possibilities to relocate from their site on Dublin Street - one block off George Street. Through a series of remarkable events the present property our church is situated on was discovered. The property of 22 acres of prime land was listed at $145,000. Looking back with today's eyes and thought it seems like a steal. But with the 1970s prices and conditions it represented a challenge to the congregation at that time.
The first challenge was this amount of money had to be raised from a congregation that didn't all believe that they needed to move. Some believed it and others didn't. Some that were in leadership could see the Dublin building was stressed with the number of children and adults that were coming each week. The Sunday School Buses that were owned and run at that time were filling the building each week. The Buses together with cars driven by congregants to church Sunday AM and PM were filling the streets in that small, crowded section of Peterborough.
The second challenge was the Dublin Street church's success and many wonderful memories in that building. It had been a church that was blessed and the services held here were remarkable - even from its very first days of opening. It is hard to leave something that is successful. It is hard to leave a sight and a building where you have poured your heart and soul into developing.
After or before our present property was purchased it was discovered that the Dublin Street church could have purchased all the house and business properties from the church to George Street - making it possible to have parking and expansion. When decisions were being made and the final plan struck this option was voted down and our Fairbairn Property became our future.
The move to this new property and the closing of Dublin Street church took tremendous nerve and had to be fired by a powerful vision by our spiritual leaders at the time. On top of that the $145,000 purchase price of the property was to become very small in its comparison to the costs of building our present church building. When the ground breaking ceremony took place few standing there in the photo opportunity would understand how big the costs would grow.
In 1980 when the building was completed our debt load grew to $1,350,000. In 1980 the new building began to fill with its congregants and their new friends. The Buses that had struggled to find parking spaces near the Dublin Street church had acres to park on. Cars flooded on to the new property and found easy access to their own spots. We can only imagine today what a joy it was to have this space.
Like the Dublin Street church there was a blessing on the services here as well. In the Dublin days when the church was opened under Pastor Fred Parlee an evangelist/special speaker came for the first week's meetings. This initial meeting was so blessed with God's presence that the meetings extended into weeks and then over one month. Present congregants recall having to struggle to get into their own church because so many new people were flooding through the doors. In today's thinking that would have been a start of a major revival.
In the new church at Fairbairn and Towerhill (our present building) people began to flood in as well. On one series of meeting with the famed David Wilkerson ("The Cross and the Switchblade" and New York city evangelism among street gangs) was the speaker. The new building was jammed with more that 1000 people from all accounts given. Gospel quartet presentations were drawing over 750 a concert. In Peterborough that was amazing. There was something happening at this new church building among a seasoned congregation that had been in the community for over 50 years.
Success and blessing draw people. It isn't just the new building that does this but rather the presence of God in the place. The new attitude and excitement of the congregation with the expectancy that, "God is going to do something here" was contagious. Nothing could stop this forward movement and progress. This was very true in many ways.
A unique and very new idea was set upon - a Dayshool for children. From its inception it was small and it struggled. In its early years not everyone believed in what was happening in other parts of the church. After all the major ministry the church was designed for was Sunday School. The early days of the Daycare at Northview was a novel idea that began in the hearts of people that believed in outreach to children and their families. Over these years the Daycare/Dayschool ministry at Northview has been one of the most succesful outreaches this church has seen.
The Brock Mission, the Peterborough Crisis Pregnancy Centre and the Good Neighbour Care Centre were three more ideas birthed in our congregation.
The New Problem Surfaces
No one in the late 1970s over at the Dublin Street Pentecostal church would able to see what would quickly develop just over the hill -so to speak.... The Gigantic Monster of rapidly rising interest rates would develop with force of opposition that few would dream possible.
For the average person it was a boom. Investments made and money placed in mortgage certificates it was a retired person's blessing from on high! God is so good!
When Northview Pentecostal Church was built it was financed by a popular method of the 1960s and 1970s. That special method was to offer and "sell" mortgage certificates to people in the church. The "sale" of $1000, $5000, $10,000 certificates was the heart of the program. Ordinary people in the church could put away money for their future retirement and also for their present living standard and be blessed. The church on the other hand was blessed in that the money loaned to the congregation would pay interest dividends to its own people - who in turn tithe back to the church as they are blessed with more finances. Each six month period there was another interest payment and the congregant that had invested in the church was given a good cheque. Further down the road as the population of mortgage certificate holders would pass on there was a strong possibility that the folks would be generous with their church and surrender the certificate as a Gift to the church upon their death.
The majority of the $1,350,000 that was needed was financed this way. People from across Canada raced to get in on the program. Pastors, at the time, that were most successful in raising the needed mortgage money were ones that knew many other churches and had a strong ability to sell the idea with people far and wide.
The Gigantic Monster of rapidly rising interest rates entered just after the new building was opened. The Monsters proportions were up to 20% interest per year. It was a good monster to the local congregant with his nest egg of $50,000 - it paid $1,000 per year. That would easily pay for a trip to Florida each year and have money left over.
It was a nightmare Mortgage Interest Monster (MIM) for the local church holding on to its mortgage certificate leash. To feed it you needed to raise and extra $270,000 per year, or $5200 per week, or $742 per day to feed the monster. In the first four years of the new church being opened it paid $1,080,000 in interest.
If every person in the 750 attending gave to meet the need they must give $360 each per year to pay the MIM. Remember that is every man, woman, and child must pay. With a family of 5 - they need to come up with and extra $1800 per year to feed the MIM.
The operation costs including heat, electricity, salaries and the normal everyday costs of keeping the church afloat would need another $250,000 or so. That would mean each family would have to give about $3500 per year in order to keep the MIM fed and the church going.
The average salary in Canada in 1980 was $20,000. Meaning that an average family tithing their full amount of $2000 per annum ... would be $1500 less than you need. You would need 250 families each tithing $2000 to be able to feed MIM and the normal operating costs. With the average of 4 people per family that is a congreagtion of 1000 people regularly giving, all happy and all attending.
But everything is not so even. The church reached an attendance of about 450 - 550 in its best days. Not everyone was able to tithe. Not everyone knew they should tithe. Not everyone wanted to tithe. When someone was unhappy they stopped tithing altogether.
The general rule of thumb is the 20/80 Rule. 20% of the people give 80% of the money. That rule was evident in Dublin Street church as it is in Northview church today.
Simply put - the MIM in the 1980s nearly killed the church.
Remember the need for bus parking from the old Dublin Street days...? Well with the debt load it became evident that the buses could no longer be run. A new method was incorporated to get kids to church. This method was actually old - families of the church were recruited to pick up the various children from all over the city -providing a continued transportation service for people needing rides. After the first year of this new method it became harder to recruit people to pick up kids. The rest is history - the Sunday School boom of Dublin Days would change at NPC as we settled into new realities.
Dick Green shared that, as he served on the PAOC District Executive of Western Ontario, during the 1980s Northview and five other churches in Western and Eastern Districts were struggling to stay alive. Each was being swallowed by the MIM that was gigantic in their own church yards. He stated that the District executives of that time were on the edge of bankruptcy. If Northview went under the entire Eastern Ontario District would not have been able to help it and the two would have gone down together.
The MIM almost destroyed us.
Add to that some people in the early stages of 1980 - 1983 grew very unhappy with the pastor at that time and rose up to form a group to get rid of him. Meetings behind closed doors were held and unrest was generated. Enough so that the pastor that had lead the move from Dublin Street, had lead through the struggling years of building, had helped to raise the needed cash was now on his way out. Reports today are that he had to ask continually for money. He preached about why and how each person should give. It made people uneasy and angry. He also was involved in exposing moral corruption at a District office level when a District pastor was committing adultery. This action on this pastor's part would possibly seal his fate. People in the congregation were related to one in the adulterous affair. Simply put - he was not able to pastor this church - people had lost faith in him.
People were angry and stopped giving. The MIM kept demanding more food.
The pastor that followed this one had his own share of problems. His personal style made people angry later in his ministry from what I have been told. As it is fairly close to these present times it may be best to not discuss this too deeply. From what I have gleaned people of the church were angered. So was the pastor. Remember angry people don't tithe - they stop giving and they walk out the doors of the church letting everyone know that they are angry. During this period of time Northview may have felt its darkest days.
But the MIM still had to be fed.
The original MM $1,350,000 grew to $1,600,000 with the MIM growing with it. The other churches of the District stepped up and gave enough for a two year period to pay down the debt to the original amount.
In 1998 when I arrived as pastor the MM was $1,350,000. The MIM was thinner then with only 6% feeding needed only $81,000 per year. But then a new roof was needed at $150,000.
To my amazement this present congregation has paid down $500,000 in 7 1/2 years with an MIM sitting at $800,000 as of 2006. We have put on the new roof. We have continued to feed the MIM at 5% - or $470,000 in 7 years time.
This small congregation of about 250 - with about 160 in attendance now - has paid out $970,000 plus $150,000 for the roof - which is $1,120,000 in 7 years.
This year's MIM is only $42,000. This year's mortgage payment will be about $25,000 - $35,000 - so we have a ways to go yet.
Changes in the Congregation
Since 1998 we have had our ups and downs too. Not only have we faced the MIM we have faced the ongoing struggles to keep growing.
First there was a change that took place in the fall of 1998 and the early part of 1999. People left us for other pastures. Some had major issues that they personally were facing. We blessed them as they went. Through 1999 and into 2000 this continued. It may best be described as a pruning of the church's branches.
Second there was an ongoing transformation of our congregation with the loss we felt with Eastern Pentecostal Bible College leaving us. Actually it was Masters College and Seminary that moved to Toronto during these past 7 years. There was a name change and then the move would begin. Few of us would realize the affect that it would have on our assembly.
For over 60 years the College had always been there. When our church was on Water Street the College students and staff had been an integral part of the church. In the Dublin Street PC they grew with us. At Northview we thought they would always be there as well.
In earlier years at Christmas time and at the end of the year when College students went home we would see what it might be like when the school eventually pulled out of Peterborough.
Add to that a snow storm in Winter during the time the College students were away and an emerging, future congregation could bee seen. Not many wanted to consider this possibility in the summer of 1998. In fact it was not considered in years past either.
The year of 2005 may go down as one of the hardest Northview has faced in recent times. As a pastoral staff this is certainly true. There was exposure of immorality in the lives of men of our church over the previous two years. Not one but several. This affected not only the man but the families of each man as well. Add to that their friends and we experienced more losses. In some cases the immorality had directly affected lives of other couples and they pulled from the church rather than have to face the evil.
The final product of this latest strain on our assembly has been anger. One thing we know is anger kills the spirit of everyone. It kills the heart of a wife of a man that has committed immoral acts. It kills the attitude of willing volunteers. It kills relationships. Time will tell how God will intervene in this situation. It appears that we are living history over each week now.
Conclusions
History sometimes repeats itself unfortunately. It doesn't have to... but God must work in the lives of his people to get their attention.
Have I told you yet I HATE DEBT !
And -more than that I HATE THE DEVIL - and he hates me!
The answer is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15.... 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.(KJV)
The Board of Northview and Leadership Team of 2006 have called the congregation to prayer. Together we believe that God is working things through.
The Children of Israel took 40 years in the desert to get things ironed out and understand what God would have them to know. We have experienced 25 years so far at Northview. Add to that some years at Dublin Street PC and we may be coming close to the end of our learning curve as well.
Background History
In the late 1970s Dublin Street Pentecostal Church began planning for the possibilities to relocate from their site on Dublin Street - one block off George Street. Through a series of remarkable events the present property our church is situated on was discovered. The property of 22 acres of prime land was listed at $145,000. Looking back with today's eyes and thought it seems like a steal. But with the 1970s prices and conditions it represented a challenge to the congregation at that time.
The first challenge was this amount of money had to be raised from a congregation that didn't all believe that they needed to move. Some believed it and others didn't. Some that were in leadership could see the Dublin building was stressed with the number of children and adults that were coming each week. The Sunday School Buses that were owned and run at that time were filling the building each week. The Buses together with cars driven by congregants to church Sunday AM and PM were filling the streets in that small, crowded section of Peterborough.
The second challenge was the Dublin Street church's success and many wonderful memories in that building. It had been a church that was blessed and the services held here were remarkable - even from its very first days of opening. It is hard to leave something that is successful. It is hard to leave a sight and a building where you have poured your heart and soul into developing.
After or before our present property was purchased it was discovered that the Dublin Street church could have purchased all the house and business properties from the church to George Street - making it possible to have parking and expansion. When decisions were being made and the final plan struck this option was voted down and our Fairbairn Property became our future.
The move to this new property and the closing of Dublin Street church took tremendous nerve and had to be fired by a powerful vision by our spiritual leaders at the time. On top of that the $145,000 purchase price of the property was to become very small in its comparison to the costs of building our present church building. When the ground breaking ceremony took place few standing there in the photo opportunity would understand how big the costs would grow.
In 1980 when the building was completed our debt load grew to $1,350,000. In 1980 the new building began to fill with its congregants and their new friends. The Buses that had struggled to find parking spaces near the Dublin Street church had acres to park on. Cars flooded on to the new property and found easy access to their own spots. We can only imagine today what a joy it was to have this space.
Like the Dublin Street church there was a blessing on the services here as well. In the Dublin days when the church was opened under Pastor Fred Parlee an evangelist/special speaker came for the first week's meetings. This initial meeting was so blessed with God's presence that the meetings extended into weeks and then over one month. Present congregants recall having to struggle to get into their own church because so many new people were flooding through the doors. In today's thinking that would have been a start of a major revival.
In the new church at Fairbairn and Towerhill (our present building) people began to flood in as well. On one series of meeting with the famed David Wilkerson ("The Cross and the Switchblade" and New York city evangelism among street gangs) was the speaker. The new building was jammed with more that 1000 people from all accounts given. Gospel quartet presentations were drawing over 750 a concert. In Peterborough that was amazing. There was something happening at this new church building among a seasoned congregation that had been in the community for over 50 years.
Success and blessing draw people. It isn't just the new building that does this but rather the presence of God in the place. The new attitude and excitement of the congregation with the expectancy that, "God is going to do something here" was contagious. Nothing could stop this forward movement and progress. This was very true in many ways.
A unique and very new idea was set upon - a Dayshool for children. From its inception it was small and it struggled. In its early years not everyone believed in what was happening in other parts of the church. After all the major ministry the church was designed for was Sunday School. The early days of the Daycare at Northview was a novel idea that began in the hearts of people that believed in outreach to children and their families. Over these years the Daycare/Dayschool ministry at Northview has been one of the most succesful outreaches this church has seen.
The Brock Mission, the Peterborough Crisis Pregnancy Centre and the Good Neighbour Care Centre were three more ideas birthed in our congregation.
The New Problem Surfaces
No one in the late 1970s over at the Dublin Street Pentecostal church would able to see what would quickly develop just over the hill -so to speak.... The Gigantic Monster of rapidly rising interest rates would develop with force of opposition that few would dream possible.
For the average person it was a boom. Investments made and money placed in mortgage certificates it was a retired person's blessing from on high! God is so good!
When Northview Pentecostal Church was built it was financed by a popular method of the 1960s and 1970s. That special method was to offer and "sell" mortgage certificates to people in the church. The "sale" of $1000, $5000, $10,000 certificates was the heart of the program. Ordinary people in the church could put away money for their future retirement and also for their present living standard and be blessed. The church on the other hand was blessed in that the money loaned to the congregation would pay interest dividends to its own people - who in turn tithe back to the church as they are blessed with more finances. Each six month period there was another interest payment and the congregant that had invested in the church was given a good cheque. Further down the road as the population of mortgage certificate holders would pass on there was a strong possibility that the folks would be generous with their church and surrender the certificate as a Gift to the church upon their death.
The majority of the $1,350,000 that was needed was financed this way. People from across Canada raced to get in on the program. Pastors, at the time, that were most successful in raising the needed mortgage money were ones that knew many other churches and had a strong ability to sell the idea with people far and wide.
The Gigantic Monster of rapidly rising interest rates entered just after the new building was opened. The Monsters proportions were up to 20% interest per year. It was a good monster to the local congregant with his nest egg of $50,000 - it paid $1,000 per year. That would easily pay for a trip to Florida each year and have money left over.
It was a nightmare Mortgage Interest Monster (MIM) for the local church holding on to its mortgage certificate leash. To feed it you needed to raise and extra $270,000 per year, or $5200 per week, or $742 per day to feed the monster. In the first four years of the new church being opened it paid $1,080,000 in interest.
If every person in the 750 attending gave to meet the need they must give $360 each per year to pay the MIM. Remember that is every man, woman, and child must pay. With a family of 5 - they need to come up with and extra $1800 per year to feed the MIM.
The operation costs including heat, electricity, salaries and the normal everyday costs of keeping the church afloat would need another $250,000 or so. That would mean each family would have to give about $3500 per year in order to keep the MIM fed and the church going.
The average salary in Canada in 1980 was $20,000. Meaning that an average family tithing their full amount of $2000 per annum ... would be $1500 less than you need. You would need 250 families each tithing $2000 to be able to feed MIM and the normal operating costs. With the average of 4 people per family that is a congreagtion of 1000 people regularly giving, all happy and all attending.
But everything is not so even. The church reached an attendance of about 450 - 550 in its best days. Not everyone was able to tithe. Not everyone knew they should tithe. Not everyone wanted to tithe. When someone was unhappy they stopped tithing altogether.
The general rule of thumb is the 20/80 Rule. 20% of the people give 80% of the money. That rule was evident in Dublin Street church as it is in Northview church today.
Simply put - the MIM in the 1980s nearly killed the church.
Remember the need for bus parking from the old Dublin Street days...? Well with the debt load it became evident that the buses could no longer be run. A new method was incorporated to get kids to church. This method was actually old - families of the church were recruited to pick up the various children from all over the city -providing a continued transportation service for people needing rides. After the first year of this new method it became harder to recruit people to pick up kids. The rest is history - the Sunday School boom of Dublin Days would change at NPC as we settled into new realities.
Dick Green shared that, as he served on the PAOC District Executive of Western Ontario, during the 1980s Northview and five other churches in Western and Eastern Districts were struggling to stay alive. Each was being swallowed by the MIM that was gigantic in their own church yards. He stated that the District executives of that time were on the edge of bankruptcy. If Northview went under the entire Eastern Ontario District would not have been able to help it and the two would have gone down together.
The MIM almost destroyed us.
Add to that some people in the early stages of 1980 - 1983 grew very unhappy with the pastor at that time and rose up to form a group to get rid of him. Meetings behind closed doors were held and unrest was generated. Enough so that the pastor that had lead the move from Dublin Street, had lead through the struggling years of building, had helped to raise the needed cash was now on his way out. Reports today are that he had to ask continually for money. He preached about why and how each person should give. It made people uneasy and angry. He also was involved in exposing moral corruption at a District office level when a District pastor was committing adultery. This action on this pastor's part would possibly seal his fate. People in the congregation were related to one in the adulterous affair. Simply put - he was not able to pastor this church - people had lost faith in him.
People were angry and stopped giving. The MIM kept demanding more food.
The pastor that followed this one had his own share of problems. His personal style made people angry later in his ministry from what I have been told. As it is fairly close to these present times it may be best to not discuss this too deeply. From what I have gleaned people of the church were angered. So was the pastor. Remember angry people don't tithe - they stop giving and they walk out the doors of the church letting everyone know that they are angry. During this period of time Northview may have felt its darkest days.
But the MIM still had to be fed.
The original MM $1,350,000 grew to $1,600,000 with the MIM growing with it. The other churches of the District stepped up and gave enough for a two year period to pay down the debt to the original amount.
In 1998 when I arrived as pastor the MM was $1,350,000. The MIM was thinner then with only 6% feeding needed only $81,000 per year. But then a new roof was needed at $150,000.
To my amazement this present congregation has paid down $500,000 in 7 1/2 years with an MIM sitting at $800,000 as of 2006. We have put on the new roof. We have continued to feed the MIM at 5% - or $470,000 in 7 years time.
This small congregation of about 250 - with about 160 in attendance now - has paid out $970,000 plus $150,000 for the roof - which is $1,120,000 in 7 years.
This year's MIM is only $42,000. This year's mortgage payment will be about $25,000 - $35,000 - so we have a ways to go yet.
Changes in the Congregation
Since 1998 we have had our ups and downs too. Not only have we faced the MIM we have faced the ongoing struggles to keep growing.
First there was a change that took place in the fall of 1998 and the early part of 1999. People left us for other pastures. Some had major issues that they personally were facing. We blessed them as they went. Through 1999 and into 2000 this continued. It may best be described as a pruning of the church's branches.
Second there was an ongoing transformation of our congregation with the loss we felt with Eastern Pentecostal Bible College leaving us. Actually it was Masters College and Seminary that moved to Toronto during these past 7 years. There was a name change and then the move would begin. Few of us would realize the affect that it would have on our assembly.
For over 60 years the College had always been there. When our church was on Water Street the College students and staff had been an integral part of the church. In the Dublin Street PC they grew with us. At Northview we thought they would always be there as well.
In earlier years at Christmas time and at the end of the year when College students went home we would see what it might be like when the school eventually pulled out of Peterborough.
Add to that a snow storm in Winter during the time the College students were away and an emerging, future congregation could bee seen. Not many wanted to consider this possibility in the summer of 1998. In fact it was not considered in years past either.
The year of 2005 may go down as one of the hardest Northview has faced in recent times. As a pastoral staff this is certainly true. There was exposure of immorality in the lives of men of our church over the previous two years. Not one but several. This affected not only the man but the families of each man as well. Add to that their friends and we experienced more losses. In some cases the immorality had directly affected lives of other couples and they pulled from the church rather than have to face the evil.
The final product of this latest strain on our assembly has been anger. One thing we know is anger kills the spirit of everyone. It kills the heart of a wife of a man that has committed immoral acts. It kills the attitude of willing volunteers. It kills relationships. Time will tell how God will intervene in this situation. It appears that we are living history over each week now.
Conclusions
History sometimes repeats itself unfortunately. It doesn't have to... but God must work in the lives of his people to get their attention.
Have I told you yet I HATE DEBT !
And -more than that I HATE THE DEVIL - and he hates me!
The answer is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15.... 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.(KJV)
The Board of Northview and Leadership Team of 2006 have called the congregation to prayer. Together we believe that God is working things through.
The Children of Israel took 40 years in the desert to get things ironed out and understand what God would have them to know. We have experienced 25 years so far at Northview. Add to that some years at Dublin Street PC and we may be coming close to the end of our learning curve as well.
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Saturday, March 25, 2006
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