Eradicating Debt at Tate Springs Baptist Church
Tate Springs Baptist Church’s mission statement is to help people “discover their part in God’s story.” We developed this from Proverbs 20:5, which says the purpose in a man’s heart is “like deep water” and that it takes “a man of understanding” to draw it out.
From this text (as well as others!), we concluded that every person is made in God’s image, that God desires a personal relationship with everyone, and that He desires to use them in this world for His glory. Thus, God is telling a story of hope and redemption, and our goal as a church is to help people discover their part in it.
It’s been neat to see how God is blessing Tate Springs. One example can be found in this brief video from Haley, who God brought to our church and led to salvation and then baptism - tatesprings.com/give
Tate Springs is nearly 140 years old. I like to call it Arlington’s “Mama Church” because it is one of the oldest churches in the area that planted several churches nearby, including Cornerstone, Rush Creek, and Walnut Ridge.
When my family and I arrived a few years ago, the church had experienced something akin to a split. One of the search committee members had shared with me something like, “Tate Springs is ready to take the mountain, we just need to know which mountain to take, and we need leadership to get us there.”
As I prayed and researched the church, I discovered Tate Springs had several acres of land across a four-lane road from the main worship center. I also learned it had been the vision of the church and its pastors to move our operations there since the 80s.
To get there, however, we needed a lot of help. The church was in flux with its finances, staff, vision, etc. Being a former pastor of Tate Springs, Bart McDonald held a lot of respect in the church, so that was certainly helpful for seeking counsel from the Foundation. The Foundation essentially served as an interim “Executive Pastor” until we were able to walk on our own again.
This is also where Russ Barksdale and the principles of RiseUp! came along. Russ has successfully pastored Rush Creek, one of our church plants, and I leaned into him for pastoral counsel. In his final years of pastoring, he led Rush Creek through something called a “generosity initiative” that yielded incredible blessings in the life of the church. They essentially took in three years of financial blessings in a two-year period.
Tate Springs was in over 1 million dollars of debt when I arrived, and if we wanted to get across the street, we needed to eradicate the debt. So, I leaned into Bart and Russ, who counseled Tate Springs and me towards eliminating our debt and communicating what I believed God’s vision was for Tate Springs. The result was paying off over $800,000 of debt in a little over a year! For more background, you can watch the video here – tatesprings.com/crossover
I would argue we are in the healthiest place we’ve been in a long time in our finances and vision. We are now debt-free and have a clear and compelling direction for the future. I imagine if you asked any member of Tate Springs what our goal is that they would be able to tell you without hesitation that it is to glorify God with the blessings He’s given us on our “north property.”
Dr. Jared Wellman
Lead Pastor, Tate Springs Baptist Church