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Building Committee Update - 10/2008 |
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Dear Song of Life:
This is the first in what we hope will be at least once a quarter messages to share updates with where we are in the process of pursuing the building of the first phase of our permanent church campus on the corner of Queen Creek and Sossaman Roads.
Currently, our Building Committee is still committed to following the course of action that was discerned and approved at our special charge conference in March, 2008. Prior to that conference, we had a series of congregational conversations about where we were with our Master Plan. As a result of those conversations and our desire to begin making forward progress, we committed to hiring an outside fund raiser to help us with a "feasibility study" (this is the first step in pursuing a capital campaign).
As Rev. Ron Bartlow shared in worship on August 24th (click here for audio ), after a series of work that included searches and interviews, in late July we selected a local agency (The United Methodist Foundation, affiliated with The United Methodist Church) to be our fundraiser. Unfortunately, the director of the agency notified us of his resignation and their inabiliity to take our contract.
At that time we opted to wait and see if the new director of the Foundation would work with us in these first important steps of a capital campaign. The Building Committee opted to wait through the end of October before choosing to discuss an alternative plan. (Any alternative plans would need to be approved by you through a charge conference.)
In the meantime... well, we're sure you're aware of the turbulence of the financial markets in recent months! We have been asking ourselves as a Building Committee if the delay in our capital campaign wasn't a God-send, as we imagine a capital campaign in the middle of a struggling market would be difficult, to say the least.
However, we have learned that there has been an upside to the financial and housing market trends. In conversation with our proposed contractor (idnentified by Song of LIfe in late 2005) we have learned that, if we are willing to adjust from our Master Plan's ambitious first phase and build a functional Phase 1 of readily available materials, we might be able to build for a quarter of the cost originally estimated.
At this time, we are not making any major changes in our recommendations and are planning to continue with a feasibility study and capital campaign. We will at some point in the near future, as a congregation, need to re-assess our physical space needs for a first-phase build out as part of the capital campaign.
In the meantime, the Building Committee continues to meet and seek new information. Our plans for the immediate future include some deep Scriptural study on passages related to building (as a means of further discerning God's direction for Song of LIfe), touring the newest United Methodist sanctuary built this past month (Desert Mission UMC), and consulting with a United Methodist and architect who has helped to build other UM Churches in our conference.
Again, we are currently continuing with the approved plan of pursuing a capital campaign's first phase - the feasibility study - though we are waiting (1) because of the resignation of our originally hired consultant, and (2) because of the volatility of current financial markets. We still intend to pursue a capital campaign, likely next year.
For more information, or to inquire about serving on our building committee, please contact
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(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)