BRISTOL COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY

“We get the chance to be in the gaps for people. We have seen where food gives us a chance to listen to people who need a chance to talk and unload from some of life’s hurts and heavy things. That happens quite often as we listen; it’s not unusual for people to cry and release pressures of life as we listen and pray.”

– Chris Garner, Executive Director, Bristol Community Food Pantry

Adopting this role in 2019 enabled Chris to step right into the lives of others, where he has witnessed firsthand the overlap between meeting physical and spiritual needs. If you’ve volunteered at Bristol Community Food Pantry before, you may have been surprised that your main role in helping families was to “listen”, even above providing logistical help. It’s all because this ministry’s passion for meeting relevant physical needs is built upon the desire to meet spiritual ones. Every facet of the experience at Bristol Food Pantry has been intentionally designed to demonstrate the love of Christ, providing nourishment to both the human body and soul.

A bag of groceries may last for a week, but a heart that has been touched is impacted eternally.

This kind of ministry functions on lots of moving pieces, so when volunteers show up with a posture of willingness to do whatever is needed, from handling small to large items, it especially blesses Chris and his team. “Not everything is glamorous and visibly impactful, but it is all part of the wheels that help the ministry run well,” Chris shared.

The Bristol Food Pantry is funded mainly by personal donors. In fact, community food drives hosted by organizations and churches like FBC help to keep shelves stocked, especially during busy times of the year. Chris and his team are also looking for people to help them expand into home delivery, pre-packing, and helping with shopping and food pick up at local stores.

For Chris, it all comes back to this: “When you tangibly see that what you do impacts a life in that moment, it helps you understand how critical it is that we are available to people – how God designed for each of us to be serving, living, and seeing the people around us.”

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RETA

Food isn’t the only drive we’re hosting during this year’s Season of Generosity! Those of you who are kids at heart have our full permission to revisit the toy aisle and bless another local ministry we’re partnering with: Reason Enough To Act (RETA).

RETA is located downtown Elkhart and comes alongside women and men in our community who are facing unplanned pregnancy or navigating parenting for the first time. Their annual Christmas Toy Drive allows client families to select and provide age-specific gifts for their kids. It’s an intentional extension of the relationship RETA has been building with each of these families. Joni Bradberry, who has served as RETA’s Client Services Manager for the last 15 years, shared with us her desire to see families blessed physically and spiritually this Christmas season. She would love for our FBC Family to partner in prayer that, “clients would have open hearts and minds to hear the message of Jesus through our Christmas packet and programming.”

Much like the Bristol Food Pantry, RETA’s toy drive brings physical blessing built upon spiritual care. “Several moms going through hard times have appreciated a listening ear and the prayer support we offer,” Joni remarked.

God is undeniably at work in and through RETA. One of our favorite things that Joni shared was the consensus of typical comments or reactions from first-time volunteers that serve at RETA: they feel the presence of Jesus as they serve. It’s easy to see why. After all, the heart of Christ spilled over with love for the little ones He encountered in His earthly ministry:

Mark 10:13-16 (New Living Translation)

“One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so He could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him. When Jesus saw what was happening, He was angry with his disciples. He said to them, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.’ Then He took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.”

The desire of Christ was for parents to engage Him with their children. Helping individuals and families to do this is deeply planted at the heart of RETA’s ministry, and the difficult moments of pregnancy and parenting become a ready atmosphere for encounters with Him.

“Looking back now, it’s easy to dissect what happened. We were naive. We weren’t sitting up at night thinking ‘something’s wrong here.’ It was just normal - you use a credit card; you go out to eat. It wasn’t even a second thought.” - Patrick and Kellie Fox 

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We’re really grateful to bring you a conversation we shared with Patrick and Kellie Fox focused on the “how” of giving. Around the family table in their home, we listened as they shared their personal journey with finances and generosity. Our prayer is that this post invites you into the room to catch a glimpse of how intention serves generosity in a real-life context. 

STARTING OUT 

Patrick and Kellie candidly described the first several years of their lives as newlyweds, fresh out of college: “If you look back at that time in our life, we had money, but if you would have known what was going on behind the scenes, you would be saying, ‘Where’d all your money go?’” They recounted the metaphorical burden that they carried during that season - a building sense of financial stress that grew bigger with time. “It’s unnerving to live like that,” they reflected. 

The introduction of Financial Peace University (FPU) came as part of a bigger move of God’s hand in Patrick and Kellies’ journey. Our God doesn’t touch only isolated “compartments” of our lives. Instead, He transforms us by the renewal of our minds. In a holistic, sweeping act of grace, He changes us at a heart-level, affecting the way we interpret every area of life. Romans 12:2 implies that this kind of renewal is the very agent that allows us to resist conforming to the world and its norms - including the financial ones.

Romans 12:2 (NLT)
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

“Certain people came into our lives,” Patrick and Kellie recalled, “and God worked on our hearts in MANY areas, not just finances. Whatever you do with your finances is just a reflection of what’s going on in your heart.” Together, they read one of Dave Ramsey’s books and started grappling with hard questions like, “Whose money is it?” and, “What are we really entitled to?” God was at work.

ENTER: FPU

A short time later, Financial Peace University was offered as a class at FBC. Patrick and Kellie dove in fully and described their experience as if the blinders came off. The practice of building monthly budgets and telling money where to go, rather than allowing impulse purchases to dictate, was the factor that unlocked the financial transformation they experienced. But far from merely changing their habits, they aligned their priorities with God’s Word until their budget reflected it. Looking back, their monthly budgets became a visual reflection of their changing spiritual priorities. They started seeing heart change on a spreadsheet.

Working through the Financial Peace University process wasn’t a quick fix. It took time and gritty effort. Kellie remembers making rice and beans for dinner - a lot. But as they kept at it, they started to see the return. As they paid off debt, God gave them timely opportunities to take on new callings made possible because of the financial freedom they had gained.

SINCE THEN

Ever since the class, Patrick and Kellie have been budgeting each month and carrying principles from FPU into the rhythms of their family’s life. Their kids know words like “budget”, “savings”, and “interest”. They each have personal savings accounts with Dad as the banker. (He’s offering a pretty great interest rate on their savings accounts!) They’re growing up seeing Mom and Dad sit down and plan a budget on the first Saturday of the month. And they’re being actively challenged and encouraged to be generous in their own contexts with the resources of time and energy that they’ve been given.

Patrick and Kellie have seen the transformation in their lives that started with a shifting of priorities in their hearts and worked itself out practically in zero-dollar based budgeting, among other habits. They’ve had the pleasure of teaching several FPU classes and are passionate about sharing what they’ve learned with others. And they’ve observed that intentionality paves the way for generosity. “Giving, for us, is one of the keys,” they reflected. “If you were to look at our life from when we first got married to now, you would see an almost parallel trend of increased giving to increased serving to increased blessing. It’s a privilege to be able to take the time and talents and treasures that God’s given us and to release those and to share that grace. That’s humbling, as it should be. I don’t think you’ll ever have more fun than giving money away.”

FREEDOM IS BIGGER THAN WE THINK

“The goal of the “American Dream” is SELF, but the end goal of God’s idea of financial peace is that we would be all about God and His kingdom. When you’re financially free, you can do so much more than write a check,” they explained.

There is a kind of freedom God wants to give His children that is far deeper than freedom from debt. 

“You can afford to either send somebody to Africa, or go yourself,” Patrick continued. “And maybe, you can retire a little bit early and invest in Kingdom things that you weren’t able to do when you worked full time.” 

Financial freedom maximizes our ability to further the Kingdom. That kind of reasoning as a catalyst for financial change is sturdy enough to withstand the growing pains of adapting to new budgeting habits. That kind of reasoning is backed by Romans 12:2. When we see finances with a Biblical lens, the way we manage our resources becomes yet one more way that we can make much of Jesus Christ and share His hope and love with our world. Kellie described it so well: “You can set yourself up through FPU so that you can have peace about giving and have the ability to do it. Your hands aren’t tied by other things.”

FPU THIS FALL

We’re thrilled to routinely offer Financial Peace University at FBC, but we don’t offer it so that more families at our church can become glittering examples of achieving financial stability. We offer it as another means to equip families to love God, love people, and influence our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with greater freedom. Like Patrick and Kellie experienced, we believe God is orchestrating some kingdom opportunities in the lives of FBC families that will be unlocked by financial peace. 

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To be one of the first to know when we will offer the next FPU class, and to learn about other opportunities at FBC, keep an eye on the MY FBC page of our website, and connect with us on social media!

Patrick and Kellie Fox have a deep love for Christ’s church and have invested their hearts in the weekly rhythms at First Baptist. Along with their 3 boys, they’re building an active and vibrant life, full of family time, adventures with close friends, playing sports, and enjoying northern Indiana. 

Know how to tell if you TRULY love someone? Here’s one surefire sign: you’re willing to give them the very middle of a freshly-baked cinnamon roll. Right out of the oven. Pillowy soft and couched inside layers of more cinnamon-y goodness. Perfectly positioned to receive the maximum amount of cream cheese frosting. That’s true love. 

When you love someone this much,
you want to give them the best part.

What if we thought about giving this way? This love-fueled desire that eclipses all sense of self-gratification is what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We love God desperately and want to give Him the best part of what we’ve been entrusted.

This whole thought tugs at an Old Testament concept called “Firstfruits.” These were special offerings dedicated after a bountiful harvest or after new property was acquired. Israelites would offer the first portion of their harvest before dealing with the rest. Because when you love someone this much, you want to give them the best part. 

We want to be this kind of people, don’t we? We want to freely offer the first and best part of everything to God. But if we’re honest, giving often triggers an inner wrestling. We count the cost, and sometimes we find we’re holding more tightly to our resources than we’d like to admit. We live in a culture saturated with “FOMO” (fear of missing out), and we can’t help but let our minds drift to the alternative ways we could use the portion we’ve considered offering. Giving exposes the contents of our hearts.

Why? Because giving is tied to our affections. People don’t just wake up one day and decide to be radically generous. Something happens to them at a heart-level first. There is an affection that has motivated and stirred their heart to give.

After all, we see the supreme example of this motive-pattern in the heart of our Heavenly Father, who so loved the world that he gave His only Son (John 3:16). And as His image bearers, we give because we love. We are willing to absorb a personal cost because we love. Just like that prized portion of the cinnamon roll, we’re willing to sacrifice it, not begrudgingly, but cheerfully, out of anticipation of the joy it will bring to the one we love.

When love motivates the gift, the sting of the cost is overwhelmed by joy.

This principle that we give because we love will motivate men to purchase expensive engagement rings, women to endure the pain of childbirth, and families to tenderly care for a grandparent gripped by dementia, just to name a few examples. Our love leads us into profound and even joyful sacrifice.

How, then, do we stimulate this kind of giving that joyfully surrenders the best part? We cultivate a love for God that places Him first at the center our hearts and lives – a love that supernaturally reorders our affections. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul writes about the motivation behind the giving of a remarkable church in Macedonia:

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)

Out of love, the Macedonian church had given themselves to God before they gave of themselves to bring relief to the believers in Jerusalem. It’s Biblical to assume that they were in fact able to display such horizontal generosity because they had already given all they had and all they were to God vertically. And the same is true of us. As we increasingly surrender every aspect of our lives to God, we will only find it fitting to gladly offer up our finances to Him as well.

A Prayer of Response:

God, we know that You can stir our affections, because You have already stirred them toward You. By Your grace, please increase our affection for You to the degree that we earnestly long to give You the best part of our lives, including our financial lives. When we are tempted to grieve the cost, would You replace the sting with reminders of the joy that comes from blessing Your heart and being used by You. Let our love for You overflow in generosity with all we are and have.

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Our leadership team at FBC highly recommends this small volume by Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, as a tool to help you guide your heart in honoring God’s design for generosity. You can purchase a copy by clicking on the button below.