A note from Pastor Kenny (regarding location)
Greetings!
This special church email is in regards to our announcement yesterday. It’s quite lengthy, but please take time to read it through.
I was so greatly encouraged by the people of our church and their positive attitudes, in regards to our announcement from Sunday morning. It again reminds me that God is building a church that is focusing on The Big Five (Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Ministry, and Fellowship) and desires to be a “Connecting, Caring, and Changing” Church. This was made evident to me yesterday in a variety of ways, I write to you this morning as an encouraged Pastor.
Over the last six months our Trustees and our Stewardship Team have been prayerfully and diligently exploring the old Rural King building on (old) Hwy 60. At our last Family meeting we felt like the possibility of looking into that facility was strong enough to bring it to the church. We were very clear in that meeting that it was “not 100%” and that “much work and investigation needed to be done”. Life Community, graciously, extended the blessing to the Stewardship Team and Trustees to explore, investigate, finalize a deal, and to utilize church savings to see if that the site would work. At that point in time, the landlords were willing to offer various pieces of construction that would have enabled us to pursue the project.
During that time, our Trustees and Stewardship Team have been incredibly focused and have worked very hard. They never wanted to “make” it happen or for the project to take priority of the ministry and function of the church, but were tasked with exploring the mechanical and construction angle of it and being good and faithful stewards of what God had given the church. The trustees were able to have blue prints drawn and spent much time in the facility. Much time and labor has spent on this project from multiple people over the last six months.
As our teams met and communicated with contractors it became very evident that this was going to be much bigger of a project than assumed six months ago. Since we were not going to obtain all 50k sq ft of the building (only 10k sq ft) the project basically became a complete build out (or new construction). Exploring various codes, city ordinances etc, the project grew in complexity. This caused the landlords to rethink what they originally offered six months ago. This greatly increased the price of the project (from what we thought would be around 70k to now 125k+).
Our teams began to think through the stewardship angle of this project. Realizing that we would exhaust our savings completely, would have to obtain a loan, and would still have to go to the church for financial help, it became very obvious that we may not be ready for this. It was then confirmed when our bank would not loan us the money for the project (due to our age). The decision was reached unanimously from all the trustees and all the stewardship team that the timing for this was not now.
For some this may seem disappointing (especially given the amount of work and excitement that came with it) but it should never be viewed as “discouraging”. Here’s why:
Throughout this process we learned MUCH! This was not wasted time. Our Trustees and Stewardship Team are walking away with a thorough understanding of city codes, building codes, leasing agreements, and a better understanding of banking and our current state.
We also have blue prints. These blue prints can be amended or adjusted for another location or even to build on land one day. Possibly if the Rural King is still open down the road, in the future, and all leasing agreements are looking good, perhaps that might happen. Who knows! But what we do know is that we have plans for a build out.
We have also learned that God’s Will is not necessarily “cut and dry”. It involves a great deal of “asking, seeking, and knocking” while also being content with God’s daily provisions and trusting in Him (by faith) on the journey.
We were greatly encouraged that God, in his providence and sovereignty, miraculously opened up the community college for another year and our ministry center (for a month to month leasing agreement). One of the reasons that we were so active in pursuing a location six months ago, was due to the fact that we were told from the Community College that we would not be renewed after October. With a new president and administration change, we now have no worries and are secured at OCTC. This should be viewed as miraculous and God’s provision!
As Rob Thomasson (team leader of the Stewardship Team) observed yesterday; we outgrew the logsdon and God gave us Seven Hills, we outgrew Seven Hills and God gave us the Community College. We have not yet outgrown the community college. We have one of the largest parking lots in the city, 392 seats, and are in a well known and easily accessible location to find. It’s time for us to invite our friends, reach out to our neighbors, and attempt to fill every single seat in that place every single Sunday for the Glory of Jesus Christ.
Though we will always keep an open eye for future locations and future possibilities, we are now entering into a season where we know we will be at OCTC for sometime and it’s time to shift our focus completely to being a “CONNECTING, CARING, and CHANGING” Church. In regards to a building we will just wait for the leadership of The Lord to provide that in His timing, but will be content and thankful for OCTC…..it’s home…….for a little bit longer.
I would encourage all teams to begin to think about how to do more ministry at OCTC. I believe we have many opportunities there at the college (we will explore looking into blessing the students and faculty even more!). Likewise, I am now encouraging the church to focus on building our advertising, administration, office support, and organization for the current context (of being a mobile church), which will be critical for us as we press forward in breaking the 200 attendance barrier. I am also encouraging us to continue to explore “church planting” in different areas of the city as well (there will be more said about this in upcoming days and in 2015-2016 calendar year. As I mentioned at the Birthday service last year, I would like for the 2015-2016year to be a year of exploration for church planting).
Most importantly I encourage the church to pray and bring the lost to church! These days are a call for us to take seriously our First Monday Night Prayer meetings. We need to be committed to them and seek God. Nothing will ever happen if we are not praying like we should. Our First Monday Prayer meetings are full of the Holy Spirit and will be the fuel we need as we are growing as church. In many ways, this event may remind all the church of how important these meetings are. Also, we need to seek out everyone we know who does not know Jesus Christ, as Savior, and bring them with us to church. We aren’t after the “already-churched” but we want those who are disconnected, who feel uncared for, and those who need a change in their life. We want everyone with a hang-up, habit, or hurt to know that they are welcomed at Life Community Church. Do your part to pray and do your part to share the good news of Jesus with others.
To summarize;
· We now have direction for where we need to be. That’s OCTC.
· This process taught us much and should be viewed as a positive experience.
· We will keep our eyes open and looking, knowing that OCTC wont’ be home forever, but also knowing that the time to be in a building “is not now”
· We will pray for God’s continue growth, while we invite others work on organizing and we structure for our current situation, and will remain grateful for our home at OCTC.
· We will expect God to do a great work in our midst!
As always, it is a pleasure to serve as your pastor. We have bright days ahead
Kenny Rager
Pastor @ Life Community
