Houston Northeast Worship Service • September 20, 2026 transcript

Amen. Friends, as you're taking a seat, I will share with you, as I mentioned earlier, today is not just a little different. It is different. This morning is more of a a vision casting kind of family meeting of hey, here's something we believe God's leading us as a church family and we want to share this with you and invite you along into the conversation as well as invite you to a a prayerful spirit of unity and excitement to commit toward what in our collective wisdom we believe God is leading us to this.

With that said, I want to speak to you in the room. If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as savior and lord, listen, today is a little different. But everything I'm about to speak to our church family and our regular tenders about, it is only because out of the love we know through the death and resurrection of Christ as Lord, we can't help but then be compelled to leverage our entire existence and resources and time and talents, our entire lives for the sake of growing as his disciples and doing all we can to help as many others as possible come to know the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen. >> So, even though today is unique, if there's anything you hear about this Jesus we've been singing about, if anything kind of piques your curiosity and at the end of this message, if you want to know more, you want to make a decision of faith or you just need some type of prayer, we would love to welcome you down at this altar and walk alongside you in that because today we do what we sang about through Psalm 8.

We want to make much of the name of Christ. And today is a little unique and that's okay because occasionally there are unique times in the life or it's a church family where we need to speak to, hey, we believe God's leading us to this and we need to welcome in the Sunday gathering. And so that's where we're at in this today. And with it looking different, y'all, there's a lot of ground I got to cover. And the heart of everything I'm speaking about today, it it really comes from Hebrews 13.

And so if you do want to mark your spot there, the first two verses of Hebrews 13, we will mention it and and talk about it. It's from a text we walked through as a church family back last April. And really, this verse, these verses, they have everything to do with where we find ourselves today in following the wisdom that we believe God's given us. If you were with us last April, you might remember we spent two Sundays after Easter Sunday where I walked us through as a church family um demonstrating, clarifying the vision we believe God's given us as a church family.

And when we talk about vision, it's this. We are compelled by Christ to love Northeast Houston and the nations. When it comes to the local church in all of history, in all times, in all spaces, every church has the universal purpose to glorify God and the universal mission to make disciples. But although those things are the same everywhere, because the local church is local, there's a local context and a local geography and amount of resources and different people who make up local expressions of the bride.

Because that's true. How different churches go about bringing glory to God and how different churches go about making disciples is unique to their local expressions. And that's what vision is in the church. How do we uniquely go about bringing glory to God and making disciples? Well, we're compelled by the love of Christ to love northeast Houston and the nations. Why northeast Houston? Because this is where we are. And why the nations?

Because Acts 1 says, "Go to Jerusalem, Samaria, to the ends of the earth." And as we've walked through that, even as recent as April or different Sundays along the way, we're like, "Hey, pastor, that sounds good." Very biblical. 2 Corinthians 5:14, like, "I'm in." But how do we actually live that out? So, we talk about it this way. Here's how we uniquely live that out. We welcome and walk alongside others with the love of Christ.

Out of our passion for Jesus and compassion for others, we want to be a gathering of Jesus followers who welcome and walk alongside others with the love of Christ. We do this with one another, those of us who are already here. And we also do it with those who aren't here yet. We want to be a church where people aren't just in the room with us, but truly, we want to constantly be doing all we can to make room to ensure that others are seen and others are fully known, that all people, longtime members and firsttime guests, that we're all welcomed and walked alongside with the love of Christ.

And what I told you in April is still true today. When I look at our people and I look at our ministries in the life of our church as your pastor and just as a brother in Christ, I'm incredibly grateful for all God is doing through our church family. The framework and the direction of disciplehip is super encouraging. Are we perfect at it? Have we arrived? No. But the direction and the trajectory, praise the Lord. Reason to be incredibly grateful.

But also, I told you something else out of this gratitude. While I am incredibly grateful for what God's doing through us as a church family, I couldn't help but share a burden. It was a burden about this place. The burden was about this physical property that is so central to so much life change and ministry that happens here. And I shared my burden in the form of a question. How do our facilities, how do they help or how do they hurt us welcome and walk alongside others with the love of Christ?

This was a burden I had to share because this is true. Facilities facilitate like that doesn't take a a hard jump, right? Facilities facilitate. Sure, facilities, they don't save people. They can't accomplish the mission, but they can. They can either be aligned with and help the mission of the highest calling we're called to give our lives to, or if facilities aren't aligned with the mission, they can actually hinder what we're called to give our lives to.

So, out of that truth, I shared with you some examples of how our campus um although there are some encouraging areas, there's also some areas that aren't best aligned. So, I just want to remind you this morning of three of maybe my top three of the functional pain points that we can't ignore when it comes our welcoming and walking alongside others. The first was in the area of Northeast students. It's not very welcoming.

It's not helpful toward us walking alongside others, especially students when they come in and they look for a small group and they're sitting on the floor in hallways because we just don't have enough breakout rooms to offer them. I share with you what about our lobby just the main space out there where we as regular attenders and members we gather and enter and walk through weekly where where guests who are considering the things of God and taking a chance to visit us.

They make their first visit on campus through our main entry and into our lobby. We all know how overcrowded it can be even on least attended Sundays. We know how often it is impossible just to have a conversation out there at times. Instead of that space communicating the hospitality and welcome of Christ, it's a space that just constantly asks people. No, I think it more like nudges people like, "Hey, it's great to see you, but don't slow down.

Keep moving. Grab your cup of coffee. Get on to the next room. Make sure you're at the next service. No time to slow down." And I invited you to imagine what could it be if if we had a welcome space that was welcoming like open high and open wide like literally embodying just this welcome and walking alongside with the love of Christ. Spaces to legitimately find a place away from the busyiness to connect a place where we could genuinely tell a fellow believer or a first-time guest, "Hey, let's find a seat over here away from the crowd.

I'd love to hear what God's doing in your life. I even shared with you. Imagine what it could be like if we just had a stairwell wide enough for two adults to walk up and down the stairs comfortably. Right now, our welcome is, "Hey, I'm glad you're here. Let me take you to a life group upstairs, but on the way, you're going to have to stare at my backside all the way up." The third thing I invited you to consider was our outdoor spaces. the places that impact millions upon millions of people before they ever get on our campus.

People driving by, they see our building, they're considering the things of God. They're considering to visit a church based on what the exterior of our campus communicates. How confident can someone be? Should they take a step to visit us? A a step that can feel incredibly risky to them? How confident can someone be that they'll genuinely be welcomed and walked alongside? And and it's not that our our campus is some atrocious eyes sore to the community.

Don't mishar me. What I'm speaking to is what might we do so our outdoor spaces better match the warmth and welcome we know that people experience once they're inside our walls. And so at the end of April, just after this last Easter, I told you this burden is too great for us not to do something. And I made a commitment to you. I said that as your pastor and our team of pastors, our our staff, our trustees and various ministry leaders, we would pray.

We would have dialogue. We would consult the consultants, you know, the experts. We would um study what was necessary. We would dream up what was possible. all with this balance of both faith and wisdom. And I told you we would ask God to help us put a plan together and I'd get back to you this semester. Well, church family, today is that day. You don't even know what we talking about, but we excited. Y'all have been so kind.

Like, we were praying pre-ervice this morning with the team, just thanking God for the journey it's been. Like, what a sweetness it's been. And then now we get to invite the whole Sunday gathering into it. Here's where we are today. We believe God has provided us wisdom for how to improve our facilities that we truly might better welcome and walk alongside others with the love of Christ. And friends, I mean this as your pastor, like it is with great humility.

It is with great gratitude. It is with great excitement that I get to share this with you today. So I'm going to share with you some major things. I'm going to share with you the what. And the what is this? We have a building project to plan. I'm going to share a how with you. How are we going to financially achieve a building project? The how is we are going to walk through as a church family through a season, a three-year season of a building campaign.

This what and this how is pretty massive. I'm not hearing as many cheers now. Come on y'all. Like keep it up. But before I get to the what, before we walk through the how, there are two critical wise, two reasons that we can't lose sight of. Why is it should we consider something like this? The first why is this. Biblically, the vision has not changed. We have a biblical why. And our biblical why is the vision has not changed.

What we walked through from Hebrews 13 last April, it hasn't changed. It's the word of God. Verses 1 and two say this, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." That verse one, let brotherly love continue. We're called to have a love for those of the family of God. We're called to welcome, have our lives open to one another, and walk alongside one another.

But also verse two, we're to show hospitality to strangers. It's connected to an awesome Old Testament story where there was an angel, but it wasn't known it was a messenger of God, and there was this godlike love and welcome to an outsider, to a person regardless of who they were. And it takes it in the New Testament here in Hebrews and says, ' Show this god-like love and welcome to someone who isn't yet part of our family.

That's the picture of the vision that hasn't changed. We are compelled by Christ to love. We are to love Christ because he first loved us. We're to love one another, members of his bride. And then we are to love northeast Houston and nations, those who aren't his yet, but by way of us being the hope of the world as we proclaim the gospel, by his grace on our watch, many may get saved. The vision hasn't changed. And since this is still the vision, it means this.

All that we are should align with that vision. This includes the ministry of people. Absolutely. But it also includes the ministry of our property. All of this is for us to steward during our single brief existence of a life for the glory of God and for the sake of making disciples who make disciples. So why should we consider something like this? Well, biblically the vision hasn't changed. The second why is this culturally the mission field continues to change.

Don't get that confused. Biblically, the vision has not changed. So, we are committed to this this convictional why and reason for doing something like this. But just the same culturally, the mission field continues to change. And that anchors us to this conviction that we must do something as well. Why should we consider something like this? Culturally, the mission field continues to change. Think about this. While our campus has remained largely the same, the mission field has not.

While so much has changed around us, we haven't had a major building renovation in almost 15 years. 15 years. Don't misar me. One part of the spectrum is like, praise the Lord, we haven't had to have a major building renovation in 15 years. We've gotten so much ministry out of our current facilities. We've gotten so much ministry out of this facility to the point that for the last 10 years, we've literally given millions and millions of dollars away to plant three churches directly out of our church family.

Two are now self- sustaining. Our third, we're continuing to support um fully as the primary financial support for at least two more years. Praise the Lord. We've gotten so much ministry out of this facility and our people, but we can't miss this either. While so much has changed around us, we haven't had a major building renovation in almost 15 years. Do you sense the mixture of gratitude and burden? Sure, we've done some painting and carpeting and reconfiguring of some classroom walls.

We've even expanded some of the parking lot surfaces, but we haven't had a major building renovation since 2012. And since that major building renovation, our Jerusalem of Atasca has changed greatly. It's different. It's different out there. And it's not just out there, but it is also different inside our walls culturally. The mission field continues to change. While so much has changed, the question of burden is how are we adjusting to best welcome and walk alongside others?

Since our last major building renovation, Atasca has continued to experience explosive growth both in population and diversity. A population has nearly tripled from 30,000 to 90,000. But it hasn't just become more populated. It's become dramatically more diverse. And I've told you this before, as a kid from Southeast Houston, I love diversity. But even more so as a born again believer with the hope of the world and the gospel, how I am burdened by this.

Because what it means is we have a responsibility with this. God has us here a local expression of the bride for a reason. So we can't stay the same while everything around us is changing. In our own neighborhoods, there aren't simply more people than ever before. There are more nations than ever before in every one of those fellow image bearsers. They are near to us yet far from God. They are desperately in need of the love of Christ.

Who's going to tell them if we don't on our watch? This requires a shift from us as a church. Don't misar me. It's not a a disconnect or a change in doctrine. It's not a movement of mission or replacing our purpose or vision, but it's considering our methods. Over the last few years, we have made adjustments in disciplehip and ministries. We've done things so we can better meet people where they are based on our mission field and and better welcome and walk alongside them.

But what about our facilities? How are we being most strategic toward the mission of God and with excellence for the glory of God? If this truly is the highest calling known to man, not just with people and official ministries, but also specifically when it comes to our facilities. As we continue to facilitate ministries for greater disciplehip, our facilities must adjust to make room for all God wants to do. Why should we consider something like this?

Biblically, the vision hasn't changed, but culturally the mission field has. and and the plan I'm going to walk you through, we believe this plan is a measured response to both with both faith and wisdom to this tension of what's taking place biblically and what's taking place culturally. So, here's the plan. You'll see it on the screen. We believe God's given us a clarity with a plan to truly make room for every ministry and every generation. every believer who is already here that there is a plan with our facilities to help us who are already here to grow deeper as disciples but also for those who aren't here yet.

And this plan includes the what of a building project that I shared earlier and the how we're going to achieve this plan by faith absolutely and the wisdom in that faith of a building campaign. So now we're going to shift gears and I'm going to walk you through these two major components. So, the first is this building project uh plan for our building. It has four major parts and and y'all we're going to go into like this full presentation.

You're going to see a lot of images. I just invite you like hang in there with me. You will get a brochure at the end of our service today. I shouldn't have told you that. Don't check out, okay? But this plan includes fa four major areas. You'll see it on the screen. a two-story education edition, renovation and expansion of our main lobby, updates and upgrades here in our worship center, as well as improvements to some of our outdoor spaces.

So, this plan to make room for every ministry in every generation includes four major parts. And some of you might be asking, well, pastor, why these four? Well, we believe these four areas, they give us the best opportunity toward two major things. One is this. It gives us the the greatest opportunity for greatest impact across our entire church family. Truly, all ages and all stages benefit from this plan we're going to walk through.

Not only that, but this plan also best sets us up for the next 5 to 10 years. Everything about this plan makes room for the next 5 to 10 years um reasonably and faithfully. And unless God just decides to do something even bigger than we've already dreamed up, then this plan consists of these four areas. And so we're going to walk through these areas and you will get a brochure at dismissal. So now let's walk through them.

I'm a minute behind. Dad gum, we got to get going. So the first is the part of this education edition. Okay. What you're looking at right now to the right of that red dash line is behind you at the east end of our campus. Are you with me? This is really challenging with a big room like this. Okay. So, you see to the right of that red line, that red line is the existing wall of our current building on the east end of campus.

Part of this plan is for a 40ft addition, twotory to the right of that red dash line. It'll be a total of 8,000 square ft added on to the east end of our building. So, this is the first floor. And you'll notice in the blue, these are brand new rooms for our northeast kids. Whoop whoop. Okay. Yeah, this addition, it's going to provide more age appropriate ministry spaces. It's going to improve safety and security security truly like never before on our campus.

It's going to provide more space for special needs ministry as well as flex spaces and our leaders love this more storage. Amen. >> Not only does it include new rooms, but you'll notice that kids check-in space on the right side of the screen. What this will allow us to do is we're going to shift kids ministry kind of clockwise where kids birth through elementary will be fully secured and locked down in our south hallway like they never have been before.

If you're not a parent or got a sticker or three background checks, we're not letting you down the south hallway because we want your children to be safe and secure as they come to God's house. Not only that, but you'll notice that full check-in there. It's in a legitimate extra lobby. So, right now, we've got a little check-in on the east end, but it's not a legitimate lobby. All we have is like the main lobby. And so, you'll notice this is going to be a full brand new lobby.

So, that since the south hallway is going to be locked down, it transforms that in where we have a legitimate lobby. Plus, that north hallway is going to become just an additional open thoroughare where you can drop off on the east end of that new addition. Walk left and right to the worship center back and forth. Also, go back to that red line real quick. Look at the center of the street near that red line. What do you see, y'all?

Are they single door restrooms anymore? And well, they are single doors to get in, but they're multi-stalled. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. For the first time ever, we're going to have a legitimate public restroom on the other end of the building. >> Some of y'all know how great that will be more than others. All right. And as you see the north hallway, it's going to be more open for a main thoroughare. Go with me along that north hallway from the right to left side of your screen.

What do you notice in the top left of this drawing? We've got repurposed rooms. With this plan, we'll be able to have three adult life groups downstairs. a total of six, three each service hour so that we can accommodate and love on some of our more chronologically superior folks who have to race to the single elevator on campus. And I mean that in love, y'all. Also, you see on the far top left, decision counseling. Right now, we have a baptism room right behind the slat wall.

That is like a catch-all room. It's like the junk drawer of rooms on our campus. This plan allows us to have a true dedicated space for decision counseling. be it decisions from Sunday morning counseling during the week or whatever we might need that space for. Now go with me back to the right of that screen as you pull up into this new first floor edition. Um there is a covering. You you can't really tell by this image but this will be a curve a covering on the east end of our building large enough for two SUVs to pull up underneath it during rain so you can drop people off and pick them up.

Keep your hairo intact. Okay. We're not going to be able to prevent the hum humidity from getting it, but we'll at least keep the raindrops from falling down. Okay, before I show you the second floor plan, I want you to be able to see what this new east lobby might look like. And so, we got a black and white rendering of this. All right. So, when you walk into that new east edition, it's going to look something like this.

High glass doors and windows from floor to ceiling. To the left, you have that true kids check-in space that is fully secure. To the front you see that worship entrance of a hallway. That's our north hallway. To the left of those doors you have the new restrooms. To the right you have the existing kitchen. And to the right you can't see it but are the new stairway as well. All right. Now to the second floor. Got to keep rolling y'all.

You see the new covering on the far right of the screen. You make your way to the right. Go up the new stairwell. And as students find themselves at the top of that stairwell. They're met with a new open landing that needs leads to six new classrooms. new classrooms that are specifically dedicated to small group spaces for Northeast students. No longer do they have to meet on the floor and hallways. This will give them a sense of ownership.

Right now, the loft has served us very well. But the loft is basically a churchwide space that students just happen to meet in. We want to flip that. We want the students to have a space that the church sometimes happens to use their space. Does that make sense? During that life stage, it is critical for students to have a sense of ownership, to feel safe and comfortable, to be themselves, and just share what God's doing in their lives.

And so, these new rooms, as well as a dedicated space of ownership in this second story edition, accomplishes that for them. Basically, everything on this image is Northeast students. What? Pastor Matthew is smiling so big right now. All right. Now, I make I want to make our way to this end of our campus. And the next floor plan you're going to see is our main lobby. All right. What do you see on this main lobby? Uh to get your bearings, um down on the middle center of the screen, you'll see two sets of doors.

Say amen if you see two sets of doors. >> That is our main entrance. Okay? And what you see there, those are going to be two sets of open doors, glass walls from floor to ceiling. You're going to walk into an enlarged open concept space. That south side of our lobby, it's going to be expanded vertically and horizontally. Notice immediately to the left when you come in the lobby. What's no longer to the left there? The stairs.

They've been relocated and they've been almost double in size. Praise the Lord. They're larger. Miracle after miracle. You'll also notice kids check-in is is in the same location with the same space. Um, if you look toward the worship doors in this area, you'll see we've removed the big bulky desk. It's not because we don't like those desks, but we like to be as flexible as possible so we can use this space as effectively as possible for whatever we are up to rather than being so fixed in and locked in to movable objects.

And so that'll open it up. Now, you'll notice on the top half of the lobby area, we have a cafe area. So, where that island is, you see the island there? That's where our current baptism junk drawer of a room is. Okay. So, what we're going to do, we're not going to be able to blow out the ceiling there because our offices are up there. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, but we are going to be able to remove some walls. So, that whole north half of the lobby is expanded um horizontally.

So we have legit room to connect um hang out. Um coffee is going to be available there for self serve as well as for different events. We can elevate it to some baristas serving for us. Legit table space, seating space for Sundays, Wednesdays. Also a place that people will be welcomed and attracted to come hang out during the week and just use our Wi-Fi, y'all. Okay. Different ministries now will be attracted to use this space rather than always in the loft.

And so even though we're not going to get a new kitchen, it's the next best thing. We'll have women's brunch, men's breakfast, door-todoor evangelism rallies down here in the new space. So as you prep food in the kitchen down the hall, you don't have to haul it upstairs or come down here to the elevator, then go back down the hall. You just you give it one hard push, it's coming all the way down the hallway to the new new cafe area.

Are you with me? >> Okay, so we'll have that space. All right. Oh my goodness. Just one final thing, then we got to go. Do you notice the restrooms, y'all? That's not an accident that they're colored. That means these restrooms are going to be fully renovated. The sinks are going to stop leaking. They're going to turn off when we turn them off. All the things. We may even get extra cushiony toilet paper. Okay, we can negotiate.

The hospitality of Christ, y'all. All right, before we move on, uh, I want you to see what this could look like. And it's really, it's hard to appreciate what this might be, but the next slide you're going to see is you coming through those main entrance doors and seeing the open and large spaces. Check that out. Notice to the left, no more stairwell. Notice in front, you got your bearing of the elevator, but no longer is there a wall that meets your eye, but you go all the way from floor to second floor ceiling.

To the right of the entrance, you've got that enlarged stairwell, open concept where you can see activity on the first and second levels. It's a style called um elevated industrial. I don't know what that means, but man, it looks warm and inviting. It's framed out with some distressed or reclaimed wood. It's got concrete columns, and you'll notice um toward the worship center doors um that bulky desk is removed. And now this next rendering is as if you leave through this door of the worship center.

You're going to be hanging out on the ceiling and you're going to look at the new cafe area. Are you with me? In the ceiling. >> And so that's what that space will look like. Large enough island to host, entertain different events. That door will not be there to the north hallway. That'll be free flowing. living room areas, seating areas, tables for a space to to connect. Um, a true area of just sitting down saying, "Hey, let let's talk and let's see what God's doing in your life." No longer cramped.

No longer a glorified hallway. No longer, "Hey, I'm glad you're here, but keep moving, but truly, hey, I see you. Let's share what God's doing in our lives together." All right. So, that's the education edition. That's the lobby renovation. We have two more spaces. Um, and next, we don't have a slide for this one, but since we're in the room, I want to speak to it. Okay, we are going to do upgrades and updates to our worship center.

And real quick, I just want to acknowledge maybe an obvious question. Pastor, why are we considering updates in here? Like, doesn't everything work? Well, well, yeah, everything does work. And it's by a miracle because nothing's been updated in here for a decade. Like, who's got a Do you have a phone that's 10 years old? Or do you use a computer that's 10 years old? Maybe some of y'all, okay, don't pipe in, okay? But the majority of us, we struggle if it's older than 10 months.

And this place is the primary gathering where more people gather weekly than any other place. And so many significant moments of ministry and life change happen. In our high calling, we should have things that are updated so we can serve with excellence as we're leading people to the presence of God that God and his grace might continue to change lives. And so, we're going to provide some updates. The majority of the work is going to include areas of technology like lights and sound and screens that have been untouched.

And what I tell you, please hear this. They will be in the direction that is similar to how we currently use our equipment. Okay, these screens, they're going to be removed and the wall is going to be pushed back because these screens, there's too many and they're too high for this space. But now in 2026, they make LED screens that are large enough to be here in the center of our stage. And we can move it up, we can move it low depending on what service we have and what best suits what ministry we're doing.

Be it a Sunday morning worship or a Wednesday midweek with students. We're going to look at things like that, upgrades and updates. We might consider some new chairs and different paint depending on how successful the campaign is. But that's what this space will look like. And last but not least, y'all, because we got to get to the last part of this. If we're updating the inside to match a welcome and walk that we're called to in the love of Christ, then it is on us to at least do some adjustments to the outdoor spaces to match the warmth and welcome that's experienced on the inside of our walls.

And so we're going to look at a plan that provides additional covered spaces out here as well as renovating our baptismal area. And so I have two slides I want to show you here and then we'll move on. This is a view from Westlake Houston Parkway. You'll notice fresh paint on the exterior of the building. Kind of a new super structure of a covering. It's larger. It's wider. It provides overhang for cars to pull up. Now it's it's pretty high.

So, if there's a little sideways rain, don't get upset, okay? That's just how it is. Notice the new glass entry under that covering lets the natural light in and out. Also, notice the covered spaces in the renovated baptismal pond. This provides better opportunities for us to gather and the opportunity for ministry events. Now, here's a different angle from the south looking at this covered area in the the pond space.

The next slide. Notice it provides a couple different levels of covering like this true porch feel of fans, lights, patio furniture where we will want to hang out there even in the heat of Houston, Texas. And some of you think, "No, pastor, I won't." Yes, you will. Cuz we hang out there right now in triple digits with no covering. Like we are out there just lingering. And so this provides a porch we'll want to spend time in as well as invite others.

And y'all, something I love about this this um new setup one is that we're able to keep the pond in place where it's in line with master plan um possibilities later down the road and just using our whole campus. Also, I like it because there is some sentiment connected to this location. Many of y'all have been baptized or had loved ones baptized where that pool is right now. And so, for us to be able to keep it there and just um maintain that is an extra sweet thing.

And then also I love how near our baptismal pond is to the playgrounds. I love seeing kids gather at the top of the jungle gym to watch people being dunked under the water in believers baptism. And so we're able to keep it here, renovate it, all while maintaining some of those sweet elements. This ensures the warmth experience inside is evident from the outside. Okay, that's the what y'all. I told you I had a lot of ground to cover.

I'm going to catch my breath. We're racing through it. We do genuinely believe this is a plan that makes room for every ministry and every generation. And so now I want to share the how. And like I mentioned earlier, ultimately it is a building campaign, but there are two small hows I do want to answer real quick. Maybe you're considering them yourself. It's the question, how does a project how much does a project like this cost?

And how much of this do we really hope to do? The full scope of the project I just walked you through, depending on what levels you choose and things like that, it ranges in an estimate from 9 to $10.5 million. The full scope of that project. How much do we want to accomplish? We do believe each of these improvements address a real need. As we've sought the Lord and sought a multitude of counselors, we believe like completing this full vision is what God's calling us to in wisdom to be who he's calling us to be.

But the commitment as we get into this next part and you're going to hear it repeated. We will not pursue any of this irresponsibly. As we walk through the details of campaign, I'm going to remind you the extent of what we do in this 9 to10.5 million project will only depend upon what God provides through a campaign and the generosity of our church family. >> We will not build more than we can afford. Okay, so here's the how.

Before you see the slide, I want to talk through it right quick. When we think about a building campaign, there's going to be three major components. There's going to be cash reserves that we have ready to deploy toward this project. And let me tell you before you see the slide, by God's grace, by generosity, by faithful stewardship, we have more than $3 million ready to deploy today toward this project. And oh yeah, all Yeah.

Praise the Lord. That's what it's been reserved for. And oh yeah, all the while maintaining at least a three months reserved as an emergency fund in our accounts. >> So we have that. We have a third of the project there already. A second component of a building campaign is three years worth of pledges. We as a church family seek the Lord and we commit to give above and beyond our regular giving toward this from November 15, 2026 to November 14th, 2029.

That's the second component. And the third component is this responsible long-term financing a level of debt. I'm not trying to beat around it. I'm not trying to hide it. And I mean it. Responsible financing. Only biblically God-honoring debt. What does God say about lending and borrowing and debt? He provides warnings, but he doesn't prohibit all borrowing. What he says is, "Hey, count the cost, act wisely, and faithfully pay back what you owe." And so, any level of long-term financing will only be within that commitment from your leadership.

So, here's what that looks like. On the screen, we see this three-year building campaign. Cash on hand to deploy at least $3 million all while maintaining three months worth of emergency fund at a minimum. The second part is the actual three-year campaign. We look at this running from November 15th, 2026 to November 14th, 2029. And a campaign really includes two things where we're um pursuing to raise $3.5 million. on November 15th.

It would include a kickstart, a first and best where we come and say we want to see what we have to give the greatest single Sunday offering to kickstart this project. In addition to that, as a church family, we'd bring forward our pledges on November 15th to say over the next three years, here's what we believe God's leading us to give above and beyond our regular giving toward this building campaign. And with that, that's the goal of reaching $3.5 million.

You'll notice in parenthesis under that campaign line item 1.2 times annual budget over three years. And so if you would take us to that next slide real quick. So in the church world there are industry standards when it comes to doing projects. And based on the type of project you do there are they call it project motivation factors. So based on the type of project we're doing, industry standard like 20 plus years of real historical data, it shows that there's a motivation factor from anywhere from 1 to 1.5 times your annual budget.

So our annual budget is right at right under $3 million. Meaning a motivation factor of 1.2 raises $3.5 million over three years. industry sh standard shows us we are well within a range of this type of project and our membership capacity and our financial capacity. Not only that, but we are on the conservative side of this um of this range. And so that's where we've come to the conclusion of a campaign that is reasonable as well as faithfilled $3.5 million.

If you would go back to that last uh the previous screen, please. And then the final part of this, as I mentioned, it is responsible long-term financing. The commitment our trustees have made is that based on however the campaign goes and knowing what we can handle reasonably and financially that we will not exceed a debt more than $4 million. When it comes to financing, we'll let God's word lead us. So, we will count the costs.

We're going to act wisely. We will faithfully repay what we owe. But this is all going to be dependent on how the campaign goes. In no way is an approval of $4 million of debt meaning, oh, we're going to go just take out $4 million of debt. That's a maximum. And it's all dependent on how the campaign goes and what the project looks like. Something I do want to share with you, based on our bylaws, our trustees, they officially serve as representatives of our congregation. every year you vote for them as men who we trust to lead our congregation in this area.

They are the board that officially authorizes this type of decision um some type of financing. They've done the research. They've concluded this amount um is appropriate um within all the parameters of who we are and our capacity. But here's where we're at. even though as trustees they're legally the ones who authorize this type of decision, this is something we want to ask our church family to vote on officially. And so in a couple weeks, I want to ask us on October 4th that we would prayerfully affirm and officially vote um along the language of that long-term financing we mentioned that we would not exceed long-term financing in the amount of $4 million.

We want to do this because we want to be careful and sensitive to we all have the spirit inside of us and so we want this unity of spirit and clarity and excitement toward what we believe God's calling us. And so in two weeks right here in this room October 4th our members will be asked to take a vote to express your affirmation toward this direction we believe God's leading us. There's going to be ballots in envelopes.

We're going to take them. They're going to be counted and then we're going to share at the end of second service on October 4th. Again, this does not mean we're automatically going to borrow 4 million. It just establishes a maximum depending on what the campaign looks like and what we actually do in the project. Okay, that's the what the plan is a building project. That's the how. It's a building campaign. So, here's the final moment, the where.

Where do we go from here? And it's these three words. And it is brief, I promise. I want to invite every one of us in the room to see, pray, and prepare. What do we do today? What do we do in the coming weeks? I want to invite you to see the opportunity that God has placed before us that he has given us wisdom toward. And we're asking you to seek him and see that as well. We're asking you to see how we can better align our facilities truly to who God has called us to be as a church family for the sake of our own disciplehip and for the sake of reaching more.

I also invite you to pray. Pray for wisdom. Pray for unity. Pray that God would make it clear what he is up to. That we would only go where he is leading us as a church family. And I ask that you would prepare prepare for a vote affirming in the next couple weeks and the the hopeful campaign where our trustees where us as pastors and staff believe God has led us in a collection of wisdom.