“Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the Lord’s temple.”
2 Chronicles 34:10
We have a short and a long answer for why FBF is not a 501c3.
The short answer gives you what you need to know if you do not want to know how God brought us to this conclusion. The longer answer details what we have learned in prayer, in experience, and through God’s Word. This page does not seek to repeat what is laid out in those pages. Instead, we hope that you take away the basic premise that is laid out above in 2 Chronicles.
FBF is a doorway for light, change, support, encouragement, and prayer.
Many times, we are just the conduit by which a blessing passes from one to another. What is brought to us–during our collections–comes from throughout the awesome state of Michigan (and sometimes even from other great states) by hearts moved to help. In return, God has moved us well beyond South Lyon to help other areas, many of which are in greater need than our hometown.
We try hard not to store up for the future because we are meant to pass along blessings, not retain them:
- We have limited space which keeps us focused on moving blessings out as soon as we can. Due to space constraints and multiple, year-round outreaches, we do not have room to hold onto things that are not needed. Hence, we have learned not to develop the constant habit of collecting and storing long-term. God is actively working in each day, and already knows what is needed and when.
- Since FBF’s goal is to build faith, our focus frequently centers on learning how to trust God more. We have found that hanging onto things (storing long term) quietly leads us to put our trust in what our hands can produce. When a “storehouse” mentality develops, we are not pushed to have faith in God. Rather, faith asks us to consider whether what we are doing requires more or less trust in Him. With definitive start and stop dates on collections, and limited storage, we are encouraged to rely on Him to bring us what is needed when there is truly a need for whatever it is.
- When we collect, assemble or serve, we are acting as faithful doorkeepers between those who are in need and those who God nudges to help. All that we do is based on the hope of living out His ways in obedience and through the faith that He is right here with us.
We are merely “doorkeepers” of His blessings, and as David so eloquently put it:
“Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
Psalm 84:10
