Pastor and church leader, what is your excuse for not being obedient to move forward on the vision which God has given you and your church? It is often said that church leaders do not need two reasons to say “No” to something. They only need one reason to pause and put something on hold.
Todd Korasick, the lead pastor of Monett Community Church in Monet, MO (shown above), had significant reasons to not move forward with the church’s expansion and capital campaign. First, there was the reality of COVID. But prior in 2019, he was also diagnosed with Stage 3 Melanoma cancer. But he and the church moved forward anyway. But the question was “Why” when it would be so easy to delay? After all, many pastors pause for far less compelling reasons than COVID and cancer.
Monett, Missouri is a rural community located in the southwest portion of the state. It is populated by only 9,000 people but swells to 25,000 during the week because of industry. Like most cities regardless of size, fewer than 15% of those within a 20-mile radius attended a local church. When Pastor Todd arrived in 2018, he felt a deep calling to make an eternal impact in rural America for Jesus. And he and the church began doing so.
The church grew from 125 in weekly attendance to over 300 in less than two years! But more people needed to be reached and the church was out of worship and children’s space. It was time to expand and raise capital. Working with INJOY Stewardship, the church embarked on a capital campaign…. and then COVID hit… and the cancer continued. But the calling God had placed on Pastor Todd’s heart remained.
Once the church reopened, Pastor Todd and the church leadership were faced with an issue. Attendance was down but God had given them a vision. Pastor Todd told me, “We don’t have the packed-out building (because of 2020) but we do have the vision of what could be.” They remained obedient to funding and facilitating that vision which God had given them because it had not changed.
Now cancer-free, Pastor Todd was receiving treatments and infusion therapies while leading the church through its campaign. When asked where his passion and energy to lead came from, he responded, “The vision is bigger than me. I saw God leading in such a way and we saw God continuing to bless and God continuing to change lives and continue to bring people through our doors that desperately needed Jesus and I just saw that and the energy behind the vision of what we were trying to accomplish was what continued to drive.”
Led by Pastor Todd’s inspiration and faithfulness to what God had called the church to do, the results of the campaign were simply astonishing! The campaign far exceeded expectations and lives are once-again being changed on a weekly basis. One sign is that children’s attendance has now returned to pre-COVID numbers.
Pastor Todd concluded our conversation by acknowledging that every time you face change, there will be fear. But you must press forward regardless because the mission is too important not to. He said, “We want to be a church that’s reaching the unchurched in rural America and there’s tens of thousands of people around me who desperately need Him.”
And they desperately need Monnett Community Church as well.
If you have a great vision from God which needs funding and you need help moving forward, reply to this note or email me at briand@injoystewardship.com. I would be honored to have a conversation with you about what is possible.
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