Thriving

By Jim Holland (written May 2014)Because we have so many friends who were once members of our church, but have moved away, as well as many folks on our mailing list who have supported and prayed for our church over the years from a distance, I thought the easiest way to let everyone know of our progress in raising funds for a new building would be in our monthly newsletter. Likewise, this time of year, many of our folks are in and out, and we want to bring them up to speed as well. So fasten your seatbelt, because not only am I giving you an update on what God is doing with respect to our building, but I am also going to give you an opportunity to help further the kingdom work going on here. For those of you a little slow on the uptake, that means I am going to shamelessly ask you for money!Last year, the Session of St. Patrick, sensing it was the right time to move forward with a building program, set in motion the people and resources to do two things:1. Take the original building plans we developed during the Deep Roots campaign and modify them so that they would be both beautiful and affordable.2. Plan and execute a Capital Campaign, or, as we call it, a Generosity Initiative.Little did we know when we began the Thriving Generosity Initiative that this would be about much more than raising money for a building. Rather, Thriving has led to a whole new way for us, as a community of faith, to look both at the generosity of God, and also how God is calling us to reflect his character by becoming a generous people.For the last two months, we have preached about the importance of generosity, discussed generosity in our Community Groups, had our children and youth think about generosity, and asked each of our families to ponder what the generosity of God means to each of us. This has been life changing for Teri and me; our eyes have been opened to a whole new way of seeing how God can use our time and talents. I hope this has been true of your family as well.Three weeks ago, we asked all our families at St. Patrick to prayerfully consider what they could commit over and above their regular giving to the church. We explained that this would be a two year pledge that, in faith, we are trusting God to supply. Such a commitment is indeed a sacrifice, but it is also an investment in the kingdom of God. So let me tell you where we stand right now.As of today, we have received gifts and pledges for a two-year period of almost $1.8 million! Can you believe that? That is a good number—a very good number. Experts say that if a church can raise three times its annual yearly operating budget, they have had a successful initiative. We were aware of this when we were in the planning stages of Thriving, but decided we would trust God for four times our annual budget.  For comparison, when we conducted the Deep Roots Campaign several years ago, we raised approximately $1.3 million—over a three year period, and with a substantially larger congregation! So when I ask you to celebrate God’s generosity to us during this season, I mean it! Furthermore, I am happy to report that, as of this week, $300,000 of our pledged amount has already come in!So where does that leave us? Where do we go from here? Here is the first thing: as of right now, we have received commitment cards from roughly 75% of our families, so we have some more work to do. Therefore (speaking to our regular St. Patrick community), if you haven't turned in a commitment card, let me give you a couple of reasons why this is so important:

•  I don't want you to miss this opportunity to be part of something that is a huge faith commitment! This is an opportunity to put your fingerprints on something that will change lives long after we are dead and gone. Don't you want to be part of that? I encourage you, if you haven't turned in a commitment card, please do so. Some of you are thinking, "Well, I just can't give that much, so I won't pledge, because it really won't be missed." Nothing could be further from the truth. To build this building, we don't need equal gifts; we need equal sacrifice. So, if you are fearful or uncertain, trust God for something, even if it is small. He will bless that.
• We will be talking to banks about loans next month, and they can only look at what we have presented them in pledges.

So here is the $64,000-dollar question: "When can we build?"  Here is what we know. The faster we receive all our commitment cards, and the faster the pledged money begins to comes in, the faster we can turn dirt. As noted above, we are about to begin discussing financing with area banks, and in order for both us and them to make an informed decision, both the banks and St. Patrick have to know how much has been committed.Therefore, we as a Session ask you to turn your commitment card in by May 18th. This will allow us time to calculate accurate totals and projections, and in turn give us an accurate picture of our long-term financing needs. If any of this is unclear, call Brian or me at the church office, and we will be happy to talk with you about your concerns, or we will direct you to the person who can answer your questions.It is our desire, hope and prayer that we will have a groundbreaking ceremony this year! But we can't undertake a project of this magnitude without the whole St. Patrick family committed to seeing it through. And when I say whole family, I include those of you who have moved away or supported and encouraged us from afar. You, too, have left your fingerprints on the DNA of this community, and we would love for that to continue.  I encourage you to consider a gift to St. Patrick. We sincerely believe this is a game changer for our church, and will give us the opportunity to see God’s kingdom advance here in a huge way!