Seeing the picture below recently reminded me that many are asking how the building expansion plans are going. Will we ever get there? The Lord has been leading so here is an update from our board. Architectural plans for our building expansion are done and now being reviewed at Pierce County for a building permit. We expect to hear by late summer. Meanwhile we are looking at contractors. You can see these exciting plans, videos and full details at http://www.discoverybaptist.org/facilities-expansion .
Before demolishing the old office/house/etc. we will store necessary things in a container on sight. Dave Christensen will have a salvage form for those wanting items from the buildings. Then the Sheriff and Fire Dept. will use it for training for about a week. We’ll let you know in case you want to watch the fireworks.
We’ll announce the Big Gig Dig (Groundbreaking) date so we can pray and celebrate the start of things when we are certain. During construction Harbor Covenant Church, across the road, has graciously allowed us to have services on Sunday afternoons in their fellowship area. We will limit some programs like Sunday School, Awana and our Living Nativity during the building process. Our church office will work out of homes then.
Our Expanding our Ministry for the Generations to Come (EMGC) giving campaign is doing very well. Our record Thanksgiving offering started it out with about $20,000; then $18,377 more came in after we started the emphasis in February. We currently have $76,525 in our building fund. On August 1 we will inject another $8,600 from our general fund to the building fund as we have been doing monthly since we paid off our facilities earlier this year. (PTL this is more than we actually expect our loan payment to be for the new project and is about $2000 less per month than we were paying on our old loan.) This will boost the building fund to about $85,000.
Also, roughly $2,000 per month in two year EMGC commitments (over and above regular giving) to the building project continue to come in. Thanks for your sacrifice to this project. We expect the project will be about 1.3 million.
We will borrow again from our regional Revolving Fund of the Baptist Network NW. If you wish to invest in the fund you may contact the representative Dave Thompson (Ph: (509) 544-6607, Email: dave@nbhm.org) or read about it at http://baptistnetworknw.org/revolving-fund/ . The RF pays investors 2% for On Demand Notes; 3% for 3 year notes and 4% for 5 year notes. Your investments help build Bible teaching churches like ours. Investment brochures are in the Info. Center. Dave will also be with us to explain more later this year.
If you didn’t get a chance to make a commitment to the Lord regarding our EMGC two year emphasis you can pick up our informational booklet and commitment card. It is at the building display on the foyer wall. Remember, it is not equal giving but equal sacrifice that the Lord wants of us.
We expect the building process to take up to six months. Then we’ll have a new expanded auditorium and foyer and totally new offices, class rooms, rest rooms, nursery, storage space and a fellowship center. This will maximize our site for ministry of the gospel to the Generations to Come. Keep our board in prayer as we move ahead. Feel free to ask any questions.
This Sunday we also continue to build up the body of Christ through Bible teaching. I will be giving a follow-up sermon to Fathers Day dealing with the three means of biblical motivation for children with the right goal in mind. This actually has a lot of application for adults too. It will answer practical questions I am often asked about discipline and motivation in the family.