Many of you that were in the last quarterly business meeting learned yet another way that God continues to bless this congregation. Our trustees have finalized a lease with AT&T.

The purpose of the lease is to allow AT&T to use the inside of our steeple (as well as one small room to be used for their equipment) as an antenna site for wireless service. They approached us and this opportunity truly came out of the blue. Your trustees have done a great job of investigating and negotiating this contract. With their attention to detail, I can assure each of you that they looked out for the interest of Hillcrest Baptist Church and they did their due diligence. This included the research that determined, through multiple sources, that this income does not fall in the category of unrelated business income and is thus not subject to tax.

The contract is up to five renewable five year terms. The first five year term is at a rate of $1,500 per month. The rent for each subsequent term is to increase by 10%. This contract will not cost Hillcrest Baptist Church anything to implement or develop. In the quarterly business meeting, it was proposed and voted to use the income from this endeavor to go toward the Christian school we are developing that I have mentioned in a previous “Rupert’s Ramblings” column.

We are not in the business of business, but we are to be good stewards of all God places in our lives and this is a stewardship action.

Please do not confuse this action with God’s Biblical funding mechanism for ministry and expenses through our obedience by offering back to HIM our tithes and offerings. Becky and I can personally testify (repeatedly and constantly) to HIS faithfulness of blessing the gift and the giver when we obediently and joyfully tithe and give additional offerings when HE prompts us. Maybe this would be a great future topic.

We serve and belong to a wonderful and gracious God. May we live and honor HIM in all we do.

Growing together to be like Christ,

Rupert