Our church recognized that we need to add additional space to our current campus to account for the size of our student ministry and our growing church community. We want to be effective disciple-makers of every generation so that we can grow in the gospel as a church family and go with the gospel to our community for the glory of Jesus. That means we are adding additional space to our campus that will specifically address the following 3 needs our elders have identified: (1) student discipleship space, (2) flexible discipleship space for kids and adults, and (3) increased seating capacity for Sunday mornings.

We are aiming to raise $2.5 million. Any debt we incur will be in the short-term for construction loans while we are in the final phases of fundraising. We are committed to not incur any long-term debt for this project. As a safety net, we have $500 thousand in cash on hand to help us address extra costs or capital that we have not raised.

Yes! While $2.5 million is a large amount of capital to raise, it is more than doable for our church. During our church’s first capital campaign to build our existing facility over 15 years ago, we raised $4.5 million when we were a church of 500 adults. Now we are a church of 1,000 people. So we are twice the size we were, raising half the capital. This doesn’t mean $2.5 million is nothing. It will require sacrifice. But put this in perspective for a moment. For example, if we have 1,000 adults in our church and everyone were to give $2,500 over the two-year span of this campaign, we would completely pay off this project with zero debt. Now this is not the way we intend to raise the capital for this project. We believe the most attainable way for us to reach our $2.5 million goal will be through equal sacrifice, not equal giving. Because when we all commit to giving sacrificially our faith not only grows but our church will get even healthier spiritually. In order for some families to participate and grow in faith, they may only be able to give half of $2,500. For other families, a growing faith might mean adding an extra 0 to that $2,500. What our elders hope for our church is that we all participate in this project so that we collectively grow in faith as we give for the sake of one another and the mission of making disciple-makers. And this will only happen if we all recognize the need for this campaign and commit to participating cheerfully and sacrificially according to the means God has provided to us.

There are primarily 2 ongoing effects: utilities and ongoing maintenance. These are monthly costs for the building that our financial deacons and the elders are confident our church can support based on our current giving rates. If our church continues to give generously and cheerfully as we have done for years, we will be able to support the ongoing costs of this expansion (and that doesn’t account for any growth we might experience due to our expanded seating capacity in the Worship Center).

The new building is being constructed to meet the needs of our student ministry, but in such a way that it will benefit adults as well. We plan to use the new building especially to meet the needs of our students, so they will be given priority to use the building when their programs are running.

However, for the majority of the week when students are not using the building we will use the facility to meet the needs of adults and families in our church, as well as for strategic community engagement. And even when student programming is running, because they will have moved out to the new building we will have freed up space in our existing facility that we can make available for adults, kids, and families (the spaces that will be freed up include the Venue, current student room, and outdoor classrooms).

Absolutely! This new facility is giving us everything the elders believe we need, even though it isn’t giving us everything we might want. And that is okay! We want to expand responsibly, which means we are not expanding in order to add luxuries. We are expanding in order to become more effective in accomplishing our mission to be and make disciple-makers. Our greatest need as a church is flexible discipleship space. The most financially reasonable and responsible way we can meet this need is by building a dedicated space for student discipleship that is also flexible for adult discipleship. This not only adds discipleship space, but it frees up existing space in our current facility to meet the discipleship needs of adults and kids. If our congregation continues to grow, there may be needs in the future that we have yet to anticipate. But because of our desire to engage in church planting and revitalization, our goal is not to make our existing campus the biggest it can be. Rather, we want to make the biggest impact we can for the Kingdom of Christ, and right now our elders believe this is the right project, at the right time, for a responsible price.

No, we are not building a gym. Our elders believe the new facility should be able to accommodate for recreational activities that students may engage in, but a gym is not actually needed for our current student programming and ministry direction. A gym certainly provides a large space for recreation, but it is a less flexible discipleship space. Additionally, there are several existing gyms in our community that our student ministry can use if the need arises to rent one from time to time. Many of these gyms sit empty for the majority of the year, so this affords us the opportunity to bless our community at times when we might desire the use of a gym while not having to incur the ongoing costs of that type of facility as a church.

Yes! This campaign has been part of an ongoing discussion among our elders and our church for five years. Our elders believe the timing is right to address the constraints our church has identified in order to keep making disciple-makers. Our elders and staff have already made their commitments to this campaign and can’t wait to get started!

You should give because the New Testament regularly connects personal spiritual growth and effectiveness in the church’s mission with sacrificial giving. This is what Philippians 4:14-20 teaches through the example of the church at Philippi. This church’s sacrificial giving led Paul to remind them that “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (v19) In 2 Corinthians 9 God tells us that “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” This does not mean a $2,000 gift to our church will grant you $20,000 in return! Instead, God promises that people who financially give to the work of his Kingdom are rewarded through grace so that they “may abound in every good work.” (v8)

So each one of us should give because God promises that we grow spiritually when we express our faith through financial sacrifice for the sake of his Kingdom. This type of giving is a sacrifice, and we all will feel it. But the value of growing in faith and effectiveness in our mission is worth every pinched penny.

In fact, pinching pennies is how we should think about sacrificial giving. In Mark 12, Jesus gave the parable of a widow who gave two small copper coins. (v42) And his point was that she gave far more than all of the rich people who “put in large sums” of money into the temple treasury. (v41) Jesus was making a point to focus not on the amount of money given, but the degree of sacrifice required to give. This is why the elders do not want equal giving to this campaign. We want equal sacrifice. In fact, we believe our church will not experience the great degrees of spiritual growth that Jesus promises us if we all settle on giving the same amount. Some people may give comparatively little money to the campaign, but the degree of sacrifice it will require them will be great in the sight of God. Other people may give comparatively large gifts to the campaign, but if the degree of sacrifice is low for them then their gift will look small in the eyes of God. These are promises and principles of Scripture that should guide our church’s involvement in this campaign. And this is why our elders will provide resources to help you discern what sacrifice may look like for you and your family so that all of us equally participate in sacrificing for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom.