From $6 million in debt to a surplus, First Euless turned its dollars outward

EULESS?In 2005, First Baptist Church of Euless shared more in common with its neighbors than many a church member would care to admit.

In the Hurst-Euless-Bedford (HEB) school district, many families struggle to pay the bills. Nearly 50 percent of students receive government-subsidized school lunches because their family income is below the poverty line. The district categorizes about 600 of its schoolchildren as homeless.

Go back five years. The church's expansive property along Airport Freeway in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex was impressive, but appearances were deceiving: The church was between pastors and was saddled with a $6 million debt.

Rather than creeping along in reducing the burden, interim pastor Bill Anderson, who had led the church years before, issued a challenge: Don't just observe the tithe, give $20 above it. See what God does.

Anderson asked church members to ask three things: "Lord, is this of you?" "What's my part?" And, "Lord, bless your people so they may give generously."

Twenty-eight months later, not only was the debt retired, the church had $1.2 million in the bank.

"It was going to take a miracle, and God did a miracle," recalled Scott Sheppard, who grew up at First Euless and whose family goes back five generations as charter members.

Then Anderson challenged the church a second time: "What could you do if you could continue to give at this rate? How many water wells could you dig, how many churches could you plant, how many families could you help?"

In 2008, the year John Meador was called as pastor, "we spent over a million dollars from here to China" over and above the church's giving through the Cooperative Program, a shared funding strategy for the network of Southern Baptist missions and ministries worldwide, Sheppard said.

The church, it seemed, was hooked on giving.

6 Stones Mission Network

Sheppard, a 1980 graduate of Trinity High School, just across the street from the church, has watched Euless transform from middle-class bedroom community to an economically and ethnically diverse city where 60-plus languages and dialects are spoken.

Two years ago, Meador came to Sheppard, then the church's "Share and Serve" pastor, with a problem and yet another challenge.

"We're going to fix this," Meador said, explaining the travails of a woman who had come to the church in dire need following an apartment fire after being turned away by a non-profit because she lived in Euless instead of a sister city nearby. It was one in a series of awakenings about the needs of people in the community.

The two discussed building a coalition of like-minded churches to meet the needs of those falling between the cracks.

When Sheppard asked Meador how he planned to do that, he replied, "I don't know. Go figure it out."