Shared priorities drive great results
Tim Hawks Lead Pastor Hill Country Bible Church
Twenty-eight years ago, Lead Pastor Tim Hawks joined the team at Hill Country Bible Church( HCBC) in Austin, Texas. At the time, the church was a few years old, with about 180 members.
Since then, a compelling and bold vision has driven amazing growth:“ to ensure that every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin would have multiple opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel.”
Accomplishing that goal involves multiplying disciples, planting churches, and partnering with like-minded ministries for city-wide evangelistic campaigns— at times gathering 400 churches in participation.
To date, HCBC has planted 29 churches, and Hawks and his team hope to plant 25 more in the next five years.
“ Austin is growing like crazy; it’ s hard to keep up,” he says.“ We’ re just trying to provide enough new churches for the believers who are moving into town, let alone to expand beyond that to non-believers.”
But they’ ve more than kept up, thanks in large part to a fully funded vision.
Extraordinary results from the get-go
Experiencing tremendous growth, Hawks and his team wanted to purchase 25 additional acres, expand the worship center to 2,200 seats, and build a new education center at a cost of $ 16.3 million. With such an ambitious goal ahead, they knew they needed the right stewardship partner, and reached out to Paul Gage, president and founder of The Gage Group.
Bringing Paul on board has been invaluable to the campaign’ s success, Hawks says, as it has meant having a spiritual coach and mentor to guide the process.
“ Paul is very good at helping you see what the Scripture says [ about giving ] rather than getting wrapped up in your own fears or anxieties,” he explains.“ Organizationally, if you follow the plan he lays out, you can be sure that every person in the church understands what they’ re committing to and why it’ s biblically sound.
“ Financially,” he adds,“ Paul helps you understand how different people, in different socio-economic groups, think about and value their resources— what they need to know in order to feel comfortable.”
Before joining the HCBC staff, Executive Pastor of Ministries Paul Schulz previously worked with Gage on two campaigns in south Texas raising $ 8 million for the first campaign and $ 12 million for the second.
“ Obviously, with those campaigns and the one here at our church, I give great credit to God, to the obedience of the people, and to the lead pastors, who are exceptional communicators and visionaries,” he says.“ But additionally, Paul has decades of experience and success with dynamic churches all over the country. I believe his campaigns are so effective because of his wiring. He is strategic, organized, and above all, extremely diligent.
I’ ve seen his strategies and methods work at churches of three different sizes and with different laypeople,” Schulz adds.“ In addition, he’ s a faithfilled man.”
Above-and-beyond commitments drive more ministry
With a project price tag of $ 16 million, Hawks and Schulz agree that raising $ 12.4 million dollars would have been a real success. To their amazement, members pledged more than $ 20 million, including a $ 1.7-million one-day offering.“ That was five-and-a-half times our budget, and almost one-third more than we thought we were capable of raising,” Hawks recalls.
The heart of the highly successful campaign was that it was Godcentered. For a 30-day prayer process, Hawks asked married people and families to pray together daily. That prayer extended to small groups and church gatherings, as well.“ We involved almost everybody in the church; people gave sacrificially,” Hawks notes.
The beyond-expectation results enabled Hawks and his team to devote $ 600,000 to church planting— funds that otherwise would be allocated to debt service for the construction project. Operating debt-free has also made it possible to funnel 18 % of all the dollars that come in to the church, back out the door.
Most important, though, Hawks says the campaign made believers out of HCBC members.“ It was such an outrageous move by God,” he recalls.“ People got to see how their particular contribution could do something really, really great as far as reaching the city.”
He fondly remembers the day the church revealed the total pledge amount to the congregation, using building blocks. A $ 5-million block was revealed. Then, $ 6 million and $ 7 million.
“ When we broke the $ 12.4 million we needed, people just couldn’ t believe it,” Hawks recalls.“ When we broke the $ 16.4-million amount that would pay for everything, people were falling out in the auditorium— and we’ re not charismatic.”
By the time $ 20 million was revealed, some people were weeping. Others fell to their knees.
“ I’ ve had people say to me,‘ Tim, that day— when we saw God do that miracle in our church— made me believe He can do anything.”
Moving forward again with a common purpose
In 2017, Gage was reenlisted for a campaign to raise $ 4.5 million for another campus building project at HCBC. That brings the total amount raised together to more than $ 24 million.
It’ s an astounding result for any church; ironically, though, Hawks says Gage“ isn’ t someone who’ s into buildings or satisfying a pastor’ s dream to have a special place.”
“ Everything Paul does keeps pointing back to,‘ We’ re going to build a building, and we’ re going to raise money for that,’” he explains.“ But really, it’ s about life change in our people. And that keeps the tone focused in the right place.”
Paul Gage President and Founder The Gage Group
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