Why Are We Giving This Away For Free?

I’ve been asked why the Mission Houston Board and Staff decided to offer all of the Faithwalking services for free. The short answer is that it has been a deep work of God in our individual and collective hearts. There is a story behind how that occurred.

Faithwalking was launched in 2007. It is not uncommon in today’s environment for individuals with gifts (like talented musicians) or skills (like gifted preachers) to offer those gifts and skills to people beyond a local church. It is also not uncommon for those individuals to place a value on those gifts and skills and then sell them to the public. Whether it’s in a record album or in a collection of sermons that are placed in a book and sold in the market place, this is a common practice.

So when we launched Faithwalking we stepped into that common practice. We developed a retreat and then a small group follow up experience. We placed a value on it, and we sold it to anyone who would buy.

Along the way two things happened. First, virtually everyone who fully completed the Faithwalking course gave testimony to the deep impact that the experience had in their lives.

Second, a large number of people indicated that they could not participate because the cost was prohibitive. Though we were sympathetic to that, we also needed money to pay the salaries of the people (including me) who led Faithwalking, so we just kept charging a fee.

Then on Saturday morning of our December 2010 Board/Staff retreat we had one of the most courageous, authentic conversations about money . . . about our view of money . . . about our practices of stewardship . . . about our willingness to trust the Lord to provide if we would simply obey Him in every area of our life - especially, in the context of this conversation - regarding our money. Though we didn’t make any decisions that day about the fee for Faithwalking, we looked back at that conversation as one of the most powerful conversations about money in which any of us had participated.

Two weeks later - a week before Christmas - we met for another half day to finish up the planning that we needed to do for the 2011 ministry plan. In an unscripted moment of discussion about the budget, someone, I don’t even remember who, said, “How much income did we get from Faithwalking in 2010?”

Someone else said, “I think it was about $50,000 last year.”

Someone else said, “I think God is calling us to give this stuff away, and I believe we can trust the Lord to provide the income that is lost from charging a fee.”

A flurry of conversation occurred in the next seven to ten minutes and the decision was made. We looked at each other in a kind of stunned silence. What this really what God was calling us to do? It was our unanimous sense that He was.

Then someone realized that one of the Board members had left the meeting about an hour earlier. He was the Chair of the Faithwalking Task Force. We couldn’t make this decision without him. So we called and asked him to step out of a meeting he was in. We told him what had just transpired. He said, “Something in my spirit just thinks this is right.” And the decision was final.

So there is a real sense in which we are giving Faithwalking away as an act of obedience to God’s leading.

Faithwalking is a spiritual formation process that God uses to produces personal transformation in the lives of people who love Him and are eager to be on mission with Him. It is now our privilege to offer all the services of this ministry free of charge. If He is stirring your heart to join us, go to www.Faithwalkingonline.com

                                   Jim Herrington