based on the sermon series by Dr. John Morgan
Sagemont Church is an unusual church with an unusual history. God’s divine hand has been upon the church from the beginning, and the stories, people, miracles, challenges and celebrations over the years have collectively become known as The Sagemont Story.
Part Two of The Sagemont Story continues as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The story strengthens the older who may have forgotten what the Lord has done in the past. It encourages the younger to take the reins and continue down the path of God’s blessings. And it welcomes the seekers who are looking for a church home that glorifies God and obeys His words without shame.
After the church voted in 1975 under the leadership of its pastor, Dr. John Morgan, to become debt-free, word soon got out about the church’s decisions. While the outside world may have supported the biblical convictions in theory, when the need arose for more office and Bible study space, the church couldn’t find a builder who was willing to work on a cash basis.
Finally, they found a Presbyterian builder from central Texas who agreed to build the $200,000 facility because he loved salt-water fishing. He figured that the church’s pay-as-you-go plan would translate into plenty of fishing days for him.
The project began and God provided the funding for the building slowly and consistently. The project was not in jeopardy of missing a day of work until giving reached $150,000 and the money stopped coming in. The builder told them on Friday that he wouldn’t be able to move forward on Monday unless more funds came in over the weekend. While the builder packed his fishing gear, eager to experience his first fishing day since the project began, the church met on Sunday evening to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance for the remaining $50,000 that was needed to finish the building.
That evening, an 8-year-old boy named Doug Baker began waving his hands to get Brother John’s attention during the service. Realizing that the boy was determined not to be ignored, Brother John finally called on him and asked him what he had to say.
Doug stood up on his chair and said that he had been saving all of his money so that he could buy a record player. He had almost $50. “But I believe that God wants us to have a new building more than he wants me to have a record player,” he said, so he wanted to give it all to the church.
The Spirit of God moved throughout the gymnatorium, and the generosity of that little boy was contagious. God multiplied Doug’s gift one thousandfold, and by the end of the night, over $46,000 came in. The building continued as scheduled, and was completed without the builder ever having a fishing day.
Meanwhile, the church continued to pay down its $600,000 debt, and after 13 months, they burned their last $500 bond. At last, the church was truly debt free.
They continued to worship in the gymnatorium, (now known as The Hall), but even with multiple services on Sundays, they were outgrowing their facilities. The need for a true auditorium became greater and greater each week. They hired a church architect to draw up plans for a new auditorium, but made it absolutely clear that they would not pay more than $2.5 million. When they settled on a plan and put it out for bid, however, bids came back at a cost of $4.8 million.
The testing continued as many in the business world insisted that they should move forward despite the high cost. Inflation will make the building cost even more if they wait, they said, and God expects us to use our heads and think rationally.
But there was no turning back. God had already spoken, and His wisdom is greater than man’s. When He doesn’t provide, you learn to do without it, so the church agreed to put the plans for a new building on hold.
Then in July of 1979, Tropical Storm Claudette blew through Texas, resulting in record-setting rainfall. In the neighboring city of Alvin, over 42 inches of rain fell within a 24-hour period, which remains the 24-hour rainfall record for any location in the United States.
In that same 24-hour period, the Sagemont area received 29 inches of rain. Had the church moved forward to build when they first put out bids, their new auditorium would have been four feet under water. After the flood, the same plans were put out for bid again, and the bid came back at $2.5 million. Inflation hadn’t cost the church a dime, and God’s timing had proved perfect once again.
They planned to begin the new auditorium when they had one million dollars in the bank, and as he prayed about how to encourage the church towards that milestone, Brother John felt led to challenge the men of the church to do something that none of them had ever done before: give their family’s entire income to the Lord for a full forty days. Three hundred families accepted the challenge.
For weeks, they prepared for the forty days to begin. They paid their bills ahead of time, divided into thirty teams of ten to help each other along the way, created lists of services that members would offer each other for free, and lined up extra jobs to bring in even more income for the Lord during the forty-day period.
For forty days, 300 families gave every penny that they earned to the Lord. Salaries, commissions, profit from real estate sales, and much more.
One team put an ad in the newspaper offering to do odd jobs for whomever needed them. They spread mulch, painted houses, and painted fences without charging anything. They just told the homeowners to give whatever they wanted to the church.
It was through this that they came to the home of a man named Jim Long. He and his wife had just moved to Texas from Pennsylvania, and Jim was not a Christian. After seeing the team work so diligently around his house, he was touched but confused at their joy. He couldn’t figure out what motivated the group to serve him like they were doing.
Near the end of the evening, he prayed with Brother John to receive Christ. The next Sunday, Jim’s wife told them that she had been praying for her husband’s salvation for the past 23 years. “I just never thought he would get saved because of a church’s building program!” she said.
Many other miraculous stories began to flow through the church, encouraging and strengthening everyone participating in the forty-day challenge. But by the Friday before the forty days were scheduled to end, they weren’t even halfway to their one million dollar goal.
That Sunday, the end of the forty days, Brother John told the church that he would stay there all day, and invited any who wanted to to pray until midnight. Before the evening service, he found a line of people outside his office who wanted to give above and beyond what they had already given. Some gave stock. One couple gave their vacation home. Others gave other valuables. The gifts continued until they had to break for the six o’clock service.
As they prayed and sought the Lord’s guidance during the service, a lady named Ruth came to the altar. She told Brother John that she thought she had already given everything she had, but then her husband gave her a ruby and sapphire ring for their 22nd anniversary the week before. Her husband wasn’t a Christian, and he might not understand, but she felt called to give the ring nonetheless.
Though she didn’t know it, after a jeweler estimated that the ring was worth about six hundred dollars wholesale, several offered to buy the ring with the condition that it be given back to Ruth. By the end of the night, the ring had brought in $6,600.
When Ruth got home that evening, without her ring, her husband was not pleased at all. She didn’t know that the ring had brought so much money to the Lord, and she didn’t know that everyone who purchased it insisted it be given back to her. So when Brother John called her the next morning and asked her to come up to the church, she was surprised and overjoyed to hear the rest of the story. She went home, with her ring, and told her husband what had happened. He was so shocked, he wrote a check to the church for $1,000 right then and there, and he came to know the Lord a few days later.
With Ruth’s ring being the highlight of the night, people stayed at the church that Sunday night in awe of how the Lord was moving. The gifts continued to come in, and the ushers frantically worked to count each penny. Just before ten o’clock, an announcement was made:
“This morning, our offering was $149,843.45. Our Sunday evening worship offering was $40,134.22 when you count the money that we had on hand and the commitments we’ve had for cash in just a few short days, the bottom line total is… one million [eruption of cheers and applause] and …Amen! $1,077,469.04.”
The million dollar goal was reached, and once again, the Lord had provided.