November 17, 2010
Dear Church Family,
The Vision Team has evaluated the facility needs to support the missions of our church body. As a result, the team feels that building a Family Life Center will provide the most flexibility in meeting those needs. We are now ready to present the proposed floor plan that will provide the needed functionality now and room for expansion in the future. This is a very exciting and important time in the life of our church. The presence and participation of each member is vital to moving forward. Please plan to attend a Special Emphasis Worship service on Sunday morning Nov. 14th, a prayer meeting focusing on God’s direction for this project on November 17th, a presentation of proposed plans with questions and answer time on Thursday, Nov. 18th at 6:30, and a time of celebration on Sunday Nov. 21st for a Thanksgiving Feast.
As a church body, we decided early on to remain at our current location, so the Vision Team began by praying and seeking information on where God was leading us. Our first major step was starting a capital fund raising program that we named Solomon’s Project: Building Our Father’s Vision. The goal of the program was to help us raise the money needed to begin construction and that would also help us grow spiritually with our individual sacrifices. We are currently in our second phase of Solomon’s Project and have collected $463,337.35 to date (2004 to 2010). Let’s stop and thank God for the blessings He has poured out on our Faith Promises thus far. Many of you have continued to be faithful in your giving over the six years of this fund raiser. Our Solomon’s Project goal is $550,000.00
We chose Harley & Associates to provide architectural services and began praying and visiting other churches to review their floor plans for features to include in our new facility. The team worked diligently on a Scope of Work to document our list of requirements. This document was provided to the architect to begin the process of developing our facility design. The Scope of Work listed all ministries that the church had suggested we start or had already begun. Many of you may recall the first sketch Mr. Harley presented to us. This sketch covered 90-100% of our projected ministry needs, and was roughly estimated to cost $4.4 million dollars.
The monthly costs on that facility, although it was beautiful, would be far beyond our monthly Faith Promises from you. Equipped with a better understanding of the construction cost, the team reduced the scope of the facility to bring the overall cost down and still attempt to meet most of the needs. A full set of design drawings were developed and provided to four reputable contractors to provide estimates. When the bids were returned to the team, all four were approximately $2 million dollars. Monthly payments to support this cost would be approximately $9,583.00 in addition to our current monthly budget needs. The sketch of this facility is attached.(Attachment A)
With a desire to be good stewards of God’s resources, the team once again felt the need to reduce the scope of the facility. Our goal was to bring the construction cost to approximately $1.2 to $1.5 million dollars. Using the contractor provided estimates to calculate the average cost per square foot, the team now has a floor plan to share with you (also attached, Attachment B). The monthly payment would be approximately $5,800.00 - $7,485.00, depending on interest rates at the time. The modified version cost has been estimated by the Vision team and has not been sent out for bids at this time.
The final piece of information to be shared via this letter is the method of acquiring the church body’s input regarding our path forward and the Vision Team has chosen to use the Faith Promise Card as the tool to gather this information.
On Presentation Night, 11-18-2010, each family will be given a Faith Promise Card for Phase III of Solomon’s Project. This will be a 3 year capital fundraising event. You should take your card home and pray for God’s direction as you complete it. Your sacrifice is personal, between you and God. At the end of the Sunday morning worship on 11-28-2010, a time of prayer and offering will be given and each member will be asked to lay their sacrifice on the altar. The Solomon’s Project Chairman will make an announcement of the results when all cards are returned, early in December.
Please be much in prayer for the sacrifice you will make and make every effort to attend these special services. Childcare will be provided for the special service on Thursday, Nov 18th.
Your Committee Chairs,
Vision Team Solomon’s Project Building Committee
Debra Langley Ricky Langley Ellen Bush
Mark the Dates:
Nov. 7th 11:00am Special Message, “Cooperating with a Dependable God”
Nov. 14th 11:00am Special Message from Joshua 6
Nov. 17th 7:00pm Corporate prayer time for Solomon’s Project
(Separate time for AWANA workers)
Nov 18th 6:30pm Special church-wide business meeting to inform the church of the
Plans for new building; question and answer session; challenge for
New Faith Promise commitments
Nov 21st 11:00am Special Thanksgiving Message
5:00pm Thanksgiving Dinner and Celebration
For more information and to see whats going on with Solomon's project check out the links below.
$2 Million Floor Plan $1.2 Million Floor Plan SitePlanB
