Louie Giglio - The Church Is Alive and Growing Stronger
All through this season, you’re going to hear this phrase: the church is alive and growing stronger. And that’s not hype; that is reality. I was in a gathering—um, Brooke, uh, Lardwood is sitting right there. We were leading a session on Friday night in an arena with 14,000 high school and middle school students on fire on a Friday night in Birmingham, Alabama. I’m telling you, as I looked around that arena, I thought, «Okay, it isn’t all bad news; it’s not all going to hell right now.» There is a work and a move of God happening in the world right now, and I’m telling you, the church is alive and growing stronger.
I’m looking across this room right now, at the 11:45 gathering. I can’t see into Cumberland; I can’t see Trill, but additional seating today—I’m looking across this gathering, jam-packed. Last gathering, jam-packed. That’s been the story of the church, and it’s been the story of Passion City Church. In fact, when you look at our church this year compared to last year, things are up. There are people everywhere because, in this climate we’re living in, people are looking for truth. They are looking for something solid to build their lives on. People are Googling Jesus; they are Googling church; they are Googling truth, and a lot of them are finding us. I mean, literally from the Google search, they are finding us, and they are showing up.
Some people were online; now they’re in the building. Some people haven’t been in church, but they’re like, «Man, this world’s crazy; I need to find something certain.» And they’re in church. That’s the story at Passion City Church. Trill’s location is 70% bigger than it was a year ago—70% bigger than it was a year ago. And a few years ago, there wasn’t a Trill. All of Passion City Church is up in terms of people showing up every single week, including this week. We’re going to see it again by the end of the night or tomorrow. Twenty percent more people are coming to church on Sunday than this same day last year, and that was true last week. It’ll be true next week. It’s been true all through this year—every Sunday, 20% more people. This year, Easter was the largest in Passion City Church’s history. People want to be in church, and that’s true of a lot of things around here.
More people have been saved this year at Passion City Church than last year. More people have been baptized this year than were baptized last year. More students went to Passion Camp a few weeks ago this year than went last year. More students attended Winter Weekend this year than last year. More people took core classes this year at Passion City than last year. More couples are in Unite on the way to getting married this year than last year. More people attended YA this year than last year. More people served in Love Atlanta this year than last year. Passion City Church is growing. The church is alive, and it’s getting stronger. There are more babies at Passion City Church this year than last year, so congratulations on that; you’re doing a fantastic job. There are more kids in tents this year in Passion Kids than there were last year because the church is alive and growing stronger.
Now, before someone says, «It’s not all about the numbers, Louie,» as a pastor, I always used to cringe at that and then start my rationalization shuffle. Well, you know, we actually do want to see people follow Jesus, and you know, numbers are just names, and names are stories, and stories give glory to God. Then I just quit all that and said, «No, it is about the numbers.» God is all about the numbers. I mean, I don’t know where our biblical literacy is today, but how many disciples were there? That’s a number. How many tribes of Israel? Twelve. How many people got fed by that little boy’s lunch? Now people are saying, «Oh, you’re getting a little bit off the beaten path.» I want to make sure I get a hundred on this. How many baskets were left over after Jesus multiplied the lunch? Twelve.
So, a lot of twelves around. How many people were in Gideon’s army after God whittled it down to prove his might and strength when they crossed the Jordan River? Three hundred. We got people going to Sunday school now! How many nights did it rain when Noah was in the ark? Forty days and forty nights—that’s a number. How many sheep were there? One hundred. How many stayed together that night? How many got lost out in the thicket? One. How many sons did that man have? One of them was crazy and the other one stayed home. How many sons did he have? Two sons. Some lepers came to Jesus, and they all got healed. How many were there? It was ten of them. Certain number of them came back and thanked Him. How many came back? One. In the upper room, when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, do you know it says in the gospel that there were 120 people in the upper room? The next day, the Holy Spirit came, and the gospel was preached, and it says that 3,000 people were added to the church that day. Do you know that there’s a book in the scripture named Numbers?
So, when we say it’s not all about the numbers, we might be on thin ice there because the numbers represent God moving toward people to bring them into His purpose and His plans, and all these numbers at Passion City Church are up. And I’ll tell you why they’re up—they’re up because our mission is to make space and create spaces for people to come to know Jesus. That’s what the prophet was speaking about in Isaiah when he said in Isaiah 54, «Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.» This is the heart of the Gospel. This passage, this prophecy in Isaiah, is about Zion; it’s about God’s people. In this particular context, they’re not doing super great, but he says, «Don’t lose hope; don’t shrink back.» Instead, do the opposite—stretch your curtains wide and watch what I’m going to do. The rest of this chapter unfolds His promise to His people and how He’s going to multiply them and use them in the whole earth. This chapter ends with that famous verse that we claim a lot: «No weapon formed against you will prosper.» He’s saying, «I want you to have vision.» And that’s what we want. That’s God’s church! It is a house of vision.
We started 15 years ago downtown Atlanta at the Tabernacle, one of the renowned venues in our city. It was jammed out with two gatherings on the very first night of Passion City Church. We could have just said, «You know what? This is amazing!» The worship was on fire; God was in the place; the Holy Spirit was moving; the Word of God was preached; it was packed out; it was a thing and it was a story. We could have just said, «Wow, this is good.» But I’m thinking about it. I’m looking around the room right now. How many of you were at the Tabernacle on night one at Passion City Church? Can you just—Cumberland, Trill—anybody online? Can you just raise your hand really, really high and hold it up for a moment? I was there on night one. Okay, we got some—some core team over here. So there’s two people—three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I see somebody pointing somewhere—somewhere over there. I’m not sure where, but okay, they’re still pointing; I’m still going the right direction. Okay, one more. Ten people in this room were there on night one? Wow! I don’t know how many at Cumberland, Trill. Let’s add it all up—25 people. So if we had said on night one, «Let’s just call it done,» we would have missed out on all of you.
Wow! But in our heart that night was to enlarge the place of our tent, and we couldn’t do that right away. We didn’t have a dollar on night one. We didn’t have any staff hardly on night one, so we couldn’t do a lot of enlarging on night one. Night one was pretty big for us to pull off, but the heartbeat wasn’t, «Let’s just keep it here.» The heartbeat was, «Let’s make space for people to come to know Jesus.» In time, we got stronger. And in time, in that place that you’re sitting in here at 5:15 in Atlanta, Georgia, we knew we could reproduce. We took a step—it wasn’t the biggest step of all time, but we went 9.4 miles up the road to Cumberland, and we went to the Waverly Hotel, had gatherings in there. We went to Cobb Energy Center, had gatherings there. Eventually, we landed at North Atlanta High School for a season of time. Bryson and Emily Vogel-Tans were leading the charge, Aaron and Carmen for a minute, the Coes—now Grant and Maggie leading the way in such a powerful way. And then in time, moving out of North Atlanta High School, we bought an old office building, retrofitted it into a beautiful place for babies, kids, students, and all kinds of things happening. Then we built an auditorium that’s full of people right now at Cumberland on Land Parkway where Jesus has been exalted. People have come to know Him; lives have been changed. Empty graves—that was stretching the tents!
A few years later, we felt like we would take a little bigger stretch, and we took a 647-mile stretch this way, and we went to D.C. A little over five years ago, we launched a church in the nation’s capital, which has been so influential to all of the young people who are in D.C. for career choices. For a season of time, just preaching the gospel, shining the light of Jesus, building community—going through the crazy times available—light on a hill and salt in the earth in the nation’s capital. Why? Because we believed in stretching our curtain wide and enlarging our tent.
And then a few years ago, after several years of being down in Fayette County, of all places, and someone telling me, «I’m going to build a town in this pasture,» and I was like, «Okay, it’s going to be a hub of creativity and innovation and technology. It’s going to be a walkable community where people are going to live and go to school, and it’s going to be an amazing place that draws people from all over America to come to this city.» This town, and maybe there should be a Passion City Church here. I thought, «Okay, well, let’s build a town first and then we can talk about whether there’s going to be a church.» And sure enough, they built a town, and sure enough, I need to use another color because, just that, special, 33 miles down the road at Trill Town, Passion City Church at Trill has been born, and it is thriving under the leadership of Dan and Joe and their team down there—not just meeting on Sundays but ministering to people all through the week. A real gathering place for people on the south side of Atlanta because the heartbeat all along has been to enlarge the tent.
The vision of the church is not a few people cloistered in a room. It is space-making and place-making so that people can come to know Jesus—and that’s what we’re about in the above-and-beyond season. And things are up, and the church is alive and growing stronger—except in one number, in one important critical metric. Passion City Church is not up this year, and that’s in our regular giving. Our giving, while everything else is up, not only was it flat, but it was down compared to our giving last year. You say, «Well, how can that possibly be? There are all these people coming; everything’s jammed out; there’s more people here, and more people there, and more doing this, and more taking advantage of that. How can all that be going up and the giving actually going down?» Well, there are a lot of reasons for that, and I don’t know all the reasons. I would offer a couple: one would be the global economy, and the interest rates are catching up with people. Inflation is catching up with people. Your groceries cost more; the things that you’re commonly doing in life cost more, and that’s catching up with people. Some of you are doing fantastic, but a lot of you feel the pinch, and I think that’s true across the board. I think that affects people’s giving to a lot of different kinds of things, including giving to church.
I think a big reason for us is the repopulation of church. You’re like, «What do you mean by that?» I mean the fact that there are so many new people coming to church—many people coming to church for the first time, a lot of people coming back, and a lot of people don’t know much about gathering in church and what it means to be in church. And while we welcome all of the new people in Passion City Church, I just wondered this morning when I woke up how many people in the gatherings today this is going to be your first above-and-beyond season. You weren’t even here last year for above and beyond, much less the five years before that or the years before that, and this is your first time coming through. I just want to say welcome to church! We are so glad you’re here. And in this season of above and beyond, I hope that you feel like there’s a place for you here. This isn’t about, «Hey, you’re here; you should be giving.» It’s like, «We’re glad you’re here,» but in time, there has to be a shift and a change. I think right now globally in church, we’re seeing people coming through the door with a bigger thought of «What am I going to get out of church today?» than coming through the door saying, «What can I contribute to church today?» That shift is the big shift that we need to see at Passion City Church.
Just to let you know, we’re not alone in this. I don’t think there’s anything terribly wrong with Passion City. Many great churches powered by the Holy Spirit that I know of across the nation right now are in the same place we are—with flat giving or giving that’s way down, even more than our giving was down this year. You’re like, «Well, why didn’t you tell us? We had that big kick last year, and we made up for it! We shot through the finish line at the end of the day, and it was a big celebration moment for our church! Why didn’t you tell us we were going to be down again this year?» Because I don’t want to come at the end of every year and tell us we’re going to be down at the end of that year, especially when every story I was hearing in April and May was that God is moving! I am loving this Revelation series! My neighbor just got saved! My kids got saved at Winter Weekend! This is the most phenomenal season; our family’s been in church—it’s never been like this before! The Spirit is in our gatherings; God is moving.
And I want to go, «Oh, and by the way, we’ve got to do that kick thing again!» Our house needs to get to the place where we don’t need a kick—where our kick is consistent giving week by week, day by day, month by month, year by year. And that shift happens from «What do I get out of church today?» to «What can I contribute to church today?» And when that shift happens, we don’t have kicks; we don’t have shortages; we are able to do what God wants us to do. But in this global economy and this repopulation of church, what does that mean for us? It means we’ve had to whittle down our reserves; we’ve had to eat into our margin to continue to do the ministry that we feel like God has called us to do. That’s why I believe this next few weeks—this above-and-beyond season—is an inflection point for our house. It is a critical inflection point and an amazing opportunity for Passion City Church. I’m pumped and excited about giving above so that we can go beyond.
Uh, the amens have dried up completely; it’s just me now, and I’m fine with that. I’m good leading the charge and taking the wind, but uh, any amens? If anybody feels up to it, by all means, I’m excited about moving into this season! Now, what are we doing? By the way, because I just said a lot, I just dropped some big news on the house. What are we doing? Number one, we’re tightening our belt. Stewardship is our job. We want to do well with your investment in this house before God. So, once again this year, being tightened is going to probably affect staffing. It’s going to affect ministry. In some way, it’s probably going to affect everything we do. But we’re still going to keep preaching Jesus; we’re still going to build into people’s lives. But we got to tighten our belt again this year, after tightening our belt last year. But also, it means that we have an opportunity to inspire generosity, and that’s what today and this season is all about—it’s about inspiring generosity.
Now, to clarify, generosity is giving above. It’s not the tithe. The tithe is not generosity. A tithe, if you haven’t been around church, is God encouraging us to give the first fruit of everything He puts in our hands back into His kingdom—that’s tithing—typically a tenth, 10%. The tithe, and that’s not generosity, by the way. So if you’re tithing, that’s beautiful; you should be. But that’s not generosity; that’s obedience. That’s just simply obeying God when He says to us, «Bring the first fruit into the storehouse.» Malachi was saying, the prophet. He said, «Will a man rob God?» Now, you don’t want to get into trying to rob God, by the way. And you say—and he says, «Yet you rob me.» But you ask, «How do we rob you? How are we robbing God?» «I’m not robbing God! I’m not holding God up!» He says, «You’re robbing me in tithes and offerings, and you’re under a curse—the whole nation because you’re robbing me.»
And then he gives us a challenge. This is so powerful: God is saying, «Bring the whole tithe.» «So I’m blessing you!» You’re like, «Well, God really didn’t bless me, Lou; I actually earn the money I make, and I work hard for my money.» And I get that because I work hard for my money also, but I work hard for my money. You know how I do it? I do it with the brain that God gave me and the gift that God gave me to do what I’m doing right now with the strength that God gives me, with the breath that God gives me, with the opportunity that God has given me—that’s how I work hard for my money.
And so when I get that resource, he’s saying, «Bring the whole tithe—that whole first fruit, that whole 10%. Bring that,» he says, «into the storehouse.» Now, a lot of people are going to ask, «But I think the storehouse is your community of faith.» There are a lot of things to give to on planet Earth, but the tithe—I believe—is connected to your local community of faith, the place where you are fed most, where you’re connected most, and for most everyone in the room right now, that’s your local church. And then God is saying, «If you’re freaked out about that, or somehow the enemy has got in there and deceived you and twisted the message, like Louie, we can’t give 10% of our paycheck right now; we’d go broke if we did that.» God said, «Let me rewrite that for you.» He said, «Test me in this, man!» When God says «test me,» you should test Him. When He says «try me,» you should try Him—not me, not Passion City—not any church—not any local church. You should try God. You should take Him at His word: «Test me in this,» says the Lord Almighty, «and see.» Here is a huge promise for us today: «See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.»
The world is probably saying, «Hang on to all of it because if you give 10% of it, you can’t function on 90% of it.» And God is saying, «If you give 10% of it, I’ll turn the 90% of it into 190% of it. I will throw open the windows of heaven; I will pour out a blessing in your life if you will just be obedient to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.» You know, Shelly and I’s families grew up differently. Her family is financially a lot more successful, so «successful» wasn’t the right word there, but they were in a different category financially than our family was. Our family was lower middle class. We were a debt family. We didn’t have any extra or margin in our family. My parents both passed away; there was no inheritance; there was no money coming down; there were no properties.
When Shelly and I got married, we were legitimately poor. Her family had money, but they were very financially wise, so it wasn’t like, «Hey, here’s a bunch of money; y’all can start your life together.» It was like, «Hey, good luck; God bless you; we’re here; we believe in you, but you know you’re on your own.» And like a lot of couples in these gatherings today, we were legitimately poor. We were doing ministry, and Shelly was working a secular job in Central Texas. We didn’t have money. The first Christmas we got married to go to Houston to see her family, we cut our first Christmas tree down off some people’s property in Central Texas. I just want to admit that out loud today and get that out. It was a very small tree, and they had hundreds of acres of land, and I’m sure that they didn’t miss it, but I still feel an obligation to say that out loud today. But we committed—Shelly and I did—that even though we don’t have anything, 10% of whatever we do have, we’re putting it in the hands of God.
And so I can tell you, not as a theologian or a pastor or a professional Christian, but as a human being, if you test God, you will see that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out more than you ever dreamed or imagined. And for some of you—I’m just being pastoral today—above and beyond for you isn’t going to be about filling out this card and saying, «We want to give above and beyond X amount of money into these kingdom causes of God that our church is going to rally around.» For you, above and beyond is going to be a step of obedience because right now you’re living in disobedience to God. If you are not tithing, you’re not being obedient to God. The step for you is to write on that card, «I’ve never tithed and I’m going to start tithing. I’m going to start giving so that next year I can be in a position to give above what I normally give because I’m going to start normally giving.»
Generosity is what happens on top of this. We see it in a different text in Leviticus. I love this: «When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien; I am the Lord your God.» When you reap the harvest of your land, don’t reap it all the way to the edge and squeeze every bit of it out for you. Or in America, more likely, don’t get that credit card that they sent you in the mail, the application for that, with the 60,000 bonus points on XYZ. And in your mind, you’re like, «Oh, this is free bonus points because we’re never using the card.» But we’re signing up and getting the bonus.
And so we didn’t not only go to the edges of our crops; we went a little beyond our crop. And you know, we told ourselves, «We’re never going to use that card,» but then we got this other one, and they were giving an even bigger bonus for that card, and we signed up for that card, and we’re never going to use that card. We just wanted to get the bonus from that card, and then we got that other card—and, well, we did use that card, actually because we needed to. But not a lot. And we used that one a little bit. That’s America! And so it’s hard to think about what God’s inviting us to because what He’s inviting us to looks more like this. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just erase all those cards like that? He’s inviting us to a lifestyle that looks like this. And that, my friend, is a word that is very rapidly disappearing from our lifestyles on every level, and that is the word—God’s kingdom is a kingdom that says, «I’ve got plenty; you can take all of this if you need it. I’ve got plenty, please. Your family, y’all take that. We’re good!»
You just got here; here, take all that. I see an opportunity I wasn’t expecting that today. It’s like that Good Samaritan in that story Jesus was telling about, «Who’s your neighbor?» The first guy passed the guy that got beat up and robbed; the second guy passed him; the third guy said, «I’ll help you!» Even though ethnically we don’t like each other, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know how much it’s going to cost to take care of you, let me put you on my horse; let me take you to the inn; let me check you in; let me tell the guy I’m good for this. Here’s some money; I’ll be back in a few days; I’ll bring the rest of the money—whatever this guy needs to get better, I’ll take care of it. Why? He did that because he was a picture of the gospel. God loved us that way, so He wants us to love our neighbor that way. But how did he do it? I don’t think he pulled one of the extra nine cards out of his bag and said, «I haven’t used this one lately.» I think he did it because he had margin. God wants to lead us into margin because margin—no ceiling thinking—puts us in a position to be agents of the kingdom of God.
And this, this is what above and beyond is all about—it’s about one, tithing (regular giving), and it’s about two, generosity, which is giving above our normal giving so that the kingdom can expand beyond where it normally goes. So what’s in the above and beyond this year for us at Passion City Church? Let’s talk about it really briefly. We’re going to talk about some bicycles, some bikes, and some braces today. We got a bike somewhere up here; it’s coming out any second now. Bikes are exciting! Anybody remember your first bike? Hello! Anybody remember your kid’s first bike or your grandkid’s first bike?
Oh, come on. This is beautiful! Thank you so much. I thought you were going to roll it out, but hey, we’ll take it this way. I feel like it does need to roll though at some point. I mean, look at that guy! When a kid gets their first bike, the grandparents typically show up, right? Videos are rolling; kids are screaming; I mean, if you want to feel excited today, if you’re a little depressed or down and want some happiness in your life, just go on YouTube and search for «kids getting their first bikes.» It’s fantastic! Kids are losing their minds; parents are losing their minds, and now we’re out in the cul-de-sac or the driveway or out in the street, and kids are riding, or Dad’s pushing or Mom’s pushing, and everybody’s fired up. We’ve got our first bike! It’s exciting!
But like Passion City Church, eventually that kid, when that first bike turns 15—like we just turned 15—and they ain’t getting a first bike; they’re getting braces for the second time. And it’s not like going to, you know, wherever and plunking down $79.99 for the bike; this time it was $7,999 for the braces. And now, in this new economy, I’m understanding they’re telling you—and they’re going to need them twice, so that’s $14,000, $15,000, $15,000, $15,000—and you’re like, «Braces are not fun.» But at Passion City Church, with above and beyond, we got bikes, yay, and we got braces! Okay, that’s where I’m needing us to go right there before we leave this gathering! By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, people are going to be excited about braces!
What’s in the above and beyond? Well, I’ll tell you about a bike. Since above and beyond last year, thanks to your generosity, Passion City Church DC renovated a building on their block for Passion Kids, Bloom office space, and some gathering space. They’re in a new theater with a renovated building. The renovation is paid for because of the above and beyond; they didn’t have it in their budget because we didn’t know we were moving theaters that year, and we didn’t know we were going to need the building at the corner that year, so it wasn’t budgeted for it. It needed to come in the above and beyond. Because of above and beyond, that space is fully renovated, functioning today, filled with life, filled with Jesus, today on U STreet right now in DC! Your above and beyond is providing a space for people.
Trill—everybody knows the story there—but Trill Live is coming up across the street from the Town Stage that we met in today. Trill Live has TV studios in it; it has movie theaters in it; it has an auditorium in it which is state of the art, where we’re going to be the lead tenant, praise God! According to the will of God, Lord willing, and under this space is space built out for Passion City Church. Trill, Passion Kids, Bloom offices, door holder space—all happening at Trill. And you’re like, «Well, we’re at 5:15; we don’t care; it’s down at Fayette County; we don’t go to Fayette County.» You’re at Cumberland today; you’re like, «I don’t know about Trill.» Listen, Cumberland, you’re there because of the people here. DC is where they are because of the people in this building right now, and Trill is where they are because of those of you at Cumberland and those of us at 5:15. And so this is us moving and launching together.
While we haven’t had to expend any financial commitment to see this massive building being built in Trill, we are going to have to spend $3 to $5 million to fit out our portion as we move into kids, Bloom offices, student space, middle school space, and all of the spaces that are dedicated to Passion City Church. And just so you know, newsflash today, Trill doesn’t have margin. So where between now and above and beyond Sunday 2026 are we going to come up with $5 million to fit out this space that God is miraculously providing through above and beyond? And when He does, people are going to walk into that space; there are going to be bicycles everywhere. They’re going to walk into Bloom and be like, «Oh my word—this is incredible!» 'Cause Trill isn’t 15 years old; they don’t have any braces yet; they just got bicycles everywhere at Trill, and it is awesome!
And it’s going to be exciting. 5:15—the location we’re at right now—I’m telling you, in the next three years, you’re not going to believe what happens at this place. We’ve been saying all along that the Beltline is coming to 5:15. We’ve been saying that since we knew about the Beltline almost, but eventually it came, and now it is coming, and we are about to finalize a contract with the Beltline. You’re going to cross coming into our building. It’s going to be on Garson Drive. It’s going to be behind us, going down into the creek behind us. And if you live in Atlanta, Georgia, on a nice day, from anywhere where the Beltline goes, you can ride your bike to Passion City Church. And I’m telling you right now, we are going to be probably, if not the one of the premier locations on the Beltline in Atlanta, Georgia. What does that mean? We don’t fully know yet. What opportunities is that going to allow us to embark on? What challenges is that going to present? We’re not all fully sure yet, but we want to know that the bicycle of the Beltline, which everybody’s just going to be like, «This is unbelievable what’s happening all around us,» literally surrounding us—God’s bringing the city to our door.
A bicycle—something to be excited about! Opportunity to be excited about! But then there are our partners—that’s a part of above and beyond this year, global and local. We had a family in our 9:30 gathering from a country in the Middle East where they live and serve as workers with a purpose—business people with a purpose. And just ironically, they were in the gathering this morning. I’d seen them in their country last year and here they were in our building today. A lot of what they’re doing within a stone’s throw of some of the hardest places in the world to reach with the gospel has been funded by above and beyond giving because we’re giving a tithe of everything given to above and beyond to causes beyond our house that we know about where God is working both globally and locally in DC and in Atlanta.
I was thinking this morning about ESN Clinic, Clarkston, Georgia—one of the largest landing places of legal immigrants in America. People coming from all over the world under distress with very little. And what happens when their kid needs a doctor? They go to the ESN Clinic, a place that’s motivated by the love of Jesus and funded by people like you through above and beyond giving at Passion City Church. So our partners are going to be a big part of above and beyond this year—Atlanta strong and DC strong. What does that mean? It means bring it into the storehouse so that there’s food for our people.
That’s just filling our cupboards again, and I’m just kind of being honest today—our cupboards aren’t super full right now because the margins have gone down as the giving didn’t meet up. So our cupboards aren’t full right now, and we need our cupboards to be full. And so part of our above and beyond is to make DC strong and to make Atlanta strong, and we’re believing for that this year. That’s our margin—it’s giving into our margin so that we can do what God calls us to do. And some of it is simply the braces. At 5:15, this building is old. This building’s 30, 40 years old, and it’s catching up with us now. And so there are some braces that we’re going to have to get excited about.
We have a brace somewhere here today. Some braces. Thank you so much! This is exciting! If this won’t fire you up, thank you very much—nothing is going to fire you up. Check that out right there! Anybody recognize that? It’s all above you right now. It’s called the fire suppression system. The sprinkler system—something catches on fire; the little things that are attached to these pipes go off and put the fire out. They’re all above your head right now. They’re all through this building. This one is two different colors because we had to splice it because we had a leak in it right here. So we had to cut that section out, clamp a new section in. You’re like, «Well, why do you have both sections in your hand?» Because this section leaked again on Friday morning. You want to see it? Don’t—yeah, I won’t make you look long, but it’s right behind this wall right here is where our production nerve center is for this gathering we’re in right now.
And this is what it looked like on Friday morning at about 10:00. Brutal. You can turn it off now; we don’t need to see more of that. You’re like, «What is going on?» A 40-year-old fire suppression system! And because of some things about it that none of us really need to know all about, it is prone to getting these tiny little pinholes in it and leaking. And the place that we’re having the most problem with it is right above your head. In fact, it’s leaked in this room before on a weekday also. Back here we have a lot of the equipment that’s driving everything that’s happening here right now. And in the production room, it’s leaked in there before also—you’re like, «Man, you should take care of that.»
Yeah, and you should get a new air conditioner also, but you haven’t yet because you thought we can make it through one more summer. And we don’t have $10,000 right now to get a new air conditioner. We didn’t budget for that this year. We didn’t know our foundation was going to shift and there was going to be a crack in the den wall. We didn’t plan for that. We didn’t know one of the irrigation pipes was going to freeze underground this past winter and break, and we were going to have to dig all that up in the front yard and pay for that. We didn’t know the pump for the pool was going to go out either! We know we got problems with this section of our fire suppression system, but we also know it costs $750,000 to replace it.
I say this today in faith, hoping someone in this building knows somebody who owns a fire suppression system company, and moved by the spirit of God, they will sew into the storehouse so that there will be food for people. But if not, if not, then we’ve got to get busy before the end of this year; we’ve got to fix it. Braces! We got more braces here. I won’t tell you about all of them, but about $1.5 million current year braces. So we have to be excited about the bike and the braces. If you want to enlarge the tent, you have to lengthen the cord; and if you want to lengthen the cord, you have to drive down the stake. Nobody gets fired up about the stakes; everybody’s photo is of the tent. But we got to get fired up about deepening stakes, theologically and literally, so that we can lengthen cords and stretch curtains to have a bigger tent so that more people can come to know Jesus.
We’re putting a number on this this year for the very first time. Last year, our above-and-beyond giving, in the day and to the end of the fiscal year, was $5.9 million. Thank you for that, by the way! That’s all of us leaning together. This year, we’re adding up all the things that we know we need to do and wanting to create margin in places where we don’t really know what we’re going to want to do. And so, under the leadership of our financial oversight team and our leadership team, we’re actually putting a number so that we can all see it and believe for it together. And that number is $7 million. It’s not terribly bigger than last year, and honestly, I think we can far surpass this number. We didn’t want to put a way bigger number out there because we didn’t want people to take their normal giving and say, «Oh yeah, let’s see the thing go up.» We don’t want to affect normal giving because then you don’t have above or beyond because you took away the below.
So we’re going to believe for this number; it’s going to require this. And I just want to call us to this today—me, Shelly, each of us—let’s all—can we say that together? Let’s all—no, let’s say it together, let’s all—everyone who calls Passion City home, everyone who identifies that this is a place—this is my community of faith! I haven’t said that I’m not a member, but this is where I show up; this is where I get fed; this is where I get encouraged; this is where I see God; this is where I hear the word of God; this is where I express my worship to God; this is where I see my kids being impacted, my neighbor being impacted, my family being impacted. Let’s all lean in! Let’s all call! Let’s all blow the 80/20 rule out of the water! Twenty percent of the people give eighty percent of the resources—that’s true across almost every organization. Let’s blow that up! Let’s all give!
And let’s all believe—a miracle in a few weeks from now. Let’s all believe! Let’s not only stretch out in our giving, but let’s stretch out in our faith, and let’s all believe. All this is possible—all of it is possible—because God is a God who has never done anything but go above and beyond. He didn’t have to do anything to rescue rebels, but He not only did something; He gave everything. He didn’t say, «Trapped in sin and death, let me see what I got!» Wow! There you go! He gave everything! God has always gone above and beyond. When He created the universe, He could have just made Macon, Georgia—there you go, a couple hundred thousand of you can fit in there; it’s cool. But He made galaxies, and firmament, and atmosphere, and a cosmos. He went above! When He created you, He could have made you a higher version of some other animal on planet Earth, but He went into you His very DNA and breathed into you the breath of life so that you are the imago Dei.
You are walking on Earth as the image bearer of the living God. He went above and beyond. When we turned away, He sent His most precious gift. And in the spirit of that, we live and breathe and have our being. We are in the above-and-beyond spirit. We are not in the less and below spirit; we were not created in the less and the below; we were created in the above and the beyond. Our home is above, and our home is beyond! Praise God! We are in the above and beyond. Now, Passion City Church, give praise to God today because we are living in the above and beyond!