In a room “full of entrepreneurial, grass roots, mission-minded leaders,” in the words of keynote speaker Dave Bechtold, three visonaries were recognized for their leadership.
A surprise presentation began the Madison Christian Giving Fund’s Celebration of Generosity held Friday evening, October 7, 2022, at High Point Church on Old Sauk Road. Tom and Barb Hoffner, and Scott Haumersen, were recognized as Faithful Servants by Ryan Klund of the National Christian Foundation Wisconsin.
The Hoffners and Haumersen took the lead eight years ago, launching the Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF) and the Madison Christian Generosity Council (MCGC) under the umbrella of the National Christian Foundation Wisconsin (NCFW).
In an emotional moment earlier in the day, at an MCGF-sponsored Capacity Building Workshop, the Hoffners explained that it was an anonymous donor who really started the process. As they struggled to figure out how to apply the $50,000 gift that had been given, in a way that would benefit the Christian community in Madison, they were led to NCFW and ultimately to launch MCGF and MCGC.
“God used that one gift of $50,000 eight years ago to multiply it to $960,000 (so far),” observed Fred Grossenbach, who currently leads MCGF. “That’s like the Parable of the Talents in the Gospels.”
Over the past eight years MCGF has raised $960,000 from individual donors in the local Christian community and then returned 100-percent of it to the community in the form of grants that have supported dozens of local Christian ministries. (Disclosure: MadisonChristians.com received a $5,000 grant in 2022 that helped us rebuild and rebrand our website.)
The approximately 120 people in attendance at the Celebration of Generosity were among the “donors, distributors, and doers” of that process. Applications from local ministries for 2023 grants have just been collected by MCGF and the goal is to collect $250,000 by the end of 2022 in order to actualize the best of those applications.
“You are people who just want to say yes to what God has asked you to do,” Bechtold said, at the end of the evening, just before a time of prayer. “Results are not your responsibility. Obedience and faithfulness are your responsibility. Results are God’s responsibility.”
Bechtold had offered the example of a little get-together with the men in his neighborhood that went from five awkward guys ten years ago, just standing around, to a weekly gathering during spring and fall that now attracts multiple dozens of men to the front yard and driveway of his east side home. He calls it Dads at Dave’s.
“There’s no (phone) screens, no booze, just guys hanging out with coffee and donuts,” he said. “We didn’t know what we were saying yes to (at the beginning). We just stumbled upon it.”
He said a police officer stopped by Dads at Dave’s recently and marvelled at the community spirit that had been created. He pledged to bring his captain the next time he came.
Beth Williams, one of the founders of Middleton’s Jesus Lunch for high school students, another MCGF grant recipient, shared the story of a boy who came regularly but was non-commital about reading the Bible he had been given. But when he heard about a related program that offered free car care to single moms he responded enthusiastically and even offered his employee discount at the automotive products store where he works.
“We have a new generation that doesn’t know anything about Jesus,” she said, adding that there were 430 students who showed up for last week’s Jesus Lunch.
Through the work of MCGF, tapping the generosity of Christians across the Madison area, from all kinds of different churches, and then funnelling that to Jesus Lunch and other local ministries, new people are experiencing and learning about the love of Jesus every day.