Northeast Presbyterian Church launches “Legacy of Faith” campaign

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Northeast Presbyterian Church (PCA) senior pastor, Dr. George Crow, says, “The calling that God has welded to [his] heart in recent months” is now being realized as the church’s Legacy of Faith, a three-year capital-campaign effort aimed at paying for recent sanctuary renovations as well as getting a jump on planned renovations of the students’ and young children’s areas of the church’s six-acre campus on Polo Rd. in northeast Columbia, S.C.

The goal of the effort is $5-million – $3.3-million for the recent renovations and $1.7-million for the down-payment on “phase two” (Youth area renovations).

Church leaders say the effort will undergird a “legacy of faith,” literally expanding the church’s mission of reaching out into the community – and to younger and future generations of Christ followers – as opposed to the possibility that the congregation’s elder generation might more easily “circle the wagons” as Crow, now 68, but not yet planning to retire from the pulpit, has previously said.

Dr. Tony Myers, assistant pastor, agrees.

“We want to see our elderly encouraged by – and investing in – the younger generation,” Myers said. “And we want to see our younger members honoring and empowered by our older generation. As we say in the Legacy of Faith campaign, we want to connect young and old.”

Church leaders – some of whom are former or retired military – have likened the campaign to “being on mission,” and that mission, they say, is spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“It’s the desire of my heart to be able to say what [the Apostle] Paul said – as I know it is yours also – ‘I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith,’” said Crow (an Air Force Academy grad and former U.S. Air Force special-operations helicopter pilot) during a recent sermon. “Keeping the faith includes passing it on to the next generation.”

In a just-released Legacy of Faith video, Ladd Lumpkin, a church elder who works in the financial services industry, said, “Nurturing and equipping followers of Jesus to spread the Gospel locally and globally: That’s our vision. We will prepare at Northeast Presbyterian for those who are going to come behind us.”

Elder Anthony Livoti – an attorney with Murphy and Grantland PA and a former U.S. Navy surface-warfare officer – says, Legacy of Faith is not simply about constructing new buildings.

“We want to create a space here at Northeast Presbyterian Church where we can influence the next generation for God and expanding the Gospel,” says Livoti.

Expanding the Gospel throughout the Midlands’ various communities (as well as extended and short missions around the world) is not new to the 37-year-old mission-driven Northeast Presbyterian Church, which earlier this month was recognized as “Faith-based Partner of the Year” by Transitions, the downtown Columbia-based homeless housing-and-services facility. The church currently invests over $500,000 annually in foreign missions and ministries, and always hopes to be increasing this amount.

Legacy of Faith will officially begin the end of this week with a church-wide 24-hour prayer vigil followed by a Sat. morning prayer walk.

For more information, visit http://nepresbyterian.org.