Early Childhood Center & Founders Hall Progress Report

New Hallway with handicap access into the Worship Center taking shape

The Elders had a chance to walk through the renewing Early Childhood Center & Founders Hall last evening. Our contractor, Dave McCoy, had walked me through earlier in the afternoon. It was fun to see the elders get excited about the changes and improvements. Their reaction was, "The Congregation has no idea! We need to get them in here and let them share the excitement."

I agree! We're working on either a "Walk-Through Day" or a video walk-through.

Construction on the bottom floor has definitely turned a corner. Most of the tear out is done and now new framing is starting to go up. New heating, ventilation and air conditioning ducting is all installed. Now you can start to see new hallways, foyers, and bathrooms start to take shape. Its going to be really great and completely change how we enter and circulate around that whole area of our campus. The new entrance with wide hallway and handicap access into the worship center is particularly exciting to see.

Thanks for your faithful giving to our Building on the Legacy Vision. Thank the Lord for his faithful provision of people, finances, and vision.

1011 Pacific

Beloved Family of Grace,

If you were here last Sunday morning, you heard the surprising news that the Lord has providentially provided an opportunity for us to purchase one of five identified KEY properties: 1011 Pacific Street (the red brick building behind us, 2nd from the corner, see attached picture). In God's perfect plan, the property sort of unexpectedly landed in our lap even before it was officially listed. Thankfully, we had the right people in the right places at just the right time. On Wednesday, July 18, an offer was agreed upon and the property was placed in escrow.

It is arguably the most strategic of the five KEY properties and opens up some exciting current and future possibilities for Grace. Our leadership has seen God's provision as a definitive sign that God is not yet finished with His work through Grace, but is preparing us for an exciting future. As we move forward, our aim is to seek the Lord together as we strive to balance both SHORT RANGE MINISTRY NEEDS and LONG RANGE MINISTRY VISION.

At present, our vision and desire moving forward is threefold:

1. To complete the purchase of 1011 Pacific.

2. To renew the Annex as planned, but in a slightly downsized form.

3. To prayerfully plan and position ourselves for the next property should it become available.

To this end, we are inviting you to join us for a Special Congregation Meeting this Sunday, August 5th at 6:00 in the Ministry Center so we can share all the details, our Elder's recommendations, and invite your feedback. Your involvement and participation in this process is critical. The decisions we make by faith in these days, will impact our ministry for years to come. Our leadership is seeking your affirmation and engagement as we try and discern the Lord's will and direction together. I know that we're right in the middle of these busy summer months, but still I want to urge you to make every effort to attend this vital meeting.

I hope to see you there. Between now and then, praise the Lord for His faithful provision and plan. He knows the plans He has for us! (Jeremiah 29:11)

Because of and for the Gospel,

Pastor Tim

The Lord Our Provider

$2,123,771

= total pledged by 309 families over the next 3 years to our Building on the Legacy Vision. (That number is $14k or so higher than the number announced on Sunday because a few more families have pledged!) That's a lot of money and well exceeds our goal of $2,000,000.

We take this as the Lord's strong confirmation of our vision and direction. It's been a wonderful and challenging process. I've learned so much and been so blessed by the Lord's people and their generous giving. My vision and faith as a Pastor has been greatly stretched.

So where are we at on the implementation of the vision:

Our Annex Renewal Plans have been submitted to the city for approval. Please join us prayer for a quick approval process. Pray for wisdom as we plan for the loss of that vital space during the construction phase.

We are currently in the process of contacting adjacent property owners to see if they are interested in possibly selling now or down the road. Pray that the Lord grants us favor and good neighbor relations in the process. Pray for a miracle provision of a nearby property.

We are actively exploring parking possibilities as we better define city parking requirements and congregational needs. Pray for creativity and wisdom in this process.

We will do our best to keep the congregation informed as things develop and unfold.

reflections

Here are a few of my reflections the Monday after our Building on the Legacy Pledge Banquet:

• Seeing our 65 table hosts and others come forward to present our offerings to the Lord is an image that I'll remember for a long while. I'm so glad we offered our pledges together instead of by mail.

• There is a power in being together. Just seeing the full banquet hall was itself a great encouragement to my soul. We need to keep doing it and "not forsake our gathering together as is the habit of some." I was encouraged to see so many relatively new folks to Grace there last night.

• I thought the evening was marked, as we had prayed, by a spirit of celebration. While I'm sure some were tense, most seemed relaxed and excited to be there.

• It is one of my continuing joys to see that body of Christ going for it in service to reach for goals that are bigger than any one of us. Our Building on the Legacy Capital Campaign and banquet was the result of the hard work and careful planning of hundreds. Many thanks.

• There were many who weren't there. . . some were serving the body by caring for our children. . . . some were at home with sick children. . . . .others had conflicting commitments . . . . and some just didn't like our approach or didn't agree with the vision. . . . I wish that all could have been there, to experience the power of God's presence when His people gather. I'm sure it's a fantasy, but I wish there was a way to really get the WHOLE church together.

• As I stated last evening, it is easier not to lead. Daily, I realize my desire to shirk my responsibility to lead. I give thanks for our elders, staff and many others who are also committed to leading by faith. Asking people to give of their hard earned resources is a delicate matter. It only gets easier from here!

• Erik Ernstrom is a nut! I great nut. It was fun to pull off the live video conference between the Expo and the Ministry Center. Many thanks to Shane Williams and Josh Ernstrom over at the Mac Superstore, as well as Josh Erdman, for helping us figure that out! Looked like our kids were having a great time. A wild time, but a great time! Erik is a stud to take that on. Many thanks to him and the whole team of people, including many of our young people, who served the church in that significant way. How many sugar cubes did those guys hand out? (Had to be there!)

• I give thanks to God for our unity these last 6 months. Capital campaigns can be very divisive in churches. From the get-go we prayed that God would keep us together and preserve our unity. I believe He has. As far as I know, those who disagree with our vision have not divided the fellowship, nor left the church. Some expressed concerns and then hopped on board. Some expressed concerns and agreed to disagree. The Lord has done this thing!

• I'm pretty sure that none of us fully appreciates what it means to be a part of a loving church family. We partially appreciate it at moments. The family is full of failures and foibles and broken people, but God is pleased to glorify Himself through our weaknesses. The more "all in" we can be, the more we experience the blessings of life together. Yet most of us hold back, out of fear or insecurity or a bad past experience, or for other reasons. For some of us, it's just scary to connect and we're not very good at it. The evidence of this is the fact that folks wander from church to church to church. Let's dig in and figure out life together with all its pains and challenges, joys and triumphs.

• As we saw in 1 Chronicles 29, the Lord has tried and directed our hearts. Therefore, we will thank Him and praise Him for whatever He has seen fit to provide through His people.

• Like the Lord's people of David's day. . . . because our God is faithful, great, powerful, glorious and victorious. . . . we gave to the Lord and toward the future. . . willfully, wholeheartedly, generously, and joyfully. Sunday's messages will be posted online soon.

• If you were not at our Building on the Legacy Celebration Pledge Banquet for any reason, we want to give you an opportunity to still join us in pledging. This week you'll receive, by mail a copy of Sunday's messages, morning and evening, a brief invitation to join us and a pledge card. Finally, in case you don't read your mail or we don't have your correct mailing address, we'll give you quick invitation to pledge during next Sunday's worship services. And then that's it! We plan to announce our pledge total on Sunday, May 13, which also happens to be Mother's Day.

What are your thoughts and reflections the morning after?

ask anything speed round

For six months we've been informing and inviting feedback about our Building on the Legacy Vision. Based on the overwhelmingly supportive feedback and the unity of our elders, staff and broader leadership we have moved forward by faith.

But even this last week, a few have come forward with questions. If at all possible, I want you with us, so let's get those questions answered.

I tried to answer some of the most commonly asked questions in last Sunday's message, but with three days before the Celebration Pledge Banquet, I thought I could use the forum here at "Life Together" to tackle a few more.

So here, once more, is a formal invitation to get your questions asked and answered. At the end of the day, we may still disagree, but hopefully we will have heard and understood one another. You can email me your questions, ask them in an anonymous comment or whatever and I will attempt to answer them as quickly, straightforwardly and succinctly as I can. Because of time constraints, my answers will be "quick and dirty" and "from the hip", rather than theological dissertations . . . .

To get things started, here are the questions I tried to directly or indirectly address in last Sunday's message:

1. Why continue to build a Place?
   
   We believe planning by faith for the next 25 years and beyond is good stewardship, especially given 1.) our hope for continued growth in the church, 2.) our landlocked footprint, and 3.) anticipated changes and growth in our community. We sure don't need a place to worship, but we believe it's a helpful gift. The church is not a building, but meets in a building. Furthermore, as I tried to show last Sunday, I believe that God validates and blesses the whole idea of place and matter throughout the Scriptures. Our spirituality is an embodied spirituality rooted in place. Not, any more, one specific ordained place, but place nonetheless.
   
   (Incidentally, when I compared the temple to Grace Church in my message, the comparison was intended to be a loose, general comparison, not a tight, one-to-one correspondence. I was careful in what I did not say. Clearly, Grace Church is not equivalent to the Temple, where the Glory of God rested. My point was that even then the people gave by faith for a place of worship. We do the same. I think God blessed their faith then, and I think that God has blessed the faith those before us at Grace. I believe we stand squarely in the stream of Biblical practice in our continuing prayers, planning for our place of worship.)
   
   
2. The vision seems undefined in some ways. What about the uncertainties of the future?
   
   The people of David's day gave 1.) toward an eternal future, 2.) toward the future of their community, 3.) toward the future of the next generation and 4.) toward a future that was uncertain and unknown. I believe that our vision, too, also has all these future components. But our vision, like the future, is full of contingencies. We know much more about Annex Renewal than we do about Property Acquisition. By faith, we are trying to do our best to prepare and lay a financial foundation for an uncertain, unknown future, even as the people of David's day did. While we could come to the congregation when an opportunity arrived, we do not think that strategic prayer and planning is opposed to faith, but an opportunity for faith. We trust a Sovereign God who holds the future in His hand. As we'll discover in this week's message, our vision of God will determine our vision of the future.
   
   The faithful Lord may have other plans for us. We'll only discover those plans as we continue to pray, live and give by faith. As leadership, we feel compelled to ask, "What next, Lord?"
   
   
3. What's up with this Parking Priority?
   
   If there's been a spot of misunderstanding it's been in this area. By highlighting parking as a vision priority, we are simply identifying it as an area for continued planning for the future. When we lose the Osos lot and if our church continues to grow, we'll need to have a plan. We're trying to develop that plan now.
   
   No one wants to purchase a parking lot! That is not our aim. The acquisition of a nearby property may help us meet some of our city mandated staff parking requirements, but that would not be our primary reason for purchasing a property.
   
   The parking issue is a complex issue involving city requirements and congregational needs, present and future concerns. We are not looking at this issue so that we can all be more comfortable and not have to walk very far when they come to church. We are looking at this issue, because we believe it is of crucial concern for our seniors, handicapped folks, visitors, neighbor and city relations, and long term growth.
   
   
4. Why a Celebration Pledge Banquet? Isn't that a waste of money?
   
   1. Celebration: A Biblical desire to eat and drink before the Lord with gladness. God is worthy of our celebration. This is the Biblical pattern in 1 Chronicles 29. The people pledged and partied. We celebrated God's faithfulness over 75 years a year ago. It seemed fitting to the planners to return to that very spot to celebrate as we look forward to the next 25 years.
   
   2. Space Constraints: We simply can't fit 525 people for dinner on our facility. We think there is great value for us to be together as we pledge, rather than spread across three worship services.
   
   3. Desire to Involve All: Our All Church Events Team does so much throughout the year. We refused to burden them with an event of this magnitude. We want them to celebrate with us. Outsourcing as much as we can enables us all to enjoy the evening together.
   
   Let me toss in one more question that came up after the third hour on Sunday . . .
   
   
5. Why are we talking so much about "our legacy?" Why is the legacy "plastered on the walls" and such? Why is there so much talk Building on the Legacy?
   
   First, the legacy is not ours, but the Lords. God has been faithful. Whatever we have accomplished, He has done. He commands us over and over to remember the wondrous work that He has done. All of our information is intended to be a part of our celebration of God's work among us and in spite of us. In the Scriptures, looking back on God's faithfulness is meant to be a stimulus to live by faith in the future. This has been our intent throughout. If this has not been clear, please understand that now.
   
   Second, our purpose in spending so much time (6 mos) talking about the Building on the Legacy Vision is the same of my purpose in this post: To properly and effectively inform the congregation and invite feedback and questions. Despite all the vision forums, service spots, newsletters, brochures and emails, some poeple still have misunderstood parts and pieces of the vision. Part of that is the nature of our church. We figure there is at least 1/3 of our church family missing from the worship services on any given Sunday. Part of that is the complexity and multidimensional character of the vision. Given the sheer amount of information that people are processing today, they need to hear important information multiple times and in different ways.
   

There's "from the hip" answers to 5 frequently asked questions. You're hearing it, not from the horse's mouth, but from the pastor's mouth (or more accurately, his keyboard!). I hope that's helpful.

What questions do you have?

If no one submits questions, I'll submit a few more of my own over the next three days.

Let the "ask anything speed round" begin . . . .

Building on the Legacy Update

We are just a few short days away from our Building on the Legacy Celebration Pledge Banquet.

It's been both a challenging and encouraging week. We've had over 150 more sign-up for the banquet following last Sunday's worship service and message from 1 Chronicles 29. (Listen Here!)

Yesterday we were nearly maxed out at 525 dinner reservations, but we desperately needed some folks to help care for our 100 plus kids in childcare. So apparently someone went to some of our teenage young people and appealed to them to help. . . . .15 or so volunteered forego their banquet attendance to serve the church body in this way. That's living the Gospel! One of the many encouraging reports this week.

All that to say, our current reservations sit at 508, which means there are still 17 banquet seats available. Call the church office at 543.2358 if you still want to jump in. I expect we will fill up on or before Sunday.

One couple I talked to said, "To be honest, I'm looking forward to the free babysitting more than anything else..." It's all part of the celebration!

One of our elders thought about our $2M goal in these terms. . . .

I’m standing and kneeling with you and the gang on the BOTL this week.

I keep thinking about what we always discussed, the pressure is OFF of US and ON the Lord to accomplish His purpose in the hearts of His flock. I am giddy with excitement to see what God will do this weekend.

Just think IF, 500 people pledged 4,000 or approx $120/mo we would raise $2M.

I think that's an interesting way to think about it! Some will give more than $120/mo. Some will give less. All will give to the Lord.

Here's that funny Annex Renewal video for your Wednesday enjoyment. . . .

satelite feed in pozo?

Here's the latest Building on the Legacy Vision Video from Josh and the gang. It's a light-hearted look at why we are trying to pray and plan ahead. What will these guys do next?

It's so hard to imagine what Grace might look like in 25 years. The Lord knows. . . . We want to live by faith in our day and generation, like the founding folks did in their generation . . . Pray and dream with us.

Why are you excited about our Building on the Legacy Vision?

Here's that video we showed a couple of weeks back in the service about our "Building on the Legacy" Vision.

Be praying and plan to attend The Building on the Legacy Pledge Banquet on Sunday, April 29.

Did you get it?

Hopefully, if you attend Grace, you've received and carefully read the whopping 3 page congregational letter sent earlier this week. It was a bear to get out. We had crazy copier issues.

In case you didn't get it, there will be copies available at tomorrow's services or you can just read it right here. . .

Beloved Family of Grace,

As 2007 is now in full swing, I wanted to take some time to update you on some significant happenings this Winter and Spring at Grace Church, San Luis Obispo. This long and detailed letter contains important and valuable information that you need to know. I encourage you to read it slowly and carefully. Please keep it for future reference.

As hopefully you are aware by now, after much prayer and planning among our elders, ministry staff and broader leadership, we are now leaning forward into a new and bold vision that we’re calling Building on the Legacy. Leading up to the New Year, our elders hosted four separate Vision Forums to inform and invite feedback concerning our emerging vision. We were encouraged and emboldened by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the great majority of those who attended. I hope that you had an opportunity to attend one of our four Vision Forums, but in case you didn’t, I wanted to present it to you now.

Priorities of the Building on the Legacy Vision
Our 75th Anniversary Celebration this last Spring took us backward in time where we together had the chance to reflect on both the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of His people here at Grace these many years. Looking back on our rich 75 year history and the work of God through Grace here on the Central Coast has caused us to look ahead by faith to the future and ask. . .

“What now, Lord? How would You have us build on the legacy of faithfulness?”

As we continue to passionately and aggressively celebrate, proclaim and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the Central Coast and beyond, Building on the Legacy is the first step in what will be an evolving 25 year vision looking forward to our 100th Year Anniversary. Building on the Legacy specifically addresses the important and complicated area of our campus facilities and their relationship to our overall ministry.

The area of campus facilities is a unique area of our ministry in that it requires long term strategic and financial planning. We have identified three immediate and important priorities related to our campus facilities that we are seeking to address through our Building on the Legacy Vision:

1. Parking: Our 25 year parking agreement for the lot across Osos Street expires in December 2007. Obviously, this is a major concern. We need a visionary parking plan that will address the city’s requirements for work week staff parking as well as our current and projected congregational parking needs.
   
   
2. Property Acquisition: Throughout our long history, the leadership of Grace prayed and planned strategically about our place and presence in the community. God has bountifully blessed that process as we now occupy a strategic corner giving us an amazing, debt-free downtown presence in the middle of San Luis Obispo in the heart of the Central Coast.
   
   We are trying to build on that legacy as we look to the future. The quickening pace of downtown redevelopment has spurred our thinking about our current and future place in our community’s landscape. We have recognized a unique window of opportunity to acquire adjacent and nearby properties before these properties are possibly redeveloped. Our active planning for the acquisition of nearby properties, should they become available for purchase, opens up some exciting possibilities for immediate classroom meeting space and future campus expansion, including, in the very long term, the possibility of a new larger worship center, if the Lord should will it. The Lord knows the plans He has for us (Jer. 29:11), but if we don’t pray and plan, these possibilities will not become realities. By faith, we have set an initial goal to raise $1 million for the Property Acquisition Fund.
   
   
3. Annex Renewal: The 50 year old building attached to and behind our current Sanctuary has always been called “The Annex.” Since the early 80s, the Grace Church Master Plan has called for the reconfiguration and remodel of this space. We’ve been actively talking about this project for the last four years. Now it’s time to get it done. Renewing the Annex will (1) bring some much needed improvements to our circulation flow by creating some new hallways and corridors; (2) provide improvements to our early childhood area; and (3) transform our old gym into a valuable multi-use Founders Hall for adult education, overflow homeless ministry, and an array of other current and new ministry possibilities. We have estimated our costs for the Annex Renewal project to be just under $1 million.

Your Part in the Building on the Legacy Vision
If you’ve been reading carefully up to this point (and I hope you have!) you’ve figured out that part of our Building on the Legacy Vision will involve a capital fund-raising campaign to raise $2 million dollars or more for future Property Acquisition and Annex Renewal.

I invite you right now to begin praying and planning about your financial participation in our Building on the Legacy Vision.

Beginning Sunday February 4, we will begin sharing 3-5 minute Building on the Legacy spotlight moments in our worship services where each week we’ll share a piece of the vision from a different angle. Over the Winter and Spring our goal is for you to know exactly what we’re doing, where we’re going and why. As we did at each of our four Vision Forums, we always welcome and encourage your feedback and input.

Along the way, we’ll provide opportunities to gather and pray for our emerging vision, for our community and for our whole ministry. Our first Building on the Legacy Prayer Forum will be on the evening of Wednesday, February 7 at 6:00 pm in the Sanctuary and will be led by our Building on the Legacy Prayer Coordinator, Donny Valliere. We’ll be providing other opportunities to pray along the way through Growth Groups and Sunday Morning Adult Bible Fellowships.

All of this will lead up to and culminate at a very special Building on the Legacy Pledge Banquet on Sunday Evening, April 29 where all those who worship at Grace will be invited to offer their gifts to the Lord in the form of one time gifts and/or three year pledge commitments. Our desire is that this event will be an exciting evening of celebration as we give ourselves to the Lord and renew our commitment to His work here on the Central Coast.

This will be the one time when you will be asked to make a financial commitment to the Building on the Legacy Vision and we will determine the scope and direction of our plans based on the amount of gifts and pledges received on that night. Our leadership is trusting our Sovereign and Faithful God in all
these things. Faithful is He who has called us and He will bring it to pass (1 Thes. 5:24). If we do not reach our financial goal of $2 million dollars, we will scale back and take another look at our vision. If we exceed our financial goal of $2 million dollars, we will accelerate the pace of our vision.

Between now and our Pledge Banquet on April 29, we invite you to trust the Lord with us as you consider your financial part.

Money is a sensitive area for all of us. We believe that God calls us to live by faith in this area as well as in all areas of our lives. The Bible is clear that God wants us to give of ourselves and our finances to His work bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6), sacrificially (Phil. 4:18), consistently (Prov. 3:9) and cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7).

While you can expect to be personally invited to attend our Building on the Legacy Pledge Banquet, our heart’s desire is that you would not feel pressured to give, but excited and eager to give as God has blessed. We want you to celebrate and participate in the work of the Lord with us. Some will give more than others. Each will give as the Lord has blessed and as He leads. Each and every gift will be gratefully received as an offering to the Lord and His work through Grace Church. Your gifts and sacrifice touch and impact eternity.

Grace Church, San Luis Obispo is Christ’s church, but it’s also your church. The place where you worship weekly. The place where your family is spiritually fed and nurtured. The place where your children are dedicated, loved, baptized and married. The place where your loved ones are grieved. The place where we live life together before the face of God. The place where God is at work. We encourage you to be a part of the future as we build on the legacy of faithfulness together.

Other Important Matters
While the Building on the Legacy Vision is a big thing that’s happening the first part of this year, it’s sure not the only thing. Here are a few other big pieces that you need to be aware of:

• The Preaching Plan: We’ll transition from our January preaching series in Jonah back to Matthew where we’ll finally wrap up that big and long series right around Easter or so.
  
  
• 2007 Missions Conference, February 25 – March 4: The theme of this year’s Mission’s Conference, which will happen over two Sundays, is Grace Around the World. We are privileged to have Peter Xu, a leader in the house church movement in China, with us on February 25. The Mission’s Committee has some fresh, creative and new things planned for this exciting week. It’s going to be a challenging and unique kind of Mission’s Conference. . . I guarantee it.
  
  
• Staff Shuffle: Since last summer, our staff has been in a bit of transition. Now we face another transition. After three and a half amazing years, we will sadly say good-bye to Kathy Borland, our Business Administrator, as she moves on to other exciting opportunities which the Lord has provided. Though much of what she has accomplished has been behind the scenes and unseen by most in the congregation, Kathy’s contribution to our ministry and organization infrastructure has been enormous and cannot be overstated. We’re grateful that Kathy is staying in the area and will continue to serve as a part of our broader leadership. We are carefully considering how to cover Kathy’s many responsibilities.
  
  In addition, we are still actively searching for a Youth Pastor as part of a plan to transition Pastor Ken to the position of Pastor of Family Ministries. We are zeroing in on an excellent candidate. On top of all that, we’re prayerfully considering the calling of a part-time Missions Pastor, an extraordinary and uniquely gifted man that God has brought to us. We’ll see what God has for us!

Are you still reading? If so, I thank you for your time and attention. As you can see, it’s going to be another full and fruitful year here at Grace. When I stop and think about it all, I can easily get overwhelmed. I am so glad that our Great and Sovereign God is in control. He knows the plans He has for us (Jer. 29:11)!

Thanks for your faithfulness to the Lord and His work here at Grace. I am privileged to serve as your pastor. There’s no other place or people I’d rather serve.

I am His and I am yours . . . because of and for the Gospel,

Tim Theule
Lead Pastor
Grace Church, SLO

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. . . . 2 Corinthians 9:7-8