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Our new building
Building Purchase
Building Purchase Finances
Be A Part Challenge _________________________________________________ Our new building 7001 Haggerty Road, Canton, MI The property is approximately 4.31 acres is size. How many square feet is the building? The total square footage of the building is approximately 20,500. How will the building be configured? 7170 sq. ft. is currently a warehouse that will be converted to our multi-purpose/worship space. The remaining 13,330 sq. ft. is divided between two floors and will be offices, children’s church, meeting space and common areas. We currently have an architectural firm with a great deal of experience in designing churches. They are in the process of making recommendations for our renovations. They are taking into consideration the demographic of our congregation, our worship style, our ministry and administrative needs. How many people can we accommodate in the worship space? While the exact number will be dependant on our renovation, we estimate that we will be able to accommodate approximately 550 – 600 people in our multi-purpose/worship area. Will we be able to expand the building? Yes, the site plan on file with Canton Township was already approved for an expansion on the west side of the building; pushing the outside wall back approximately 100 ft. However, expansion of our worship space had a dependency on the number of parking spaces we have available. Will the building accommodate our growth? With the current space, we believe this building will accommodate our growth to a weekly Sunday attendance of approximately 1,300 people. Our mission though is not to become a single campus with a large number of people. Our mission is to plant other churches in and around our community and beyond. How will the building be used during the week? During the week day, our building will support our staff and administrative needs. Additionally, we will be leasing office space to the Evangelical Covenant Church Great Lakes Conference. During the evening meeting space will support our Junior High and High School ministries as well as adult education classes. We also would like to expand our music ministry to support Christian concerts open to the public, host conferences, and support the community by making space available for community groups. How will this building help the ministry and mission of lifechurch? First and foremost the space provided will accommodate the increasing space demands on our worship, children’s church, and youth ministries brought about by our growth rate. Experts tell us that when a worship service reaches 80% capacity, the church feels full to newcomers. This has a chilling effect on first time attendees; a fact we experienced when we were at Field Elementary. Our growth rate slowed significantly the last few months we were at Field. When we moved to a large school, our growth rate quickly returned to our normal pattern. In addition to our Sunday needs, our Praise Teams are in desperate need of space for rehearsals. We currently have two Praise Teams and there are plans for more expansion. It is no longer practical to gather in homes for practice. Currently, we have many people on Sunday morning involved in transforming a school into a house of worship – complete with nursery, children’s church, hospitality, and worship space. With a permanent place for these ministries, much of the energy can be re-allocated to caring well for people and supporting other ministries. Likewise, because we need to vacate our Sunday morning rental space by 1PM, we need to really focus on tearing down – converting the building back to a school. Because of this, there is little time for connecting with other people. We are looking forward to focusing less on setup and tear down – focusing instead on building up a body of believers that are ready to go out into the mission field and serve the Lord. Building Purchase For the past five years, we have been renting worship and office space, why change now? Renting has been a very cost effective way for us to meet our Sunday worship, office space, and occasional large meeting needs. However, because of our growth, we have reached the point where renting is no longer practical or cost effective. One of the biggest inhibitors to finding adequate space is parking. We actually began this process by looking for larger space to rent. We looked at over 90 properties in and around the Canton area. We could find none that offered both the building space we needed as well as the parking required to support our worship services. What is the purchase price of the building and land? The asking price of the building was $2,025,000. We negotiated a price of $1,900,000. While this is a significant amount of money, it is a very good price when you consider it would most likely have cost $5,000,000 to purchase land and build a new church facility of comparable size. What will it cost us to renovate and equip the building? Because the exact figure is dependant on the renovation plans currently being drawn up by our architectural firm we can not give a precise answer yet. However, we are estimating the building renovation and equipping to be between $900,000 and $1,100,000. Building Purchase Finances How are we financing the purchase of the building? Through a mortgage from National Covenant Properties (NCP), the lending arm of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Our mortgage will be approximately $2,700,000 – enough for the purchase of the real estate, renovation, and equipping costs. This will be a 20 year mortgage with a favorable interest rate and terms. What are the factors our lender looks at when considering our loan? The NCP looks at attendee/debt ratio, weekly giving averages, and growth patterns & projections. On all points, lifechurch evaluates very well by the NCP. How will our General Fund budget be impacted by this purchase? Up until now, we have dedicated around 16% of our general fund budget to facilities. This is usual for a plant church as it is just starting. The small size of the congregation is able to rent relatively inexpensive space to meet its needs. Normally, churches allocate 30-35% of their general budget to facility costs. However, when churches are transitioning to their first permanent space, it is not unusual for them to allocate slightly more of their General Fund spending to facilities as will be the case for lifechurch. Initially, we will need to allocate approximately 38% of our budget to facilities. However, we fully expect this to drop by 2% a year until we reach the norm of 30-35%. Be A Part Challenge What is the Be A Part Challenge? First and foremost, the Be A Part Challenge is an opportunity for us to reflect on our mission, evaluate our effectiveness in accomplishing that mission, and plot the course for how we are going to help people find Christ and help them become fully devoted followers of Him. To that end, we have focused on the three themes of Believing, Belong, and Becoming. After much prayer and consultation, as a congregation we decided that the best means to provide an environment where we can continue our mission, continue our healthy growth, and serve those who God has entrusted to our care was to purchase this building. The estimated annual facility costs of this building will be approximately $730,000. Given our current growth and giving rates, we estimate that our General Fund giving will be able to sustain that cost by the year 2012. However, we will incur these facility costs when we occupy the building. Therefore, there is a gap between our expenses and our current ability to fund those expenses. Over a three year period, we expect the total funds needed to cover that deficit is $650,000. Therefore, the Be A Part Challenge is a call for three years of sacrificial giving to fund the difference between our General Fund budget and the facility expenses. How is “Sacrificial Giving” different then my usual Sunday giving? Sacrificial giving is giving over and above our normal contribution or tithe. Throughout this challenge, we have focused on equal sacrifice – not equal giving. We want everyone to Be A Part – not just a part of giving, but a part of experience the provision promised by God when we give sacrificially. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
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| www.lifechurchcanton.org | Last Updated May 17, 2008 | © Copyright 2008 | Designed by Landgraff Design Group, LLC |
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