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.
Parts Five and Six of The Sagemont Story continue as the bigger picture of God’s plans for the church begin to unfold and take shape. At last, the church is able to move into its own version of The Promised Land and grow into plans that the Lord had prepared decades earlier. But as this new era brings everything into focus, the church remains dedicated and determined to use every blessing and miracle to point others to the cross.
THE CHILDREN’S BUILDING
In June of 1996, every member of Sagemont Church was invited to an exciting event at the George R. Brown Convention Center to celebrate the church’s 30th anniversary. It was there that Brother John announced the generous gift of land that the church had received from the wife of the late Mr. Harry Holmes.
No longer constrained by tight property lines, Brother John invited the church to join him on The Great Adventure, an opportunity to grow into the gift as the Lord allowed, beginning with the plans to build a multimillion dollar Children’s Building.
As the adventure began, God once again blessed the families of Sagemont and provided for them in unique and unusual ways. When construction began on the new Children’s Building, almost 300 parking spaces were lost. But in His divine timing, a new AMC movie theater opened just across the Beltway that had thousands of available parking spaces and large rooms that were sitting unused on Sunday mornings.
The church submitted a proposal that would pay AMC to allow adult Sunday School classes to meet in theaters so that the children could remain on the main campus. The deal was accepted and hundreds of adults began meeting in theaters and riding shuttle busses to the main campus for worship.
The new Children’s Building opened and the church was blessed to see the children enjoy a state of the art facility. As had happened so often before, the children once again came first, and families were drawn in by great numbers as the youngest in the kingdom led them to experience the Lord at Sagemont Church.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
In another milestone, the church met at Reliant Arena on June 4, 2006, to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Brother John led the church to remember the past, thank God for His blessings, and prepare for the future. On that day he presented The Living Proof Project, a vision that included a major landscaping focus all across the campus and an extreme makeover of the Hughes Road Auditorium.
Unfortunately, as the plans to remodel began to take shape, it became clear that remodeling would cost more than three times the amount that they originally thought. The city would not grant even the first remodeling permit unless major changes were made to bring the building up to city codes that weren’t applicable when the building was built years earlier. What they thought would be a 10 million dollar remodel project was looking to cost closer to 30 million.
But even as the Visionary Team began adjusting their course with the new information, the people of Sagemont started giving to the Lord. One five-year-old boy named Aidan Craft had been taught the importance of giving by his parents, Jeremy and Lori. Every week, he received his fifty-cent allowance in nickels so that he could easily give one-tenth, or one nickel, to the Lord if he wanted.
One Saturday evening, Aidan asked his dad if he could give all of his nickels to Jesus the next day. His father said, “Sure,” and Brother John was touched by the boy’s generosity when he heard the story. The following Wednesday night, Brother John brought Aidan and his dad, Jeremy, on the stage and shared Aiden’s story with the congregation. He hadn’t planned on it, but he felt led to personally bless Aidan with a five-dollar bill to encourage the child’s desire to give.
Aidan took the five dollars and used it to buy beads, crosses, and string to make necklaces he began selling for five dollars each. The first week, he had earned $45 dollars which he gave to the Lord. The next week, he sold enough to give $210 more dollars. The third week, Brother John allowed him to have a booth in the foyer, and he sold even more. Over the course of several weeks, Aidan continued to make necklaces, sell them for $5 each, and give his profit to the Lord. The Lord multiplied his original gift of ten nickels into more than $3,000!
Once again, God used a child to lead the way down the path He had for Sagemont, this time down an unexpected path to abandon its remodeling plans and start from scratch on a new worship auditorium. It would be a journey that would last six years and cost over $30 million dollars, but it would be one that ultimately lead others to the cross.
THE VISION OF THE CROSS
God was up to something; there was no question about it. And before the first shovel was brought out to break ground on the new auditorium, the church gathered to pray.
On Sunday morning, October 21, 2007, hundreds of people signed up for a prayer walk around the property where the new auditorium would be. Interested to see the turnout, Brother John chose to take I-45 North to Beltway 8 West on his way to church rather than going down the feeder roads and onto Hughes Road like he normally did.
As he reached the peak of the Beltway and looked down onto the people praying on the church campus, he saw something completely unexpected. It was a vision of a cross, large and important, and demanding attention. The vision lasted for quite awhile until the cross seemed to vanish into the air, but it was enough time for Brother John to get the message, loud and clear.
As soon as he arrived at church, he called Executive Pastor Chuck Schneider and Administrator Jim Green into his office and told them what he had just seen. “We want people to see the cross,” he said. “That’s our purpose.” But even though they were right at the beginning of another building program, he believed God was telling them that they needed to build a cross first. “Even if we never build another building, people will still see the cross.”
They agreed to pray about the issue for 24 hours, and the next morning, they were in one accord. After sharing the message with the Visionary Team and church members, plans to build a large cross on the church campus quickly took center stage.
THE VISION BECOMES REALITY
About this time, Brother John received a call from an old friend named Clarence Shaw. Clarence was an architect and had heard about Sagemont’s plans to build a new auditorium. He expressed interest in bidding on the job, but Brother John told him that they already had an architect.
Since he already had him on the phone, he told Clarence about the new decision to build a cross on campus. He said he had just sent Teaching Pastor Stuart Rothberg to gather information on the three crosses at Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but he was curious if Clarence happened to know who had been the architect on that project.
“You’re talking to him,” he said.
It was a coincidence that only God could have designed, and the following Monday, Clarence brought the plans for a cross that he believed would be just perfect for Sagemont. He had originally designed it for Abundant Life Church in La Marque, but they decided not to build it after all.
Brother John and the Visionary Team agreed, and the plans turned into a reality. The 97-ton, 170-foot cross was erected on the weekend of February 7, 2009, and dedicated to the Lord on March 1.
THE CONTROVERSY OF THE CROSS
When The Cross went up, the world took notice, including the media. They immediately wanted to know why the church built The Cross. Brother John explained that they simply wanted everyone who drives down the Beltway to know how much God loves them. When they asked why it was built at 170 feet tall, he said it was because the FAA wouldn’t allow us to build it taller. And when they asked how much it cost, he said, “It cost God His son and it cost Jesus His life.”
Though the majority of those who saw The Cross were blessed by it, there were some who attacked with negative remarks. Most weren’t even atheists, agnostics, or from other religions that deny Christ; most were from young Christians who judged the church for spending money on a large cross instead of doing something more charitable, like feeding the poor.
Brother John and the church stood firm in the truth of the Word, however, and reminded them that feeding a person’s body isn’t nearly as important as feeding his soul. He pointed to Jesus’ reply when the disciples argued a similar point in the Gospels when a woman broke a jar of expensive perfume at Jesus’ feet. “The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus said, “and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me” (Mark 14:7).
“Yes, Jesus cares about the poor, and so does Sagemont,” Brother John said. “But God did not send His son to feed the poor but to save people. That’s the uniqueness about the power of the cross. There’s nothing more important than getting the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. Benevolence is only because we’ve been to the cross first. ”
The dust settled, and most came to see that the church’s generosity toward missions and helping those who are less fortunate was not in jeopardy in the least. God was still blessing the church’s 30-year decision to be debt free, which allowed missions, building programs, and benevolence to all grow and thrive simultaneously.
THE CROSS SAVES LIVES
Jesus said in John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Once The Cross was erected, it didn’t take long for that promise to prove true as people of all walks of life were drawn to its base.
One Wednesday morning, Brother John saw a woman standing by The Cross as he drove through the parking lot on his way to work. He stopped a safe distance away and approached her after she noticed him. “What do you think of The Cross?” he asked.
She had tears streaming down her face. “Sir, that cross saved my life,” she said.
She explained that her husband, who worked away from home for several months at a time, was coming home on Friday. But he had sent her a text message and told her that when he got home, he wanted her out of the house.
She was so devastated that she had decided to take her own life. She had all of the details planned, but as she drove to her chosen destination, she saw The Cross. She pulled into the parking lot and a peace came over her as she was reminded of how much God loves her. She was already a Christian, but had lost sight of God’s hand upon her life. She asked for forgiveness and was now trying to figure out how she could fight for her marriage.
Brother John was moved, and offered to help her in whatever way she needed. He asked when she had become a Christian and she said that it had been eight years earlier at a Bible conference at Abundant Life Church in La Marque, Texas.
Brother John immediately thought back to those architectural plans that Clarence Shaw had laid on his desk months earlier, and he told the woman how The Cross had come to be built at Sagemont instead of Abundant Life. “God loves you so much, He moved 97 tons of steel thirty miles north and delayed it for several years so He could remind you of His love just when you needed it most,” he said, and they both smiled through their tears.
Similar stories started pouring in, and still do to this day. The cross is the message of the church. One million people a week see The Cross, and it reminds them that in this crazy, mixed up, terrible world, God still loves them and there is still hope for them.
The chapter of The Cross is different from every other chapter in the Sagemont Story in that it is one that will never truly have an ending. Instead, as each life is changed, another page is added in this most emotional chapter to date.
THE GLOOMY ECONOMY
The economy was in a terrible state as The Living Proof Project continued and construction began on the new auditorium. Unemployment spiked. Retirement accounts dwindled. Bad news came from Wall Street more often than usual. And when so much economic uncertainty looms on the horizon, the usual result is that people cut back on charitable giving.
On the surface, it looked like the worst timing in the world to be facing the largest financial need in the church’s history.
But Sagemont never made decisions based on information from Wall Street, and they knew that if God wanted something done, He would provide everything needed to make it a reality. The world thought it was impossible, but the church knew that with God, all things are possible.
Those who could give began giving generously. And for those who fell victim to the instability of the economy, the church never took its eyes off the needs of the community. God provided a previously-owned office building just yards away from the church’s main campus that was purchased and converted to a new Counseling Center. Those who were hurting found a safe and confidential place to get help through their struggles. In addition to that, gifts to missions exceeded the normal amount by more than $300,000 during this time.
God kept moving the church towards their own personal Promised Land that He had prepared for them, and despite the tumultuous economy, every deadline for funding was met.
UNUSUAL GIFTS
Many people who had the desire but not the financial ability to give got creative in their gifts to the Living Proof Project. Some wrote books and gave the profits to the Lord. Others recorded CDs and did likewise. Some sought the help of their financial advisors to give gifts of stock or met with PhilanthroCorp, an estate planning company, to consider gifts from their estate.
The church as a whole went back to the Old Testament and learned from the examples found there. Studying the Israelites’ willingness to give offerings of items like wheat or corn or cattle or silk led many to do likewise through an official auction. People considered their material possessions and donated numerous items of value like guns, boats, cars, furs, and art to be sold via a silent and live auction.
Sentimental items were donated as well like cowboy boots worn every Sunday by the late Calvin Biggs who volunteered for years in the church nursery and walked miles and miles in those boots consoling crying babies and pushing them around in a “bye-bye buggy.”
One unusual donation was a simple bamboo cane. On the surface, it looked like nothing more than an old, dilapidated walking stick, half-covered in duct tape and of no external value at all. However, when Brother John explained the story behind the cane, its value soon skyrocketed.
The cane had been carried by the late Hiram Woosley for over fifteen years. Well into retirement, Hiram had spent six out of seven days a week visiting church members and their family members who were in Houston area hospitals. He put in so many hours that many thought he was on the church staff, but everything he did was completely voluntary. Though they didn’t know Hiram by name, when Brother John asked if they’d ever been in the hospital and been visited by an elderly man leaning on that battered old cane, many people raised their hands.
Brother John was the first to bid for Hiram’s cane, but he immediately offered to give it back to the church to be donated again. A second bid followed, and again the cane was sold and returned. Over the next few moments, the crowd was unstoppable, and the cane brought in over $20,000!
Word spread about the cane even after the live auction ended and several more people called saying they wanted to buy and return the cane to the church. Over the next few days it brought in an additional $48,000.
Hiram’s cane, which sold for a grand total of $68,000, was the highest item in the auction. It emphasized once again that the true Sagemont Story is not about God using buildings or money, but about the Lord blessing people and using them to make a significant difference in the lives of others.
THE FINAL MILESTONE
As the church approached its 45th anniversary, the new auditorium neared completion. The day of testing came, however, and the need to continue working seemed insurmountable. Over two million dollars was needed to continue the building, and almost $3,277,738 was needed to complete it.
The church prayed and decided to meet at The Cross on June 5, 2011, to celebrate 45 years and see when and how the Lord would meet the remaining need.
At 3 p.m. that Sunday, the temperature reached 113 degrees and calls came in all day asking if the meeting would be moved inside. Church leaders stuck to their original plan and assured everyone that plenty of water would be on hand. A few hours later, word came in that a major thunderstorm was headed straight for the church, and again people asked if the service would be moved inside. It was decided to continue with the plan to meet at The Cross, and an hour or so before the service was to begin, the storm stopped just shy of the church. Clouds blocked the sun and were significant enough to drop the temperature twenty degrees in twenty minutes without producing a single drop of rain.
Hundreds came out to The Cross to see if work on the new auditorium would be allowed to continue or not. After baptism, Administrator Jim Green announced the final figures. The day’s total offering was $3,422,438, which exceeded the entire need to complete the building by over $250,000! God had blessed the church once again!
THE LEGACY CONTINUES
If the church had followed the typical standard of church operations and had chosen to finance the cost of the new auditorium over a thirty-year period, it would have spent an additional $42,908,500 in interest alone. But because they followed God’s call to operate on a debt-free basis, that money will be used for missions and ministry instead.
Since the time the church started in 1966, its members have given over $275 million dollars to the Lord. Sagemont is one of the top five churches in Texas in missions and baptisms, and churches all over the world have followed its lead to trust God by operating debt-free.
In 1984, First Baptist Church Dallas followed Sagemont’s debt-free example and recently made history when it opened its new $140 million debt-free facility earlier this year. Similar stories come regularly from all over the world.
In addition to reaching thousands for the Lord right here in the Greater Houston area, Sagemont has been a part of sending thousands of missionaries to 192 different countries.
The numbers are impressive, but they only exist because a handful of people agreed to follow the Lord to an unassuming rice field in Southeast Houston in the mid-1960s. God multiplied their efforts and expanded their reach in ways they never imagined.
Only the Lord knows what the next chapter of the Sagemont Story holds. But the church’s mission is to continue to be living proof of a loving God to a watching world, and its prayer is to remain the type of church that Jesus commissioned in Matthew 16:18 when He told Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Lord, may we continue to be that church. Amen.