Facing a Gideon Moment

The congregation that I serve has been affected by the financial crisis that our nation is dealing with. A significant amount of money that we raised for our building project has disappeared because of the downturn in the stock market. If we want construction to continue, we will have to increase our loan from $300,000 to $450,000. As we deal with this unpleasant situation, it would be easy for us to respond with despair, frustration, anxiety, or anger. We may want to look for someone to blame for this situation, or we may give up on trying to complete this goal.

Instead, I encourage you to consider this to be a “Gideon moment,” as we trust and work with God. In Judges 6 and 7, God told Gideon that He was sending him to defeat the army that was occupying the land of Israel. In response to God’s call, Gideon assembled an army of 32,000 soldiers to attack a much bigger enemy force. Anyone in their right mind would say that Gideon needed every warrior he could find to join him in the battle. But God told Gideon that he had too many men. Too many! What general who was ever preparing for battle thought that he had too many soldiers? But God wanted Gideon to know that when he defeated them, the victory would come because of God’s power and not his army. So with God’s guidance, Gideon whittled down his forces until he only had 300 soldiers. And with those 300, he defeated the enemy.

When we first started preparations for this building project, we knew that it would only succeed if it was God’s will. At every step, we did our best to ensure that we were following where God was guiding. And by every conventional measure, things seemed to be going well. In four years we raised an incredible amount of money, and we secured a loan with excellent terms from church-related institution to pay for the rest of the construction. Based on what we had been able to raise in the past, we had every reason to believe that we would be able to pay off the loan in three years.

Gideon thought his army of 32,000 could defeat the Midianites, and we thought that we would be able to complete our building project. But God wanted Gideon to know that it was His power, not Gideon’s, that won the victory. And now, perhaps God wants us to know that this building project will not succeed because of our efforts, but because of His power at work in us. A sign in the back of our sanctuary defines faith as “Fantastic Adventures In Trusting Him.” This latest situation is part of the adventure that comes from trusting God. If we could complete this building project on our own, where would the faith be? But if we are brought to our knees and realize that the project will indeed succeed only with God’s blessing, then we are well on our way to living out our faith.

Does this mean that we should sit back quietly and do nothing, because God will take care of it all? By no means! Gideon and his band of 300 men had an army to face, and we have a project to complete. We have work to do together, but we must remember that we are playing our role in the plan that God has for us.
We share this crisis with countless families and institutions across our nation. May the way that we face it as a church be a witness to those around us of what is possible when we trust and follow God.