Running Our Race

Today's service is going to be a little bit different than what we normally do.

Normally we come together, you know, we worship, we look into God's word and kind of primarily teaching, and then we go execute on what God says for us to do.

And um this is really gonna be about vision.

This is gonna be about kind of the leadership community aspect of our church, like some things that I really sense strongly that God is leading us to do, some things that we're going to do, but will take all of us coming together.

And so there's gonna be uh some elements I'm gonna share with you, some plans that are gonna be two, three years uh for us to execute, and it's they're about two years in the making.

So we're kind of in the middle of a five-year deal.

And um uh so that I just want to say up front, I hope you don't feel like this is so insider that you're excluded.

In fact, I hope you feel freakishly included, and I hope that you'll uh be a part of what we're doing.

Um if you have your Bibles turn to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Um before I read Hebrews 12 and start in verse 1, I want to talk about Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11, the the preceding chapter, is uh called the faith chapter.

It describes 16 different people, and of those 16 people, they are a diverse group of people.

Uh you have people like Abraham and Sarah, but you have people like Rahab, you have people like Noah, um, you have um uh people like Enoch.

Who's that?

Well, we're gonna actually look at him uh in a couple of weeks.

You have all these different diverse people who lived in different eras, they had different personalities, and their lives had different assignments, yet each one carried out in their life leg of the journey.

They were faithful.

In fact, it it's called the faith chapter because faith is like the baton of the relay race of faith that they all ran.

And so he mentions the writer of Hebrews mentions sort of the cliff notes of each of their stories and says, hey, in the midst of their their diversity and yet their faithfulness, they had enough faith in God to be faithful.

And it says in verse 12, now here's what, or chapter 12, this is what you're supposed to do with all of those stories.

It says, Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to this life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

In other words, under the inspiration of the faithful uh ancestors, we must realize that we now have a baton, and now it's our time to run our leg to be faithful to our assignment now.

And it makes me actually think about like a relay race.

When I was in high school, I played sports, I played football, baseball, and basketball.

My junior year, though, I broke my wrist playing basketball toward the end of the season, I had to have surgery on my wrist, and so I had a cast, and so I couldn't play baseball, and so I decided to run track because I didn't want to just sit around, I wanted to be active, and so I went to the track coach.

I was like, hey man, you got a new track team member?

Uh I have a cast, but I think I can still run.

And I said, Hey, what's the shortest race?

Okay, because I ain't trying to be out of breath.

You know what I'm saying?

I was like, what's the shortest race?

He's like, it's the hundred meters.

I said, cool, sign me up.

And so I ran the hundred and the four by one and the the sprint medley.

I was the second leg in the four by one, okay, which I found out later is reserved for the slowest guy on the team.

All right?

And I didn't take it personal because it's just math, right?

I mean, it's just time.

You can't, it doesn't lie.

So I was the second leg.

The first leg was a guy named Kali Foster Brandon, who actually ended up being at my wedding a few years later.

He's still a friend to this day.

I was texting him yesterday.

Um, he was great out of the blocks.

I mean, dude was so quick.

Um and he'd come out of the blocks like he was fired out of a cannon.

He would give me the baton.

The way it would work is we had practiced this so much, I knew at what point when he got into close to that handoff zone, I just had to turn and just accelerate as fast as I could.

He would yell, stick, I reached back, he put the stick in my hand, now it's mine, and I'm gone.

And then I try to get it to the next guy as quick as I could, Eric Baldev.

Eric then would take it to Jared Turner, who would take us home.

Jared was a good fly.

And so here's the reality.

I can't be Kali.

I can't be Jared.

I can only be me.

I can't make myself faster than I am.

All I can do is when I get this baton secure in my hand, fix my eyes on Eric and try to get that stick around.

I I knew I didn't have the kind of foot quickness I was going to run anybody down.

I was really trying to just keep whatever lead Kali got for me the very best I could.

And I can't make myself faster.

All I can do is try to pump my arms, relax my face, get there as quick as I can, and be faithful to my assignment, to run the second leg of the journey, to my my journey as best I can.

And friend, I'll tell you, that's how I feel right now.

You look at Hebrews 11, and it mentions the Abrahams and Sarah's and all of the ancient forefathers that we have, and all of the people that we look, and we have narrative and scripture of how God worked in their life.

We've been looking at Abraham's life and seeing how incredibly applicable it is to our lives.

And so I look at his crazy journey and his faithfulness, and it makes me inspired to mine.

But it's not just our ancient forefathers, it's also people in the not so distant past.

It's people like you can think of, maybe it was grandparents, maybe it was parents, maybe it was aunts and uncles, maybe it was people that showed up in your life who you're going, look, I stand on the shoulders of these people.

Okay, it's the people that purchased this property when I wasn't even born yet.

It's people that have gone before and they ran their leg of the journey, everybody from Abraham and Sarah to Roger and Pat Walker, okay, who who were here uh serving when I was in diapers.

All of that to then the future, which is someday we'll hand this baton to another generation, and who knows what they'll do with it.

Who you know what they'll do?

They will contextualize the gospel and the body of Christ to the world they live in.

What will that look like?

I have no idea.

But I want to be a part of the cloud of witnesses that when it's their time and they have the batana, we yell stick, and they get the stick, that they can look back at Abraham and Sarah and Roger and Pat and you and me.

But right now, we got the stick.

Right now is our time to run, and I can't be Kali and I can't be Jared.

All I can do is pick them up and put them down as fast as we can.

And so today I want to talk about what that looks like for us to run faithfully in our time.

I want to give you a little bit of backstory.

A little bit of backstory.

Um Shaylin and I moved to Columbus in 2010, started One Church 2011.

I worked at the front desk at a fitness club and I just met as many people as I could.

I've told some of you this story before, so for some of you who may be remembering, you may be uh hearing it again, but just don't want to get us all on the same page.

Um when I worked that job, I I never thought I was the front desk guy.

Okay?

I never thought that.

I was the pastor of the gym.

I was the pastor of the gym.

I was the fr I was at the front desk making minimum wage, but I'd get there at 455 or 4:30 every day and open the doors by 455, and I began to learn names and build relationships and pray for people and serve people, and eventually I started inviting them, we started inviting them to church.

We found a charter school called Cornerstone Academy, uh, which is over on like Walnut Road in Westerville, New Albany area.

And we started inviting people, and if the church started growing pretty quick, we start hitting facility lids.

You know what I'm saying?

You we couldn't grow past it, and it was the facility was the issue.

Sometimes a lid in a church or an organization is a leadership lid.

Sometimes it's a systems lid or a processes lid, but sometimes it's just facilities.

And we didn't have enough room for kids, we didn't have enough room for cars, we had cars showing up to the lot, seeing it was full and leaving.

That made me sick because I'm like, man, who knows what they were going through?

They're coming to church, they want, and we we had no space.

And so for really a couple years, I was trying to find a building for our church to buy, but we were in a super tough spot because we didn't have really have money, much money.

We were just getting started, and we we'd grown, but we just we didn't really have money to buy, we needed it.

It's kind of like it was it was kind of trying to find a facility at that time was like trying to buy a shoe for a 13-year-old boy who's growing real fast, and you buy him a shoe, it's like, what size do you get?

Because if you get him what fits, like tomorrow it doesn't fit anymore.

And if you get too big, then he's you know walking around in clown shoes.

And so it, but it was like everything we needed we couldn't afford.

But then what we could afford was too small.

And so I kept trying to find a way to get stuff done, trying to find a building, and I kept failing and failing and failing.

And I'll be honest, at that time I got deeply discouraged.

I felt like a total imposter.

I'm like, what am I doing?

You know, I have a theology degree, I have a degree in biblical studies, I just want to teach and preach the gospel and lead the body of Christ.

I'm not a commercial real estate mogul.

Like, I don't know how to, I can't get us in a building.

Everything I was trying failed, and it all came to a head actually.

One day I went into our board meeting.

And of course, when you're leading a board meeting, okay, you always want to be put together and you know what I'm saying, confident.

And I went in and I just broke down.

I looked at our board and I was like, I don't know why you guys haven't fired me yet.

If you guys had any brains, you'd you'd have already fired me.

You know, maybe I'm in the way.

Maybe, and I and I I really started to think at that time, maybe I needed to get out of the way.

Because it was both not only discouraging at my inability to get the job done, but I started to think like, I don't want to quit because I'm discouraged, but I don't want to stay on just because I'm stubborn.

And so I started to pray, like, Lord, am I in the way?

Like, God, is it is it I've taken it as far as I can take it, and now it's time for me to give the baton to somebody else and let them run.

And I really was praying that, and it broke down in this meeting, you know, and I'm like, guys, I don't think I'm the guy.

I think you need to get somebody else in here to be able to fix this.

You know, I can't do it.

And so I started like weeping, like I started crying in this meeting, which is not normal of our board meetings.

I started crying, and and so they kind of sat there awkwardly, and then I'll never forget, you know, Dave Domini and RJ Lowry and Ryan Retcher came around and they just started praying for me.

All right, so didn't expect to tear up there, but I um I just remember the feeling so vividly, and I remember Dave, you know, they get done praying, and Dave's super pragmatic, and he's like, uh he goes, he goes, Greg, I don't know if you're supposed to quit or not.

He's like, but um, did you call yourself here?

I was like, no.

He goes, You do you really believe God called you here?

I said, yeah, I do.

He goes, You didn't call yourself.

So you keep showing up until the one who called you tells you to stop.

And he said, until you feel sure, until you feel with the same amount of certainty, like you didn't have a contract in writing when you packed up your stuff and moved to Columbus.

So if you're gonna pack your stuff up and move out of Columbus, you need to be as certain it's time to go as you were that it was time to come.

And he said, until you get that, this is exactly what he said, keep showing up.

And I learned in that moment about a mustard seed of faith.

I learned in that moment that you don't have to be full of faith to be faithful.

I'll be straight up with you.

Right now, as I stand on this stage, I am full of faith.

I am bustling with faith.

I feel so confident in what God is leading us to do.

I wouldn't rather be anywhere else doing anything else with anybody else.

I know that God's going to provide.

I know that God's in this.

I know we got it right.

So I got enough faith for the both of us.

If you don't have faith, that's why I got so much faith.

I believe somebody's dog's gonna get saved on the live stream today.

I feel so full of faith, I'm bustling.

But what I'm gonna tell you is it's not always like that.

And I remember well a Matthew 17 mustard seed of faith.

This is all, and all the faith I had at that time wasn't even to believe God for a building or to believe God to solve a problem.

It was just to have enough faith to show up the next day.

And I'm talking to somebody, this has nothing to do with buildings, it has nothing to do with our projects, it has everything to do with where you're at right now.

You don't have to be full of faith to be faithful.

It's a mustard seed, and sometimes it's a faith to just keep getting out of bed, and sometimes it's a faith to just not quit and to just not leave and to just stay until something happens, to keep praying, to keep trusting, to stay faithful, to keep your integrity together, to keep making the right decision for the right reason.

When it feels like it's not going anywhere, like you're just spinning your wheels, like you're going backwards.

A couple months later, I get a call from somebody that says, Hey, what are you doing for a building?

I was like, failing.

Thanks for asking.

I said, No, you ought to meet up with this church over at 817 North Hamilton Road.

Next thing I know, I'm in a board meeting with some veterans of the faith, and we were talking about vision and we were talking about values, and and and next thing I know, a group of people that had been that bought this property and had been building buildings when I was in diapers handed me the keys and said, I think it's your time.

They handed a baton, said it's time for you to run.

And they gave us, they gave us their equity of their years of faithful service, and then they gave us some debt.

We were able to get the building over 50% equity and to jump now to have a shoe that was the right size.

And some of you were here at that time.

We came onto this property, and and immediately we get to this property, and we took a huge step of faith, but when we did, we took that step of faith, the church began to grow.

Go ahead and pull up the uh picture of, I want to show you what the facility looked like when we got here.

All right, by the way, I got a I brought my laser.

Boom! Okay, and by the way, if the lights go out in here today, I gotta I got a uh flashlight for you.

All right.

Okay.

This is when we got to the property.

This is there were trees and a huge hill here, and we took out about 100 dump trucks full of debris, cleared these trees, and day one, we ran out of parking.

Day one, okay, Easter of 2015.

Um, I saw one of those board members that handed us the keys had to park over here.

And walking and playing Frogger across the street, coming across Hamilton.

I thought, oh, he's gonna be so upset.

And he walked up to me with the biggest smile I've ever seen in my life, and he's like, This is what we prayed for.

And so pretty soon, though, we hit a facility lid, which what does that mean?

Well, it means that then we can't, we just can't make room for people.

People can't come.

We're back to the facilities, the problem.

And so we uh took up an offering.

Some of you are here for this, go ahead and go to the next one, and we did our first parking expansion right here, okay?

And and then our issue was we needed we filled that parking almost, well, pretty quickly, and we needed more parking.

And then also, some of you will remember the old lobby.

The old lobby was like super small, and it just screamed, get out, we don't want you here, you're in the way.

That's kind of what it said.

So, like where people would leave, and a lobby is a huge deal because a lobby is like a living room, it's where you build relationships.

Otherwise, you're just like filing in and out, and that's not the goal.

We you need to be in community, you need to build relationships, and a lobby is sort of an easy place to do that.

So we took a step of faith there.

We go ahead and go to the next one.

We expanded the parking again, and then we built this lobby, and again, we're back now to facility lid issues.

I want to show you something.

This is a chart.

Go ahead and bring up the chart.

This chart represents from the beginning of our church till now, and this is the attendance growth over those years.

Now, look at this right here.

This part, these first five years, okay, we plateaued and declined because of the facility.

We literally didn't have the spaces to do the ministry.

This facility was the problem.

Listen, I want to say real clear.

I I don't care about facilities except for the fact they facilitate ministry.

They facilitate serving people and worshiping God.

That's all that's all that matters.

And so those were the issue.

So when we took that step of faith right here, is when we bought the building, and you see what happened, the church began to grow.

These these words you see in here, I don't expect you to be able to read those words, but what they are are projects, physical projects that we did to make room and space for more people.

This, by the way, this right here is right before COVID.

Our church grew 700 people in six months.

We we we put out the live stream, right?

Against really my will.

I was like, I don't want to live stream, I think it's a bad idea.

They're like, you're wrong.

And so I listened, and we we ex we we um purchased tech gear and and and and infrastructure for tech, and so we put this out, and what happened is we were able to reach more people than ever.

So when COVID shut everything down, we we turned everything on, and we were able to go all throughout the city.

Now, here's what happened.

Start to get from COVID comeback, and the church came back less.

People didn't all come back.

But but I had a sense in my spirit, and we had a sense that wait, something happened back here in 2020, something happened.

We were able to reach more people, that when this thing comes back, it's gonna come back even more.

So here we were actually, we had decreased, and we were in a famine in a sense, but we had the faith to begin planning for a harvest during a famine.

That's a word for somebody.

Because some of you have a deep sense of what God is leading you to do in your life, and it feels crazy because it's like we just went down into the right.

I just had a decrease.

Okay, everything just was shook up.

I have more uncertainty than ever, and yet you have a deep sense.

No, I really think this isn't ego, this isn't, you know, me trying to be crazy.

This is actually, I sense, really sense deeply, this is what God's leading me to.

And faith will get you planning for a harvest in a famine.

Because if you wait for the harvest to start planning, it rots.

So we started putting these plans together.

We engaged architects, we engaged uh engineers to come up with the plans I'm presenting to you today.

And what I'm telling you is we are in the middle of a harvest now.

This past summer, we were in overflow.

We run uh multiple services, three services in the morning.

We were in overflow most services all summer.

That's not normal.

Usually in the summer, it's a ghost town.

People go to the lake, okay.

People stay home, it's a sunny day, okay.

They don't, especially now live stream, they watch.

Our live stream has increased, and our attendance has increased, and it we were in overflow in the summer.

So, what I'm saying is the harvest is here, and we're not gonna start planning now.

We started planning two years ago because we sensed this day was coming.

And so today I'm I'm I'm here to present you with those plans and to show you what we're about to do.

We went um to these architects and basically tasked them with this.

We said, look, there's about 16 acres here.

What is the potential of this property?

In other words, how many people can we serve on this property, you know, responsibly?

And we said two things.

One, we need we want to maximize our quantitative potential.

So we want to reach as many people as we can.

We've all been impacted by the gospel, and we don't want to just keep it to us, we want to invite and welcome others.

But also, we want to maximize the qualitative potential.

In other words, we're not just herding people in and out for an event.

We want the spaces to bring folks together to help facilitate relationships, and that's just part of the nature of.

Sometimes as any entity, but especially a church grows, sometimes it becomes less personal.

And there's some of that that's just normal with anything that grows, you know.

My daughter is growing, and so she doesn't sit on my lap anymore.

Okay, she's about to turn 15, she doesn't kiss me on the lips anymore.

Okay, it's a little different, right?

It it changed, you know, relationships change.

So churches change in terms of how they feel, but that doesn't mean that we're not still bonding and connecting.

And so we wanted the property not only to reach more people, enable us to grow and serve people, but also at the same time to have qualitative uh improvement as well.

And so um what we found is that we're able to double everything.

It's three things seating, parking, and kids' ministry.

Currently, we have uh about 800 seats, we're gonna go over 1,500 seats, and I'll show you in a second.

Um, parking, we have 426 parking spaces with our new parking plan.

We're gonna be able to do over 900 parking spaces.

And then we worked with traffic engineers to basically redesign the lot because this facility wasn't designed to be used the way we're using it.

So we're we're redesigned the lot to make the traffic have less friction.

I'll show you that in a second.

And then we'll be able to serve over 400 kids per service.

When I say kids, I mean zero through sixth grade, and then I'll show you what we have for students, and then I have a bonus that I'm gonna show you at the end of it.

All right?

Alright, you ready to see it?

Yeah, yeah.

All right, here we go.

We have uh virtual images.

So this is a fly-in, all right.

What you're gonna see here is what we the building called Building C, right?

We're gonna remodel it and we're adding outdoor connection space.

We're putting a little amphitheater out here and some seating space for people to be able to just connect, build relationships, and then this building will be used for community, so like connect groups that meet throughout the week, as well as our teenagers, our our junior high and high school students uh in that ministry.

And then you'll notice here, you used to be able to drive through here, right?

Well, not anymore because that that's one of our issues that we had.

Uh, I'll show you in a second, but we're gonna make that uh like patio community space.

This will be the new one kid's entrance, and then this will be the new main entrance, and then over here on the southeast side of the property, we'll be building a brand new auditorium.

Okay?

All right, go ahead and go to this picture.

So, one of the things to solve traffic is again, cars that would park back here would drive through here.

And then, of course, you have pedestrians coming out the entrance, so you the that just creates friction.

So we're gonna shut that down and we'll connect these with patio and green space to connect that, and then we have a drive here.

We're removing the buildings that are on this part of the property, uh, the the north part of the property.

We're we'll we'll tear that off, uh take those down and actually push the parking this way.

So you have a drive this way.

So if you park in here, you get out this way, this way, back here, this way, and then we're adding a drive off the back.

And you'll notice we moved the pond.

All right.

All right, so the pond was back over here, and so we're going, we're actually able to deepen it and push it back to this corner and have the parking go around this way.

Another drive back this way.

By the way, shout out to the city, they've been wonderful in working with us.

Um, God bless them.

Go ahead and go to the next one.

This is the new auditorium, should be 1500 seat auditorium.

All right, they already got Blaze leading worship, and we ain't even there yet.

All right.

Um, what you're gonna notice is um the wrapped seating.

So what I mentioned feeling connected.

All right, obviously, man, people are leading worship up front and someone's up speaking.

Um, but I want it to be more than just a monologue.

I want you to be able to look around the room with just a turn of a head and to see the, be connected, everybody.

You know, it's not hard to see the diversity of our church.

We have generational diversity of people of all ages.

We have cultural diversity, racial diversity, and even beyond the stuff you can see.

This is a beautifully diverse church.

And you know how it is.

This is no secret.

Churches tend to not be that way, right?

It's like Sunday is the most segregated hour, right?

Okay, that's not a new thing.

But like, we are not that way.

This church is incredibly diverse, and I want you to feel it every week.

So if you're sitting here, I want you to be able to just turn your head a little bit to the left and see what God is doing and your brothers and sisters.

Uh, I I went and actually looked at a building that had this exact seating layout, and I sat in like 60 different seats because I wanted to feel it from all different parts of like how it felt, and I I can't wait.

I'm really excited.

Um, so that's this, and then go to the next.

This is uh one kid, so this is the building we're currently in, and you'll we'll be heading into the room that we're currently in.

As I mentioned, this gives us the ability to serve over 400 kids per service.

Alright, so come into this entry area, check kids check in, um, and then uh you'll see kind of as as you go in, we'll we'll build there's gonna be a bunch of like medium-sized and smaller rooms to be able to facilitate this, and then again, this is right where we're at now, and uh invite kids to come in here into the old treehouse, all right, up here and have a good time.

Now, you notice like the in that entryway, there's the uh you know this play area, right?

Um, this is really important because as you're getting kids, right?

Kids come in to a new space and their amygdala is going crazy and and their neocortex hasn't mapped the space out.

And so we want to invite them in, and often it's that common ground space.

You know, hey, I'm gonna come in and play.

I was actually showing this to a little boy in our church, and when I was showing it, he looks, he's like, Are you gonna build that?

Are we gonna build that?

I was like, Yeah, man, we're doing it.

He goes, Is it free?

And and and I I misunderstood the question because I thought he was asking, does it cost to build it?

I was like, nah, man, it ain't nothing free, you know.

I was like, that stuff costs money, you know?

And he's like, oh.

And he goes, how much do I have to pay?

And so then I realized what he was asking is like, is he gonna get charged to come to one kids, you know?

And I was like, oh no, no, no, no.

I was like, it's free, man.

It's free for you and your friends and everything, okay?

And uh, and then his mom was like looking at it and she's like, How are you gonna get him out of there?

Fareed, Fareed, can you stand up?

Stand up.

Fareed just volunteered to get your kids out of there, right?

This is the guy right here.

Fareed.

But no, think about it though.

That's the problem we want to have.

Some of you were dragged to church as a kid, kicking and screaming.

I would much rather have the problem, how are we gonna get him out than how are we gonna get him in?

And so this will help us get him in.

The uh, here's the bonus material.

Go to the next one.

Uh, this is our back porch, and this leads into what we're calling our VIP space.

VIP is very important, people.

It's our special needs family members.

And so what we're gonna do is actually we're adding we're gonna be adding over 2,000 square feet of sensory space.

Um, some of you know a little bit about our family.

Both uh my wife and I have two boys both on the spectrum, on the autism spectrum.

And um I'm not building this for them, but I do believe that God has given me a vantage point, given us a vantage point, and I do think it's a heart part of the heartbeat of our church.

I mean, if you come to our Night to Shine event, which is an annual event, I mean, it's unbelievable.

But we have to do more than once a year, and a lot of these families with churches just aren't facilitated for it.

Uh, we we engaged this uh architect company who builds churches all over America, and we said, bring us the best special needs space out there, and there wasn't much out there.

We actually had to go outside of them to find something to design and all the stuff we're gonna do.

But I believe that if we not only do this and take care of these families and take care of people in our city, it's this is more than just about our church.

I I want to inspire, I want the next church to go give us the best special needs space for them to go to not do this, to go, let me, and I think we can be a catalyst to inspire other churches to take care of these folks in their city, in our city, and around the world.

And so we're gonna do this all the way right.

And what we've also done is just create a beautiful back patio space right out of there for these families.

Of course, anybody can go back here and connect, but also we're giving preferred parking, okay, which will be very near uh Hamilton Road, um, for them to be able to get in and out, have great accessibility.

Go ahead and go to the next one.

This is just one of the spaces, but uh it's a sensory space.

And so we'll have both large and small spaces uh for these these family members, right?

It's one thing for us to go, hey, we're we're willing for you to come in.

It's another thing to go, we're ready for you to come in, come in.

And honestly, even our servant leaders and people that that that want to do something, we give them the right tool, we give them the right facility, and we can really over-deliver for these families, uh, frankly, that often never find a church because the churches aren't ready.

We're about to be ready, we're about to be very ready.

So we have the heart, we need the facilities to match it.

All right.

Let me get into some logistics and some really practical stuff here.

Um let me show you a timeline for these projects.

Um let me just say this straight up.

We're doing this.

Okay, this isn't like, hey, are so are we gonna maybe do it?

No, we're we are doing this 100%.

We're doing this, we're locked in.

We have the we have the contracts with the builders, we have the the architectural designs are being finalized right now.

Um we've already we've already finished this product project over here.

Uh, I want to show you the project timeline.

So go ahead and bring that up.

Um the northeast lot, okay, done.

Check it off the list.

The second, building C, which is gonna start in the next month.

Building C exterior, that should be done around March.

Okay, the site work, which is all the parking.

So the 900 plus parking spaces and moving the pond, uh, we'll start that this year, but it probably won't be done until the summer.

Some of that work with like, you know, they they turn off the the asphalt machines and things when the weather gets a certain deal.

So some of it'll just be weather cooperating, but that's the current timeline.

Um, the auditorium will start next summer, and and and our aggressive timeline, but hopeful timeline is Easter of 25.

Uh that may this may be our this next Easter might be our last one in here.

We may be able to open it up by then, and then our kids um projects will by by the end of November of 25.

Okay, so we're looking at a two-year runway.

Um, okay, how much does it cost?

Costs$12.6 million dollars.

$12.6 million.

Um, just so you know, when they brought us the original plans, it was$20 million, and we value engineered about$7.5 million now to make this as lean as it can be.

It's not gaudy.

There's no nothing gaudy in the project.

It's tasteful and it's tactical and it's all efficient.

And so you know you know how this is.

We're we're in a growing church, but we're in a growing city.

Businesses are coming in, people are coming in.

And so what we don't want to do is have people as they're coming in the city, we can't serve them because we didn't act in faith.

We didn't step out in 2023, we're doing it, we're moving on it.

Uh, I worked with a consultant on the just the money management fundraising side of it, and they looked at our giving patterns and the size of our church, and they said, hey, on a three-year, a three-year call it campaign or three-year giving initiative, uh, one church should be able to bring in.

They said, probably, you know, conventional math, six to nine million dollars above and beyond our tithe to be able to do this.

And so they're like, you know, maybe you set the goal at like nine.

I was like, no.

How much does it cost?

12 and a half.

That's the goal.

Okay, number one, I'm not gonna ask God for nine when it costs twelve and a half.

Okay?

Number two, I was like, you guys don't know our church.

Our people don't like it when you get too cute.

Oh, the goal's nine.

How much does it cost?

12 and a half.

Well then what are you talking about?

Nine?

It's 12 and a half.

It's what it costs.

I don't have twelve and a half million dollars.

Uh, you probably don't either.

If you do, get at me.

I can give you a very noble cause.

But here's the bottom line: you don't have to have 12 or 12 and a half.

You just have to do your part.

Can you imagine the potential of this movement if everyone just did their part?

Everyone pulling and everyone pulling in the same direction.

I take great comfort in the fact that God's not up in heaven going 12 and a half million.

How am I gonna do it?

God can take care of it, God will take care of it.

I've never, I'm, I'm packed with faith.

If you don't have it, lean on me, friend.

I got it.

I'm telling you, I know that I know that I know.

And you're gonna watch and you're gonna see God's faithfulness.

David defeated Goliath because Goliath was on God's battlefield.

So he knew Goliath was gonna fall.

He knew it.

Doesn't matter how big you are, you're on the wrong battlefield.

12 and a half million is on the wrong battlefield.

It's on God's battlefield.

God's going to provide and he's gonna bring it through people.

God always has.

Every time we stepped out in faith, God has showed up with the finances.

I've told this story before, but I'll say it again.

When we moved on this property, we had about a million dollars of deferred maintenance.

So we needed to do everything that you couldn't even see, and we needed parking.

And God sent a dude who showed up from Kentucky with a bag of gold coins to pay for our parking lot.

I had no clue that could even happen.

I joke about it.

I'm like, you know, God sent a leprechaun from Kentucky to pay our pay for our parking lot.

What else what else does he have up his sleeve?

So here's what I'm asking you to do call to action.

I'm asking you to do what I'm doing.

I'm not asking you to do anything I'm not doing.

Three things.

The first one is pray.

I'm praying three things every single day.

Please join me.

The first one is this I'm praying for miracles.

I'm praying for miracles, stuff we didn't see coming.

I had no idea.

And he's not gonna drop it out of the sky.

I'll tell you that.

God's not gonna drop it out of the sky, he's going to give it through people.

People I don't even know yet.

People you don't know.

Stuff we didn't see coming, and I'm praying for it.

Some of you have seen God show up miraculously in your life.

And if I pass the mic around, you could testify.

But some of you have never seen it, you're about to.

Stay tuned.

God's gonna show up, and I'm praying for miracles.

The second is I'm praying that everyone that gives and participates will feel the joy of giving.

12 and a half, 12.6 million, whatever people, you know, you can start go, oh, what's my little gift?

It's just a little drop in the bucket.

It doesn't move the needle.

Forget that.

It's not even just about the result.

I'm a results guy.

I look at these videos, I can see the special needs space in full use.

I can feel the worship when we're in there together.

I can see the cars being part, I can see it all.

But I'm not gonna wait until we're done and defer my joy there.

I I want to enjoy doing my part, and I want you to enjoy doing your part.

So, whatever is yours to do, just do that and feel the joy of it.

Working with your Heavenly Father on his mission.

The third is I'm praying that this will be a discipleship breakthrough for our church.

Some of you have never done anything like this.

You've maybe never even given before.

Never given to God, never done this.

And yet for you, this will be the first time you've ever done it.

And there's reasons why you haven't.

Maybe you didn't trust, maybe you didn't see the need, maybe you didn't feel like your gift was significant, or maybe you have an issue with greed and selfishness.

Maybe everything that you have goes to you.

Okay, there's a lot there could be a lot of reasons why.

What I'm telling you is when you step and you put your life on the line and you give and you you begin to do that, it changes you.

It absolutely changes you.

And so for some of you, it'll be the first time.

Others, you've been there done that so many times that you're almost numb at this point.

And I believe that even for those who have been there done that, God wants to do something he's never done before.

Something fresh, reignite, rekindle something.

So I'm praying that with all of the people in our church, every individual, and for our church family as a whole, that this will be a discipleship breakthrough, that we step into something, step to a new level.

God takes us to a new place.

And so, would you pray those three prayers with me?

The second thing I'm asking you to do is give.

Okay, when you walk out, you're gonna get one of these booklets, and it's just got, it's they're really well done.

I mean, it's just got a bunch of information.

I just gave you the cliff notes today, but you'll see the renderings, you'll see a lot of detail, share some stories, a lot of that.

But in here also is a pledge card.

We're not doing this today, but I want you to begin praying about it today.

Okay, begin praying about it today.

Um, I'm gonna show you this card, it'll come up on the screen, but the there's two categories here, and this is simply for communication, so that we can manage the money well.

Okay, I don't want to be trying to guess what's everybody planning to do.

Just be honest about what when God tells you what to do, let us know.

There's two categories.

One is keep up the good work.

Keep up the good work is you know, essentially the way that we f we uh operate the church is through your charitable giving, through your tithes and your offerings.

And so if you're already giving, uh if you let us know, hey, I plan to keep giving, that's helpful.

Okay, it would be a really tough if everybody said, Hey, I'm giving, but now I'm gonna take all the money I was giving and give it to the new projects, then we can't keep the lights on and do all the stuff we've been doing.

So if you let us know, hey, I plan to continue the regular giving, or for some of you, maybe I'm gonna start doing that.

And then over here, then um, I want to do something above and beyond to expand the good work.

Okay, maybe I'll a bonus, or maybe it's I'm gonna sell my moped or my Super Nintendo.

I don't even know if they still make those, but you get the idea.

I'm gonna do something to go above and beyond to do the help expand the good work.

So, what I'm asking you to do is take this, pray, pray about it.

Once you get a sense for what God's asking you to do, to let us know that.

And here's some important dates, and then we'll uh close it out.

October 20th is what we're calling our advanced commitment Sunday.

So that night we're gonna do a worship night.

And if you feel clear about your part of it, okay, that night you'll have a chance to do that.

We're gonna have child care, it'll be in here.

We're just gonna we're just gonna worship, share a little word, and then uh give you a chance to do that.

Of course, you can come even if you don't make a commitment, you can come worship, but we'll give a chance there.

And then by the 29th is is where uh we're asking you if you again to let us know and indicate what you plan to do, and then we'll begin fulfillment on November 19th.

Alright?

It's my last thing, and then we're done.

I I posted yesterday on Instagram story, like, hey guys, tomorrow I'm gonna share with you just some of the vision, some of the things that I sense God's leading us to do together.

And I no sooner got that thing posted and someone from Florida sent me a direct message to say, hey, Pastor, you don't know me.

I live in Florida, I'm nowhere near the church, but one church is my church.

And they said, I can't wait to find out what God has next for the church, and I can't wait to participate and be a part of it.

To me, number one, Shannon, thank you for sending that.

It encouraged me more than you can imagine.

But on top of that, it just reminded me of all that God is doing in the world and that I will not limit him with my belief.

I will not limit him with my faith.

That even if it's a mustard seed or you're full of faith, be faithful.

Let's take this baton, let's seize the moment.

Many have gone before faithfully.

We know them by name.

Many will come after, it'll be their time.

Let's be a part of the cloud of witnesses because we ran our leg.

We pick picked them up and we put them down together.

The best we could possibly do, and give that as an offering to the Lord, an offering of faith.