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Frequently Asked Questions
(Click on a question below to see the response)
[What does a “Yes” vote
mean?]
[What constitutes a majority vote on June 4th?]
[Will we have a letter of commitment from a bank for our
loan request by June 4?]
[Why isn’t our building selling?]
[When a new facility opens, what can we expect in additional
attendance? How many visitors, guests can we expect?]
[How long will it take until we have a full size gymnasium?]
[Did we meet the $2 million threshold, and if not, what is going to change?]
[What will be the impact of the increased size upon the
energy utilization and utility costs?]
[Why theater seats instead of pews?]
[Are the bid costs fixed or will they change once the
building begins?]
[What are some of the ideas for using the extra land?]
[Are there plans about things that can be delayed to temporarily
delay costs or things church members can help do?]
[Is the plan
to continue with the three services in the same “contemporary/ traditional/ contemporary” formats?]
[In a worse case scenario if the pledges are not coming in,
are we prepared to still make the mortgage payment? ]
What does a “Yes” vote mean?
So if you’re going to support this project, what
does this mean in practical terms for you? It is one
thing to say, “Yes, let’s go – let’s
do it!” It’s another level still to feel
the weight of this commitment distributed across the
whole of our church body. If we decide to go forward,
the money and the people aren’t magically going
to fall in to place. It is going to take a concerted
commitment by all of us. We believe that it means three
important things for every person at Grace.
1. It's a Financial Commitment – We will be doing
a 2nd fundraising campaign in October. According to our
financial models this campaign has to meet or exceed
what we did in the first campaign. That means our church
has to have a repeat performance of the $1.3 million
that we raised last time around. Understand that we have
a number of people new to Grace who did not go through
that last campaign with us that will be able to participate
this time around. And like the last campaign this one
will be in addition to our tithes and offerings. We're
asking the people of Grace to keep moving toward a tithe
or increasing giving year over year. The financial weight
is not going to fall on the new people that will come
because of the new building – our mindset and commitment
must be that it’s going to fall on us – the
people who call Grace their home right now.
2. It's a Missional Commitment – New buildings
don’t reach people. People reach people. We need
every person at Grace to commit themselves to being inviters.
To be consumed with the mission of reaching people for
Christ. Who are your two or three names of friends, co-workers,
neighbors, family members that you are praying for and
opening doors to?
3. It's a Commitment to Inconvenience – this is
not going to be easy. This transition is going to mean
inconvenience for many of us in many different ways.
We need to be willing to be inconvenienced for the sake
of the gospel now and for years to come if it means more
people coming to know Christ.
Each individual and family should really be praying about
these three commitments, and if you can't buy in at some
level to all three of them, you probably shouldn't vote "yes".
To vote yes we must understand that this is going to
cost us something and we need a group of people pulling
together toward one goal and that is to reach more people
for Jesus.
[Top]
What constitutes a majority vote on June 4th?
Our constitution says that a vote of this nature must
be a 75% majority of those who are members and who are
present. We must also have a quorum at the meeting. A
quorum consists of 25% of eligible voting members; which
means we must have 380 members present on June 4th to
have a quorum.
[Top]
Will we have a letter of commitment from a bank for our
loan request by June 4?
Yes, we will have a letter to present at the business
meeting if not before.
[Top]
Why isn’t our building selling?
It is a unique facility. There are not many growing churches
that are smaller than us in the area and it is a facility
that will take some creativity for a non-church use.
There are a couple ways to look at this. One would be
that God is telling us to wait and not move forward until
we sell this building. This is a legitimate option. Another
way to look at the fact that our building hasn’t
sold is that it is a great blessing at this point. A
financial plan has been created that would allows us
to move forward with the project without selling the
building and then seek to sell it closer to the time
when we move out. This will eliminate costs associated
with a transition plan, and will also eliminate a loss
of members who may not wish to worship in a temporary
facility for a year.
[Top]
When a new facility opens, what can we expect in additional
attendance? How many visitors, guests can we expect?
The rule of thumb for new churches is a potential for
25% growth in the first 12-24 months. We already welcome
an average of 30 guests per weekend to our church and
we’re expecting that the additional seats and parking
will allow us to keep a larger percentage of them.
[Top]
How long will it take until we have a full size gymnasium?
A lot will depend on how our attendance and finances
develop and how quickly we can pay down our loan on Phase
1 of the project. What we build in Phase 2 will depend
a lot on what kind of growth and development we see in
the congregation over the next 3-5 years.
[Top]
Did we meet the $2 million threshold, and if not, what
is going to change?
Over a year ago we announced to the church that we were
targeting a $2 million cash threshold before we would
begin the project. It does not appear that we will reach
this target number by the time that our contract is supposed
to be signed. But we believe that because of the timing
of the bids and the favorable bid numbers that we should
proceed. Much has changed in the last year and as building
prices continue to escalate; we believe that to miss
this window of opportunity for such a small income differential
would be ill-advised.
[Top]
What will be the impact of the increased size upon the
energy utilization and utility costs?
We are predicting a modest increase in utility costs.
Several factors went in to plugging in only a modest
increase even though the facility is going to be bigger.
1) The building will be significantly more energy efficient
than our current facility. 2) We will be on a well – eliminating
our water costs. 3) We have a verbal agreement with the
owner of our brine well to get our gas from him at a
greatly reduced price than what we would pay National
Fuel.
[Top]
Why theater seats instead of pews?
Several factors went in to this decision. 1) People tend
to be more efficient in their seating habits with theater
seats (ie. not taking up unnecessary space by laying
their coats across the seats, etc.) 2) We want to be
able to multi-use the space for community events and
organizations. We realize that a company that may want
to rent our space to do a training seminar would be more
inclined to use the space if it looked more contemporary
and 3) it is much easier to do ticketed events such as
concerts or plays with theater seats that have individual
numbers on each seat.
[Top]
Are the bid costs fixed or will they change once the
building begins?
The bid numbers are fixed once we sign the contract.
They will only change if we make changes.
[Top]
What are some of the ideas for using the extra land?
A future land development plan has not been explored
yet although some of the ideas include: a ropes course,
picnic areas, housing development, retirement community,
retreat center, athletic fields, etc.
[Top]
Are there plans about things that can be delayed to temporarily
delay costs or things church members can help do?
The construction team is working on this idea right now
to see if there are things that we can remove from the
bid package and contract ourselves if we have the resources
to do it later. We will only seek volunteer labor as
it relates to things toward the end of the project (finishes,
landscaping, etc.).
[Top]
Is the plan to continue with the
three services in the same “contemporary/ traditional/
contemporary” formats?
Yes, the plan at this point is to continue with the three
service format that we currently have and allow each
of the services room to grow.
[Top]
In a worse case scenario if the pledges are not coming
in, are we prepared to still make the mortgage payment?
One of the exercises that the banks made us go through
is to assume very little growth in attendance and finances
over the next five years and run financial scenarios
to assure that we could pay the mortgage. We are convinced
that we could, but not without pain. God has also blessed
us with some assets that are associated with our new
property that could be sold if we ever needed to. [Top]
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