Drop by Drop

It Happened Today

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Today, acting on the 72 "yes" and 3 "abstention" votes cast by the congregaiton in our Family Meeting on April 22, we put the Vance Street property under contract.  The scheduled closing is June 1, the day after my return from our vacation.

Many people in the congregation have driven by the property and come away with "Whew! That needs a lot of work!" Indeed it does. In the renovation world, it's what can justifiably be called a "fixer-upper". So our work will begin soon after the closing.

For those that did not attend the Family Meeting on April 22, let me recap the financing terms that make this an extraordinary opportunity for the church.

The purchase is being financed by "friends of the church" as an investment in its own right. We will accrue a down payment during a five or six year period following the close of the sale.  During the renovation period ($60,000 of which is being funded by the investor), we will not be required to make any payments. From the date of moving in, December 1 of this year, through April, 2012, we will pay "rent" of $2,550 per month, $1,010 less than we are paying in our present facility. It will be stable throughout the five or six year period. In our present facility we have been experiencing a 5% increase in rent each year and this last year we were assessed a 9% increase in Common Area Maintenance charges (which makes up about 35% of the total monthly costs)! I use the term "rent" guardedly because we will hold title to the property beginning at our closing June 1, 2007. Because we do not have the down payment in hand, we are not able to finance through traditional mortgage companies and are, therefore, not paying a "mortgage". We are renting the property at a fixed rental amount until such time that we accrue the 30% down payment (approximately $85,000) and refinance through a traditonal mortgage lender.

That down payment accrual will begin in March, 2008, with the payment of $12,000, the amount we are expecting to be returned of our cash deposit made at the time of signing our existing lease. Then in April, 2008, we will begin paying, in addition to our rent, $800/month to the lenders to accumulate our down payment. In April, 2009, our incremental down payment amount will increase to $1,200/month. In April, 2010, the incremental payment will be $1,800/month; in April, 2011, the incremental payment will be $2,325/month.

These seem to be huge numbers when compared to our present monthly budget of about $12,000/month.  But with double the sanctuary space and double the youth ed space our church will be able to grow substantially while holding one service, then double again with the addition of a second service down the road.  Based on the history of rent and common area maintenance charges incurred in the last two years, staying in our present location will cause our present monthly rental costs to increase by $775/month in the four year period through 2011. In terms of raw rent and considering the almost $1,000/month savings by moving into the new space, the largest incremental down payment is only an increase of about $550/month above and beyond staying where we are. Add in the incremental utility costs, building & grounds maintenance costs and insurance costs, we're be experiencing an incremental cost of about $1,250/month over and above staying where we are now.

To put that in terms of number of additional congregants needed to support those increased costs, and assuming a contribution amount similar to the average contributions presently experienced per congregant, we're looking at 12 additional adults each Sunday by the year 2012.  In our last three months, our congregation has grown from an average of 77/Sunday to 93/Sunday, an increase of about 10 adults (and 6 kids)!  Consider the effect of having our own church home with double the space and the many new programs we can implement and you begin to see why this is an extraordinary opportunity for us!

At the risk of repeating myself, all of this has occurred without the pain and travail of a capital campaign, a process that has brought many churches to their knees!

Can you get the sense of just how blessed we are? And what a miracle we are experiencing? As you know, we are a tithing unchurch -- tithing does work!

From the Heart of God, we say "Thanks!" Can you share a moment with all of us and appreciate the wonderful blessings that are pouring into our unchurch community?

Part Luck, Part Work

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As we began looking in earnest for a new facility, several issues dictated our choices:  1. we needed more sanctuary space and more youth ed space, 2. we needed to reduce our monthly operating costs, 3. we needed to do this without a whole lot of cash on hand, and 4. we needed to find space within a reasonable" distance from our present location.  When moving a church location, the commute to the new location means that some congregants are going to have a longer commute, so finding a new location close to the old location minimizes the disruption in attendance.

Over the last seven+ years we've been interested in property that we could grow into, not that we expected to be able to jump on the purchase but to just keep informed of what was out there and what would be needed at the point when renting space as no longer our best option.

So when we started looking in earnest in January, this particuar property satisfied our several needs -- it was reasonably priced, not too far from our present location, and doubled our santuary space and youth ed space. Two down sides: it was definitely a "fixer-upper" and it was located "off the beaten path." The location issue was a much bigger issue when I first saw the property than it was after the church growth workshop a dozen of us attended on Feb 23 & 24 (more on that later).

The only little matter was the issue of cash available to swing the deal. It turns out that the price of the property, our existing cost of rental and the availability of an investor that is a "friend of the church" has addressed that issue for this particular property (more on that later).

So we are "in the running" for the purchase of the property. We have placed an offer, the seller has countered the offer, and we have countered the counter.  We are waiting to hear the sller's response.  Perhaps later today.

Jesus had something to say about this. "Not my will, but Thy will, be done." From the Heart of God, we give thanks.