VolunTour

We had an awesome VolunTour today at our Robins Campus. Hundreds of new volunteers have signed up to help with our new or expanded children's, youth, facility, landscaping, parking, welcome center, weekday reception, cafe, greeter, and kitchen ministries.

On the tour today a met a family for the first time. They have attended four Sundays. They saw our new building and thought they would check us out! I'm thankful to be part of a family of growing disciples who are committed to Christ, community and cause.

I was excited to see Galyn Peterson come for a tour. Galyn is 94 and is looking for new ways to serve! I want to be like Galyn when I turn 90, excited about the future and fully invested in the present.

Our first service at our Robins Campus will be Sunday, August 28. Service times will be 8:00, 9:25 and 11:05 AM.

A Growing Family

We enjoyed a tour of our new site this morning after Leadership Community. A lot of progress has been made the last few months! You can go here to see a slide show of our tour.

The building is awesome, but it only facilitates ministry. What we're building is not a "church." Our people are the church. We are constructing a building that facilitates ministry.

So please help me out by not referring to our new building as a "church." It will be an awesome space that will help our church family worship Christ, connect to community and work together to further our cause. Together, we are becoming a family of growing disciples!

30-Day Challenge

Our 30-Day Challenge begins today. I'm so excited about the journey that God has for us over the next five weeks. We are encouraging each person in our church family to spend daily time along with God through the disciplines of Bible reading, prayer and journaling. The Reading Journal section of your Journey Guide has one page a day for you to use for this purpose.

I invite you to pick up a Journey Guide if you have not already done so, and join me on the 30-Day Challenge. You can also go to the 30-Day Challenge blog to read the daily devotional and/or comment on what you are learning. You can also subscribe to the daily e-mail devotional by going to this page and following the instructions.

Ask God to speak to you as you spend time with Him. I invite you to accept the 30-Day Challenge. Share what you are learning with your small group or leave a comment on the blog. These are exciting days in the life of our church. Ask God to show you want He wants to do through you to accomplish His will for our church.

See you on the journey!

Let the Journey Begin

Sunday was an incredible day! Information Sunday, journey guides, and Impact Groups created a buzz in the lobbies at both our 46th Street and Wash campuses. You can click on the picture above to see a slide show of the day.

Pastor Bob along with Mark Johnson, Ed Luebe, and John Maurice presented how we arrived at the decision to relocate. In 2003 our Building Committee recommended that we not further grow on our current site, but seek out other alternatives. We brought in church consultant Bob Gilliam a month later to do a comprehensive facility analysis. At the end of the consultation, all of our elders, deacons and equipping staff unanimously selected the relocation option.

In 2004 our Elders voted to relocate. A Property Acquisition Team began to look at potential properties. Then in May 2005 our church family voted 204-2 to purchase 55 acres on North Center Point Road in Robins.

It has been an exciting journey that brings us right up to this point. And now we are embarking on our Embracing Faith capital stewardship campaign in order to raise $10 million dollars! This is a God-sized vision and will require God-sized resources.

Yesterday, Pastor Bob asked everyone member and attender to begin a spiritual journey, asking: "God, what do you want to do through me to accomplish your will for New Covenant Bible Church?" The answers to that prayer will begin to unfold over the next two months.

We handed out Journey Guides at the end of the services to assist each person on their spiritual journey. And this Sunday was the last day to sign up to participate in an Impact Group during the Embracing Faith series.

Let me encourage you to ask God what part He wants you to play. Inform yourself and then begin to pray. Grapple with what sacrifice means to you. Ask God to lead and guide you as you seek to make not just a financial decision, but a spiritual decision. Let the journey begin!

Faithful Endeavor Relocation Journey

Our church family gathered together on Tuesday evening to listen to an update from the Relocation Leadership Team regarding our architectural master plan. It was an exciting meeting as we:

• Recalled our history and how we embraced faith to move from G Avenue to our present location in 1982


• Reviewed our design values and our desire that our new facility be welcoming, comfortable, functional, expandable and flexible


• Listened to Tom Smith from CDH Partners present the master plan and phase 1 design


• Heard a presentation from John Maurice regarding the total project cost and funding


• Reviewed the timeline regarding the relocation project


• Dreamed of what God could do through a people who are totally devoted to Him and what part each of us can play


• Had a time of Q and A with the Relocation Leadership Team, Tom Smith, Steve Emerson (our owners rep), and representatives from Rinderknecht Associates


• Had time to review the drawings and ask further questions in the lobby after the meeting was over

It was quite an evening! What's the next step? Our relocation journey is all about God and His glory. We need to pray for direction and discernment. We need to continue to give faithfully to the Embracing Faith stewardship campaign, and pray about what God would have us give toward the second campaign in January 2008. And lastly, we need to continue be involved in prayer, care and share. Leading people into a growing, personal relationship with Jesus Christ is what we are all about.

We handed out a Faithful Endeavor Newsletter at the end of the meeting. You can read an online version by clicking here. Please be patient - it's a six page newsletter and it takes a while to download. You can also see a short slide show of the evening by clicking on the picture above.

Our new property has been purchased, our master plan has been designed and our Phase 1 drawings are prepared. We are ready to embark on the next step of our relocation journey!

The Throne Zone ~ Part 2

Tom Smith, our architect with CDH Partners, returned on Monday and Tuesday to continue to revise and refine our master plan. Gordon Parker and Joe Fay from Rinderknecht Associates sat in on the meetings in order to get a better understanding our project. You can click on the picture above to see a short slide show.

We are starting to wrap up the master planning process but a lot of very important decisions remain. Terry Biglow from CDH Partners also traveled to Cedar Rapids with Tom Smith. Terry spent all day Monday talking to consultants and the City of Robins engineers to try and get a handle on traffic and utility issues.

The Relocation Team met later Monday evening to debrief. We are working on several issues simultaneously that can impact the size, scope and cost of the first phase of our relocation project.

Here are some issues that need specific prayer:

• The master planning process and wisdom regarding how to phase the project
• Attendance and cash flow projections
• Cost estimating regarding the building cost and value engineering decisions
• Site development issues such as sewer, water, natural gas, electricity, and traffic flow

We are right in the middle of the "throne zone," the place where we have to trust God. This is a God-sized project and we need God-sized answers to prayer. We need His wisdom, His provision and His empowerment. This is His project, for His people, for His glory.

Entering the Throne Zone

We spent the entire day with our architect, Tom Smith. We met with a variety of staff and ministry leaders as we continued working on the master planning process. Tom Amosson and Gordon Parker from Rinderknecht Associates joined us for the entire day in order to get up to speed with our project. You can click on the picture above to see a slide show regarding some of our planning sessions.

This evening we had another session with our Relocation Team, reviewing the progress that has been made to date and refining our time line. During our evening session we presented Tom Smith with one of our "Team Hats." I was reminded again today regarding what a great team God has assembled for this project.

We have now reached what our architect calls the 'groan zone." The "groan zone" is where your wants exceed what you can afford to build and you have to make the hard decisions regarding what to defer to a later phase. We have decided to call this the "throne zone" phase. That is, we are asking God to give our builder, architect and Relocation Team wisdom regarding what He wants us to build and what we can afford. This is not just about bricks and mortar, it's a spiritual endeavor. And it requires supernatural wisdom.

Please pray for this process. For Tom Smith, our architect as he puts his pencil to the paper in an effort to reduce the square footage of the facility. For Gordon Parker as he begins to do cost estimating and value engineering in several months. For our staff and ministry leaders as they do program planning and meet with the architect to do needs assessment. And for our Relocation Team as they set priorities and make important decisions regarding the recommended size and scope of this project.

We have entered an important phase of our relocation project. During the next several months vision and reality will brought together into a phased master plan that will be presented to our entire church family. We are now entering the throne zone.

A Reason To Celebrate

We are pleased to announce that our Relocation Team and Elder Board have both voted unanimously to utilize Rinderknecht Associates as our general contractor. Several representatives from our Relocation Team delivered the good news to Tom Amosson and his team this past Wednesday morning.

It’s always fun to be bearers of “good news.” And that’s our prayer, that God would use our new property and facility to help us share the Good News of the Gospel with more people. We know that seeing lost people found puts a smile on God’s face. Now that’s a reason to celebrate!

Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. Luke 15:23-24

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believe in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15

A Spiritual Journey

Mike Buster

It's been a busy 2 1/2 days. We've had the priviledge of having Mike Buster at New Covenant to talk to our staff, elders, and deacons about church relocation and construction issues. Mike is the Executive Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church where he has served for the past 15 years.

Bob and I met Mike on our trip to Dallas last month. Mike graciously met with us during the middle of his busy day to help us learn more about church construction. We were so impressed with Mike that we recommended bringing him to New Covenant to talk to our leadership team. Mike has overseen 10 building programs during the past 13 years and has learned how to bring a building project in on budget, on time and on target. Mike also oversaw Pestonwood's relocation to their present site in 1999.

During the past three days Mike has talked with us about staffing, construction, relocation, and member assimilation issues. I especially enjoyed his presentation titled, Top Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Relocating. Mistake #1 is Making The Relocation Process A Secular Journey. Mike warned us that we can expect spiritual warfare and opposition. This is not about building a new church, but a spiritual journey that can transform lives. He encouraged us to enjoy the journey and to make prayer a priority.

We appreciated all that Mike shared with us, but we were the most impressed with his servant heart. In retrospect, we overbooked Mike's schedule. He was exhausted by the end of his last presentation tonight, but he passed every test with flying colors.

I will pick Mike up at Bob's tomorrow morning at 4:45 AM so he can catch his 6:00 AM flight back to Dallas. Our time together has come to a close .... but our spiritual journey has just begun.