Since we first announced our Forward Campus Plans to address some campus modifications, we have been overwhelmed with encouraging feedback, excited affirmation, and even additional finances to begin this project.

What a special sense of unity and joy!

Forward Campus Plan Phases

1. updating the sanctuary,
2. upgrading our playground,
3. remodeling flexible meeting spaces, and
4. renovating the hub of our campus as a place of connection for our church.

We have tried to do our best job to communicate through Waypoint, handouts, blog posts, and Q&A sessions this week.  Since there is so much to share, we wanted to give you some additional points of information of how we came to these concepts.

We won’t post specific numbers in this post since this is a public piece, but hopefully, this will give you a guide as you look through our internal documents.

1. We want to continue to give away.  Rocky Creek sends an incredible amount of financial resources every year to ministries outside our walls.  If you think about how much that would be over say the last 10 years (check your budget documents for recent number), it’s amazing to think about how many places our resources have gone to support.  If you think that our existing sanctuary has been used for 47 years this year, that is a lot of finances that have not been used to update that existing space.  In the grand scheme of 1 year – but especially 47 years – the cost proposed for upgrade is minimal.
2. The longer we wait, the more expensive it becomes.  While some of the phases we mention are not urgent, they will be one day.  A dollar spent this year on such construction is inflated in a few years to come when things no longer work or function.  It will be cheaper in the long run to spend it now than have to spend more of it later.
3. Selling of properties.  Since a significant percentage of this reserve fund comes from the selling of two properties that belonged to Rocky Creek, it makes sense to transfer those funds to a campus plan.
4. Growing finances to support.  When we first reported to you the 4 phases, we told you that Phase 1 was 100% funded, Phase 2 was 100% funded, Phase 3 was 37% funded, and Phase 4 was 0% funded.  We made our presentation on Nov. 12 before our October financial accounts were resolved.  So without any additional knowledge or support, our church continued to give above and beyond, and we are happy to say that after the October accounts are resolved, 52% of Phase 3 could be funded.  That’s a 15% increase for Phase 3 without anyone knowing they could be giving more to a plan of which they were unaware of during that month!  We can’t wait to see what November and December holds!  Do you have an end of the year gift you want to give towards this process?  Rocky Creek member or not, we have people who desire to support this church, and you are welcome to give in the remaining weeks of this year to help push us forward!
5. We want to protect our operating expenses.  If we fail to address certain items with the reserved funds, it will later have to come out of operating expenses which will cut into our ministry support.  If we handle it this way now, we continue to give out a huge amount of finances to wonderful ministries in Greenville and to the ends of the earth.  We want to free up additional resources to send out more money than even what we do now.
6. We don’t want building payments in our budget.  In addition to the numerous mission partnerships we support, our existing budget does an incredible job of supporting ministry housed at our Rocky Creek campus.  We don’t want to get ourselves into a situation where we have to use ministry dollars to pay interest on loans because we didn’t plan well.
7. We want to be good stewards to address all ministry tools.  While I personally don’t prefer spending dollars on brick and mortar, all things in ministry are tools.  The buildings we gather in to snacks given for preschoolers to discipleship curriculum – none of them are necessary but they can be good tools to use.  What has been suggested is not frivolous or taking away from ministry but safeguarding it as an investment and allowance for additional support in the future.
8. We are going the more fiscally responsible and wiser route.  We are also taking a stance against spending more money for buildings by remodeling versus constructing a new sanctuary.  Many consultants and members wish we would build a bigger sanctuary and at this time, we are against spending that type of money.  With having to keep our existing parking in a landlocked situation, we honestly feel like we would spend millions of dollars for 100-200 extra seats than what we have now and we simply do not believe that to be the wisest stewardship.

We are excited!  Keep these dates in mind as we go forward!

CALENDAR

Timeline for Updates, Construction, and Funding: 

• November 12, 2017 – Information presented to church at Waypoint in sanctuary at 6:00 pm
• November 19, 2017 – 2018 church budget approved in morning services at 9:00 am and 10:30 am
• November 26, 2017 – Church council and staff available in the fellowship hall at 5:00 pm on Sunday to answer any questions regarding the building program
• November 29, 2017 – Church council and staff available in the fellowship hall at 7:30 pm on Wednesday to answer any questions regarding the building program
• December 17, 2017 – The church votes to affirm the four proposals and establishes a building fund
• Early 2018 – Phase 1 and Phase 2 begin
• April 2018 – Church council will provide an update regarding Phase Three and Phase Four and seek affirmation from the church regarding next steps