Rev. Shane's EmailThe World as I See It…Our Best Year Ever In 2007 we set new records for effective ministry in everything we measure. We moved into our new sanctuary, built a church in Kubacan, Philippines, support 280 Christ Church Scholars and are immersed in local outreaches ranging from homeless ministries to evangelistic softball. Our Connections Classes, Sunday School, children’s and student ministries are surging. The 2008 Challenge We are immersed in excitement at Christ Church but we are out of educational space for our children. If we do not address this reality, it will become a lid for this congregation – and we will miss an opportunity. We had initially hoped to construct the new sanctuary and the children’s/education building concurrently, but when financing became an issue we had to break the project into two phases. Three years ago I told the congregation that immediately upon the completion of the “So Blessed” campaign, we would embark upon another capital campaign to cover the mortgage and hopefully enable us to begin the new building. This month we formally begin that journey together. Before planning this campaign, we asked The Charis Group to conduct a congregational analysis to provide an objective assessment of our congregation. This included reviewing our finances, personal interviews and an anonymous survey. We discovered that 90% of you feel that additional children’s and education space is a priority. We also learned that some in our congregation are tired after two formal campaigns but many others are new and eager to get moving. Just as importantly, we found that even those who are tired clearly support the construction of the children’s/education building. Charis also found that you want a different kind of campaign. We listened. We will: 1) conduct much work behind the scenes with individuals and small groups 2) not offer endless campaign videos 3) not ask anyone to publicly reveal the amount of their pledge 4) shorten the congregational emphasis from twelve weeks to four weeks 5) Have a clear spiritual focus. The study concluded that we are in a good position to run a successful campaign. Just the Facts The new sanctuary will end up costing about $5.9 million and when we move to a permanent loan we will owe about $4.2 million. Our first priority is to pay down the mortgage on the new sanctuary and we will need pledges of about $2 million to make good headway. Southwest Bank has informed us that we need to raise an additional million to secure the financing to begin construction on the new building in 2008. If we do not raise enough to begin construction, we will use the raised capital to pay down the sanctuary mortgage more quickly and address the building in the future. My request to you will be to study the material we will give you soon and pray that God would be honored by the three-year pledge (above your regular giving) that you will make on March 16. Let’s change the world…together! That’s the World…As I See It God is Good! Rev. Shane Christ Church | Vital Signs 2007
* Denotes all time record set in 2007
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