NBRC Service 10/12/2008 - Lawrence House Mission
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In the audio podcast of this service, the Scripture reading begins at 28:00 and the Sermon begins at 29:55.
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-40
Sermon: “Lawrence House Mission”
God has richly blessed NBRC with this early 1800’s farm house to be readied for it’s new use. Elder Scott Pontier explains the mission for The Center for Life Transitions.
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From the Paster - September
God is growing our mission! As of September 15, 2008 North Branch will close on the Lawrence House. $360,000+ has been raised towards the $450,000 purchase of the house. And from January 1, 2009 the mission of this house begins!
Or should I say, “begins again?” Right about 50 years ago the church briefly owned this house. It was not the parsonage, but it was purchased along with the field that became our parking lot. Along about the time that I was born, the church subdivided the land and sold this house on 3.3 acres to the Lawrence family to finance the parking lot. God had already destined that this place house a vibrant ministry to our community.
Fast forward to 2005 and 2006 when the church tried to purchase this without a capital campaign. The Ten Year Facility Planning Committee, chaired by Bob Kiser, looked at buying it with state COAH money; we looked at a ministry that could help us pay it off; but it was not to be. Seeing this as God’s stop sign, the long-range planning committee disbanded.
Then last fall I got a call to come to the diner for breakfast. There sat a group of people from our congregation that had raised, at that time, about $350,000 towards the purchase. Quickly we reassembled the Ten Year Facility group. This time, without a large mortgage overhead, God lead us quickly to a ministry born right here in North Branch. Read more
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