So much is going on behind-the-scenes with Northstar’s Immeasurably More campaign. There are things to celebrate, questions to answer and challenges to overcome by faith and in prayer. A project of this magnitude is both daunting and exciting.

Where are we?

First a little history and context – since we launched the Immeasurably More campaign in October 2015, God has graciously provided the following through the generosity of members and friends:

 

  • 2015 – $893,872
  • 2016 – $915,792
  • 2017 – $300,004 (end of October)

That means the the total money raised so far is $2,493,255!

At the end of October, we had money in the bank totaling $1,868,792.

Things to celebrate:
  • Even before we began our campaign, members had given $383,588 toward a “Next Location Fund!”
  • We bought and paid for 10 acres ($575,000)!
  • We hired Spectrum Design out of Roanoke for our initial design and also for our bridging documents.
  • We began using a fundraising company, and when we realized they just didn’t “get us,” we released them and designed and developed our own building campaign.
  • We’ve experienced God’s provision and signs of favor along the way (think rainbow on the land on Commitment Sunday, 2015!).

I am so thankful for our Immeasurably More leadership team. I cannot describe how comforting it is to have church members of such deep commitment and belief that they have invested hours (and I mean HOURS) serving our church family in organizing, leading, researching, praying, communicating, and working so diligently to help make our ministry center a reality.

I traveled to Hillsville this Wednesday evening with four members of the team to meet with a contractor who had offered to give us perspective and review our plans – for free. We met him at HIS church, where he is the primary youth leader, with his wife, and he and the pastor proudly showed us around their three-year-old facility and talked to us about how God had worked in their own building process. It was deeply encouraging.

This week we received an offer from a local company to share the cost with us of putting in sewer on our land, provided that they could tap into it for a development they are involved in. It will save us about $250,000 on our site development costs! We were incredibly grateful for how God is continuing to bless and give us favor in our project.

Where are we, and when will we see dirt begin to move?

I think that’s the question everyone is asking. After the church membership voted to approve financing the project with Ziegler, our team continued to research, and we were on the verge of getting a financial audit done for the financing company when we received word that our 2017 income to date (you can see above) is not what they were expecting to see. Since it’s substantially less than prior years (so far), they advised us to wait until the end of the year to see what our receipts look like before proceeding with the audit or applying for financing.

It would be easy to get discouraged. Rather, we are confident. We see this as an encouraging period to continue to communicate with you, our church family, about our reality. Northstar… we can’t do this. It’s beyond us. We’ve known that from the beginning. And yet, we know that we must build. Here are a few reasons I can think of off the top of my head:

  • Our vision of creating a ministry center that will also be a community center is a strategic outreach and meets needs in our town and county.
  • We believe that a ministry center will provide us with countless practical ways to do ministry better, reaching families, students, and youth.
  • A ministry center will provide our members and guests with a destination for meetings, retreats, events, and small group opportunities that will build relationships.
  • A ministry center will be our launch pad, our diving board and a catalyst to local, state and international missions.
  • We have been meeting in BMS for 14 years now, and the welcome mat is becoming threadbare. 😉

So where are we? You didn’t answer my question!

I heard you… I was trying to provide content. 😉 The short answer is that we are waiting until the end of December 2017 to see how gifts and pledges come in for the remainder of the year. At that time, our team will either proceed with applying for financing, or we will wait until more funds are given so that we do not have to finance as much.

If we were approved for financing AS-IS, our monthly commitment for the first two years would be approximately $25,000 (interest only) and then ~$33,000 after that for debt service. We don’t want to proceed and place the church in an unwise financial situation. Simultaneously, we DO want to move forward in faith and trust. Do you feel the tension?

We’ve had two AMAZING campaign years in 2015 and 2016. This October marked the beginning of our final year of the original campaign (meaning those who made three-year pledges in 2015 will conclude their original commitment in October 2018).

Some of our team’s goals are to:

  • Contact alumni and invite those who have moved from Blacksburg to make one-year pledges to the campaign as a “giving back” love offering
  • Invite those who have joined Northstar since the campaign’s beginning in 2015 to make three-year commitments (which would extend the campaign beyond October 2018)
  • Encourage those who HAVE committed and ARE giving regularly.
  • Add team members – especially to our Fundraising and Communications Teams. If you are interested in serving on either, please contact Justin Yalung or Darrell Cook, respectively.
  • Celebrate what God is doing!

This Sunday, we will dedicate a potion of the service to praying for our IM campaign and project. Prayer has been our fuel throughout this process. We prayed for our future location years before we ever began looking for one. We prayed constantly in the three years that we actively searched for a site. Members began giving to our “Next Location Fund” (catchy title) before we even found a location. We have prayed and given for and to a future that we earnestly believe God has called us.

These in-between times… These days are the hard work, the gritty reality of faith. When dirt begins to move and walls begin to rise.. that may be physical work. But the real work is NOW. Praying, giving, believing, trusting, hoping. It’s the stuff of faith and hope.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24-25)

Give us some feedback

  • What are YOUR reasons that you think we must build? We’d love to hear them in the comments!
  • Share about our project, vision and hope with family and friends – either through sharing this article or our campaign website.
  • Pray at least weekly for our church and our vision for the Immeasurably More campaign.
  • Make a commitment to the campaign if you have not already done so.