# Master Plan Update 10.25.26 **Channel:** CalvaryNow **Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnUdTF-K9g **Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/wOnUdTF-K9g ## Chapters - 0:05 — God's Faithfulness and Future Vision - 1:39 — Revelation and the Church's Calling - 7:16 — Vision, Growth, and Planning Priorities - 15:00 — West Campus Plan and New Proposal - 24:49 — Campus Expansion and School Impact - 37:10 — Cost, Faith, and Generational Legacy - 47:45 — Next Steps and Prayerful Response ## Transcript **[0:05] Speaker A:** There are moments when we look back and realize just how faithful God has been. We remember the prayers, the people, the stories, the moments when God opened a door and the moments where he made a way where we couldn't see one. Generation after generation, God has been faithful. **[0:27] Speaker A:** He's been faithful and God is still moving today. He's changing lives and bringing people together. And today, he's opening doors that would have been hard to imagine a generation ago. **[0:43] Speaker A:** There's a story unfolding at Calvary and we are part of it. So, what do we do when we see all that God is doing? We look to the future and ask a different question. What if? What if he wants to do more than we can see right now? More lives changed and more people finding hope. More generations growing in the faith. More churches planted. More people being sent. What if we trusted God for even more? We've witnessed his faithfulness in the past. We're witnessing it today. And we believe there is more ahead. **[1:30] Speaker A:** And whatever God has ahead, we want to step into it together. **[1:39] Speaker B:** Well, good morning. I want to invite you if you have your Bible with you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 5 for just a moment. Man, it is great to be with you. As Steven mentioned, this morning is going to feel a little bit different as we talk about vision and where we believe God is calling us as a church. And as we start talking about that, I want to just remind you of how encouraged I've been as we have been walking through this study through different aspects and parts of the book of Revelation. And my heart has been gripped by a couple of things. You know, when we talk about vision, first The first thing that just kind of wrecked me a little bit over these last weeks is this glorious future that awaits for for all of us. Last week I shared a message with you from Revelation chapter 21, where we looked at that glorious future where John receives this extraordinary vision of heaven coming down to earth. **[2:36] Speaker B:** Where finally God will forever dwell with his people and he will be our God, we will be his people, all things will have been made new, there's not going to be any more death, there's not going to be any more pain or grief or sorrow. God will have wiped away every tear from our eyes and all God's people should say amen to that. I mean, it's incredible to think about a world that's free from the curse and the corruption of sin. And a world God where things will finally be made right. Can you imagine the day? Can you imagine the day in your life when your faith will have become sight? And you will see King Jesus. The one who suffered and died in your place. You'll see him face to face. And you'll get to worship him and be with him forever and ever. **[3:29] Speaker B:** And the depth of the gratitude never gets old. I was thinking about that this week in our Bible reading plan as we came to Revelation chapter 5 in our reading. And there in verse 13, when it says the scripture says, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever." Man, I don't know about you, but I look forward with great anticipation to that day. And I think about us being able to do I I I I I saw this this week. I was thinking about it for a few minutes. You all remember back in 2003 when um I can't remember his first name. I think it's Chelsea Sullenberger flew was a pilot and he was flying out of New York and the plane takes off and it hits all the birds and then they he's like, "Man, I can't turn the plane back **[4:17] Speaker B:** around to get back to LaGuardia or Teterboro." He's like, "Got to like land the plane in the Hudson River." And so he lands it and all like the things that needed to happen perfectly happened perfectly. And with great skill and precision, he lands this plane into the Hudson River and there were 105 peop- 55 people on board. I love how they talk about it like when you talk about airplane disasters it's like how many souls were on board. It's like, "Well, that's right." 155 souls on board. A few weeks after that here's the here's the point I want to make. A few weeks after that they got together. They pulled Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot and all the flight attendants and they brought them together and they put them in a room with all the people who were on the plane and their families. And watching their reaction to him was extraordinary. **[5:09] Speaker B:** They were coming up to him and they were like, "Thank you for saving my life." Wives were coming up going, "Thank you for not making me a widow." Children were just full of gratitude because their dad or their mom's life was saved by the heroic and just calm action of these pilots and flight attendants. And I started thinking about that. Can you imagine what that that must feel for him and how thankful those people are to him for that? Now, imagine that with King Jesus. Imagine being able to sit there and be like, "Man, thank you for saving my life." Thank you for giving me a hope and a purpose. My heart has been just struck by that as we think about that in our study of Revelation. That's where everything is heading. That's the vision that we have as followers of Christ. The future that Christ has secured for us, but there's another thing that's just been so evident and true to me as we've walked through this and that is that Jesus cares deeply about his church right now. **[6:08] Speaker B:** As we've studied the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, these unique specific churches that God is writing a letters to. This says that Jesus is among them. He knows them. He understands them. He sees their works. He sees their shortcomings. He sees areas of growth and improvement, areas where they're dissenting, areas where they're compromising, and he calls them up into and he says, "Listen, church, I want you to be faithful. I want you to be faithful to the very end." And that's why we're in this series, to the end. What does it look like for us to stay on mission and be faithful? And I hope, for those of you who are our guests this morning, it's going to feel a little different. I hope you'll come back next week as we continue in that series together. But for this morning, I want us to think about faithfulness from a slightly different perspective. **[7:03] Speaker B:** And that perspective is this, what does it look like for us to be faithful today in all that God is calling us to while also preparing for the generations who are going to come after us? **[7:16] Speaker B:** Four years ago, our staff amongst along with other leaders, we sat down to write what we believe the mission God was calling us to as a church as well as the a vision of what we wanted to be true of us by the year 2030. And we've been sharing that with you along the way and the things that we wanted to give our lives to, the type of church we wanted to be a part of and said, "Man, this is this is where we want to go." And at the end of our vision, it simply says this, "For the glory of God and the good of all people, we are prayerfully following Jesus into this better future and giving ourselves to his greater mission for this reason. So, Calvary would be a place of belonging and hope for generations to come." And it's that phrase, "for generations to come that I want us to sit with this morning. **[8:13] Speaker B:** Because I I love that in our vision statement because it reminds us it's not just about what we're doing today. It's preparing for what God wants to do for those who will come after us. And that's the question that I want us to pose. How can we be faithful with what God has entrusted us with for the next for those who will come after us in the next 25 years. And that's what led us into this master planning process several many months ago. There were three things that we felt like were really driving us. So, before I talk about the future and where we're going, let me remind you just a little bit of the process cuz I you're going to need to have that in mind as we look at these things together. There were three things that were really driving us. The first is our mission drives everything we do. **[9:03] Speaker B:** And that needs to include our facilities. Hopefully by now you'll be able to articulate with me what our mission is that Calvary exists to help people set their hope in God and to engage in the mission of God. That's what we're giving That's the biblical vision for every church. Let you help people set their hope in God and engage in the mission of God. But then we said these are the things that we wanted to be true by 2030. So, we wrote that vision down and that vision is driving us. It's informing the decisions we make. It's informing the ministries we start and the money we give ourselves to and all of those things are driven by our vision. So, mission drives everything including our facilities. That was one of the reasons. A second reason was we're growing and so are the needs. We said as a part of that vision we wanted to be a growing family united together by the gospel where people from every age and background are warmly welcomed and connected to Jesus. **[9:55] Speaker B:** And so, if it's okay with you, I want us just to celebrate right here for just a second. Did you know that since January 1st, 2022, 1,071 people have joined our church? Can we thank God for that this morning, Calvary? I I that's incredible. Our worship attendance over our campuses has increased. Here at Peace Haven, it's grown since 2022 over 30% at our West Campus, I'm pleased to tell you it's grown over 70%. It's growing as our reach is expanding. We're seeing God do immeasurably more. We said we wanted to see the gospel change lives. Since January 2022, we have baptized 445 people and as of this morning, 446. Can we thank God for that? **[10:42] Speaker A:** When we look at the ministries of our church, of which our school is one, a ministry, over the last 10 years our school has nearly doubled in attendance. There's over 1,030 kids in our school. Did you know that that represents 720 different families across our community that are impacted by our school and last year alone, 60 professions of faith were made as a result of the ministry of our school. And I'm so thankful. Yeah, we can definitely thank God for that. But here's the challenge. With the growth comes opportunity. With the growth comes how then do we continue to invest in and see all of our ministries, position them to continue to grow and to continue to thrive. So, at our West Campus, we've got pinch points when it comes to space for our family ministries to be able to grow into. You think about just the complexities there. **[11:30] Speaker A:** We want to get those things right and provide that for families so more people can be reached going forward. When we think about our school, I'm I'm glad that we can sit here and celebrate over 1,000 kids being part of that ministry of our church, but can I tell you this is the first year that our school's not going to be able to grow because we're simply out of space. There's nowhere else to put people. Not in continue to do the ministries that we believe God is calling us to across the board. So, we're growing and so are the needs. And then the third reason why we said this was the right time was because we want to steward well what God has entrusted to us. We know that we have aging facilities and just like your home, we need to invest in those things. **[12:07] Speaker A:** And so, those things began to inform our process in our thinking. And so, our impact planning team got together with leaders from our church. We began praying and assessing where we were and how we could move and we began to establish some priorities that governed the master planning process. Let me remind you of what those priorities were. You this isn't new to you. Our first priority was getting our next gen spaces right for the next generation, for our kids and for our student ministries. We know that it is so important for us to be able to provide safe spaces, secure spaces and at the same time work in such a way that those things are able to happen simultaneously across our ministries and how we do that really well. We want our families to know and guests who come into our church to know that when their kids come into our programming that they're going to be taught the Bible, they're going to be shared the gospel and that's **[13:01] Speaker A:** going to be done in a safe and clean and warm and welcoming environment directly related to the needs of our kids ministry and our student ministry. We know however to do that here at our Peace Haven campus, every time you touch one space it has implications for another. So renovating space for our next gen and thinking about how do we create those right type of spaces has implications for the school and the growth of the school. And so those things were in tandem for us together. Secondly, we said we wanted to create the right worship and lobby spaces. That we created a warm and welcoming environment for people to come into and connect with one another and gather for worship and to sing God's word, to pray God's word, to hear God's word, to be shared the gospel with and respond. Our role as your pastors and I pray that we never cease trying to do this is to equip the saints for the work of ministry and that is what we give ourselves to on Sunday morning. **[13:58] Speaker A:** To faithfully teach God's word and to lead you to set your hope in God so that you can faithfully engage in the mission of God. That was important for us. Thirdly, we said day school expansion. We believe that in our city we have an opportunity to reach even more families. We believed and worked with our school and said, "We believe that we can responsibly grow to 1,300 1,300 kids and reaching that many more families and continue to do that well and be a distinctively Christian school who is helping children think, learn, and live with a biblical worldview and preparing them for what God has for them next." Fourth was making sure we had the right kind of adult space for Bible fellowship and mid-size gathering spaces for families to gather for a funeral or be a quick chapter for Bible fellowship gatherings to take place. **[14:45] Speaker A:** That mattered for us. And then finally, our last priority was to say if the Lord would will, how could we bring our athletic footprint for our school and ministries of the church onto our campus in even a more robust way. So, these were the priorities that were guiding us. **[15:00] Speaker A:** At our West Campus, you'll notice that the priorities were the same. Next gen spaces to accommodate for the growth there, right-sizing the worship and lobby spaces to create those gathering environments for our people, and then having the best possible adult space we can have to meet the burgeoning needs of our adults. And so, here's what I'd like to do. When we took these priorities, our team went back and we worked hard. We worked with our architects and we worked with our builders. And we came up with a plan under the conviction that why don't we start with, based upon everything we knew at the time at well over a year ago, why don't we start with the idea of trying to renovate our current facilities to accomplish these priorities. Let's work to accomplish that through the renovation of what we have to set us up well for the future. **[15:54] Speaker A:** And as we did that, a few things became clear to us. First of all, the West Campus, it's a great plan. The plan we presented for West and actually the plan we presented to Peace Haven, we it accomplished all the things that we set out here as priorities. And so, when we talk about our West Campus, we see that that plan actually hasn't changed from what we presented to you last fall. And I briefly want to touch on the scope of that project. We said one of our priorities was to create a new front door for our people. So that one one of two things could happen. One, so that all of the 50,000 cars that drive by our West Campus on a Sunday morning or during the week would actually know that it's a church. We wanted it just to be clear and obvious, "Hey, this is a place for you to be able to come and find belonging and hope." **[16:41] Speaker A:** And because of the growth, we knew that we needed to try to expand some of the lobby spaces. So I'm going to take you on a little tour of the inside and you can see an expanded lobby that doesn't create so much of a bottleneck as it currently does and helps people get in and out of the facility a little bit easier. You'll notice to the right of the main entrance there is a cafe for people to gather, for people to serve coffee, for people to connect week, have conversation during the week. We feel like, man, these are the types of spaces that helps us fulfill that mission and that sense of belonging and hope. We also I want to take you on the inside of the facility and remind you of some of the substantive changes that we had there. First of all, you'll notice that the lobby space is larger and we've added a new student space up here at the front where students can gather. **[17:30] Speaker A:** The reason why we needed to do that was because we've had such growth amongst our families that we needed to take the whole right side of the building and dedicate that to Next Gen Ministry, kids, preschoolers up through our elementary age. And again, remember our commitment to our families is that will be in safe and secure spaces. So you'll notice when you come in here to the kids check-in area here, everything in this blue and orange area, which represents preschool and kids, all of that is behind secure space. So the only people allowed back there are families with their children and people have been background checked by our church. So we are intentional about creating that type of space. It also meant moving our adults up to the side that faces I-40 and then on the second floor creating some flex space for our adults and also more space for our adults to gather. **[18:25] Speaker A:** So, if I take you a tour on the inside of a little bit of that, this is walking down through the lobby into that kids check-in area. That's bright, it's open, it's warm. I mean, you got to put yourself in the mind of a 5-year-old walking down the hall and seeing that. Getting excited about going into their environment where they're going to be taught God's word and shared the gospel. And then you get a glimpse of what the student ministry space could look like there. Imagine if you could 100 students gathering in that space worshipping King Jesus. Listen, part of our goal and part of our vision, you've heard us say this, is that we want to raise up the next generation of pastors and planners and ministry leaders. Can I tell you where they are right now? They're in our kids and student ministry. **[19:03] Speaker A:** We've got to raise them up and we've got to equip them well to do that and call out the call those who are going to give their lives to ministry or to ministry and to the to the mission of God and we want to help do that really well. So, you see some designated space for them. Now, this hasn't changed. What has changed is the vision that we have for our Peace Haven campus and I want to tell you why, but before I do that, let me answer a question that some people have asked me along the way. They said, "Well, you know, we see this plan, but what about our South Side campus?" Well, we have you you don't see specific changes here this morning because over the last years we have been investing in our South Side campus substantially. But, I think the number between the last three to five years we as a church have invested $400,000 through our budget to put in new industrial kitchen, to to redo the parking lot, to do the front door, to **[19:56] Speaker A:** add different gathering space inside, to renovate those things. And so, I want you to know we have a commitment there. We've just chosen to fund that through our normal operating budget and so we have been doing that. So, let me talk with you and let me share a little bit about our Peace Haven campus this morning. You know, when we got the schematic design drawings back, if you remember last fall, we presented a plan to you and said we believe this plan accomplishes all of our priorities, which it did, but the next step in that process was to go through the schematic design process. So, we funded that project and we asked for those drawings back so that we could determine the price of what it would take for us to fund the entirety of the master plan. We felt like we needed that information to both help inform how quickly we could move in accomplishing it, how much it would cost, and how the impact of all of that. **[20:50] Speaker A:** And when we got those drawings back and sat with our builder and architect, three things became abundantly clear to us. The first is this. That the cost of doing everything that we proposed was far more expensive than we initially thought it would be. We knew that it would be expensive, but it was much more expensive than we initially thought. The second thing we learned is because the cost was so expensive, we knew that we would have to phase the projects, but because of the cost, the total cost, each project would be so expensive that it would elongate the amount of time it would take for us to actually see the whole master plan come to fruition. And so, at minimum, we felt like it would take at minimum, if we could have run as fast as we could have, it would have taken us 7 to 10 years to see the master plan come to life, **[21:41] Speaker A:** the fullness of it, and that's being generous. And then the third thing that we realized, church family, is that not only would it be very expensive and take a long period of time, it would be extraordinarily disruptive to the operations of the ministries of our church, the gatherings that we had, the operations of our school and other ministries that are going on at the same time. And so, all of that caused us to take a step back. And I shared with you back in June that we felt like the responsible thing to do was to say, "Hey, let's push pause. This doesn't seem to make sense. Let's reconsider some things that we had initially taken off the table because we had this conviction that we wanted to try to use the existing structure that we had, even with some new construction on the end of A **[22:27] Speaker A:** and E to the best of our ability. And so we went back to the drawing board. And instead of focusing primarily on renovating the campus, we began asking the question, well, what if instead of renovating the campus, we started thinking about expanding the campus? What if we could build a brand new facility on our current property that was designed specifically for our church's ministry needs, while at the same time creating room for our school ministry to grow within the existing facilities? So new construction that would allow the ministries of our church to continue to grow, while at the same time allowing the ministry of our school to continue to grow within the existing structure that we have. And so we asked that question. And the reality was, when we began asking it, we feel like in every way that accomplished all the objectives and priorities that we established in the same way that the previous plan had. **[23:36] Speaker A:** But there were two additional benefits that have led us to the point where we want to come and bring this proposal to you today. The first is this, that we could, first of all, accomplish this plan in a much faster time frame. Because this would be new construction and not, you know, massive renovation, that could be taking place while the operation of the church and the ministries of the church, including the school, can continue to operate fluidly. And so we felt like instead of a minimum of 7 to 10 years completion on the most aggressive of timetables, that we could accomplish this in 2 to 3 years maximum. And we felt like that is a worthy benefit for us to consider. And then secondly, and perhaps most surprisingly, is that we feel like we can do this at a much reduced cost. And And I say much reduced cost, when we got the schematic designs back and we began looking and going through the value engineering process, even after the value engineering, we believe that we can save at minimum 30% off **[24:39] Speaker A:** the total cost. And I felt like that was very substantial and worth us moving forward and considering. And so that's what we are bringing to you this morning, church family, a proposal. **[24:49] Speaker A:** And I want to talk to you a little bit about that. We're proposing a new building that would be built on our campus that would expand our space and allow for all the ministries to grow. And I want to tell you where that new facility would be. If you can imagine walking out the back door or front door, I should say, walking out of the worship center out the front door, we're seated right here. If you can imagine a straight line out towards the back of our parking lot where you come in down here off of Peacehaven Road, you'll notice that there is a grade change and a line of trees that sit right there. This new facility would face Peacehaven Road and take into account that grade change. Let me give you another example of where it would be. If you can imagine the bottom of the screen here being Peacehaven Road, you are looking at the front entrance of the building here. **[25:39] Speaker A:** This new building would have a worship center. It would have adult Bible fellowship space. It would have safe and secure kids space as well as designated student ministry space. Now, I know that there are a lot There are a lot of questions. Let me ask or answer a couple of them right now. First of all, one of your questions might be, "Well, well, what does that mean for parking for our church?" Well, we've done some study and we've looked into this very very robustly and we believe that if we had, based upon the capacity of us gathering in here, if we had two services running at capacity, we have ample parking around our building. One of the things that we love about this plan is we shared with you from the very beginning that our desire was to make sure our front door was very clear. **[26:24] Speaker A:** Right now, with the current facility and our existing facility, our front door is the furthest point away from the parking lot. What we love about this plan is it actually puts the parking all around the new facility which with much closer access with an entrance front entrance here off of Peace Haven Road, but also an entrance from the back side of the parking lot down towards Country Club Road. Let me also share with you a second question that you're probably asking. You'll notice here that there is a checked box where our secret's building is. For us to move in this direction would require us removing the secret's building. And as we've studied this and we've thought and gone back over the last several months and looked at all the ways that the ministry the building is currently used, we believe that one, all of the ministries that are **[27:17] Speaker A:** currently taking place there have the ability to be accomplished both in this facility as well as in our new facility. And so I know there's always emotion around that I understand that building has meant a lot and a lot of wonderful ministry has taken place from that building. And we don't want in any way to diminish that. However, we believe this best sets up the ministries that are currently taking place there and expanding other ministry opportunities throughout the week and throughout the years of our church. And so let me take you on a little bit of a tour of the or I should have stopped there. This is a picture of what it could look like from the outside. You'll notice that the architecture is pretty simple. It's pretty clean and it looks real similar to what we have at our West Campus. We want to build continuity across our campuses with a very clear picture of where the front door would be. **[28:10] Speaker A:** You'll notice a little bit slightly different angle. This is a little bit further down Peace Haven Road looking back up towards 421 and you can see how the building would take into account there the grade change in the property. So if I could, I'd like to take you and show you the inside of the building with a site plan. You can see that up here on the screen. You'll notice that the building has a worship center that would seat about 1,350 people. 1,350 people you're probably saying, "Well, how many does our current worship center seat?" Well, it seats about 1,500 people. And you're so you might be saying, "Well, would this be too small?" Well, let me remind you of what our vision is. If we reached full capacity across both our campuses, we would be continuing to do one of two things at two things at the same time. **[28:57] Speaker A:** First, we would multiply services. And secondly, we would plant new churches. That's always been a part of our vision for multiplication and seeing the advancement of the kingdom there. But we believe this creates a warm and welcoming environment for people to be taught and encouraged God's word. Let me show you an inside picture of what that could potentially look like. You'll notice that there's seating on the floor as well as theater type seating on the back of the worship center. One of the things we absolutely love about this design is that it creates an opportunity for us to use the floor space differently. So, think about how that might impact our women's discipleship initiatives, our men's discipleship initiatives, other gatherings that are larger that we want to be around tables. We can pull those chairs out, we can use that space differently throughout the week and without any sort of sharing of the space allowing the ministries to thrive and flourish. **[29:54] Speaker A:** So again, this seats 1,350 people. And I know what some of you are also asking. The question is, "Well, well, what about our current worship center? What would it mean for that?" Well, listen, after we have had tons of conversation about the utilization of how our worship center is currently being utilized, we recognize that with all the ministries of our church, I hope you know how much this space is used week in and week out. But if the school and other ministries were to have this space, they would be able to expand the offerings that they're able to do in this room. So, you think about the things that are already happening like lower school chapel, upper school chapel, equipping events. You think about how the school is growing and offering its performing arts. You It would allow more of those opportunities, music environments, concerts to be able to be done. **[30:44] Speaker A:** All of those things would continue to be expanded and enhanced and utilized by the school. So, if you think about building any school today, you would know that a school would want to have an auditorium that would be used and that's functionally how this space would be used week in and week out for the ministries of our church and we're so so excited about what that opportunity presents while at the same time creating new space uh for us to have even more at our exposure. And so, let me take then a picture and keep you going through the facility. You'll notice here are some mid-size gathering spaces for adults to meet. One of our convictions is we wanted to try to get our older adults as close to the worship center as we can. This would provide some space for that as well as some opportunity for things like discover Calvary, our membership classes, other next steps to be able to gather in this space. **[31:38] Speaker A:** It's got a nice open lobby space that moves right into a kids space and you'll see here that everything on the right side of the building on this floor would be dedicated to our kids ministry, to preschool into kids all in secure space. And so, let me take you inside. Here's an image of you walking into the lobby in a bright open space where you see people gathering where it's very clear where the wayfinding is. You'll notice that there are places to have coffee and gather. On Sunday morning, I love the fact going out there and watching I mean, I think there were 30 people deep waiting for hot chocolate this morning. I love the thought of people being out there gathering, sharing a cup of coffee, talking about life together. It matters that we have those types of gathering spaces. But, you keep walking into the lobby and you notice when you come around and keep going in, you see this bright open space that's dedicated to our kids ministry where there's clear check-in and where it's very very where **[32:36] Speaker A:** the exit entrances are and exits are and everything behind that door is is secure space. Everything back there is secure. And so, think about what's back there. Classrooms that are built for age-appropriate for kids and and preschoolers. A mid-size gathering space for our for our kids to worship in. Space for our buddy ministry for families who have children with special needs back there all in safe and secure space for our families. You see the next slide will show you a different picture from the other side. This would be the elementary entrance again, clear entrance, clear exit, and nobody walking through those spaces. Now, let me take you downstairs on the same side of that building underneath where all that kids programming was, we would take into account that grade change and that's where our adult classes would be and designated space for our students. In our adult classes, we know how important it is for families to be or for adults to be able to gather for Bible fellowship in groups. **[33:39] Speaker A:** We believe that this accomplishes this. This accomplishes space and when those fill up, well, again, we'll start meeting at different hours and we always have other space would always have other space available to us in our existing facilities. And what we love about this design church family is it is it brings us and provides for us designated space for our student ministry. One of the challenges we presented to you in the previous plan and one of the convictions that we had is the more we can pull our students out of classroom space designated for the school, the better. We believe it's so important for our day school students and for students in our community to have a designated space where they can be gathered and they can forge relationships and build that and that's what you see reflected here in this student space that is distinct from the school space. **[34:30] Speaker A:** So, if you go down the stairs or you take the elevator down, this is an image of the lobby that you could walk into down there. Again, creates a lot of flexibility with that space and then you would walk into the student space where you can see some pre-function space that would be there where kids are playing games, having fun, building relationships with one another, and then having large group space and small group space for them to meet in on Sunday morning and Sunday night and through the week and other ministries can use that through the week as well. So, we believe this creates an exciting new picture of what it could look like for us. Now, you're probably asking, "Well, what does this mean for the school?" And what are the implications for the school? Well, as excited as we are about all that this would provide us the opportunity to do, we also think about the ministry of the school and what it means for them as well. **[35:21] Speaker A:** Because when we think about the ministry of the school, one thing is very, very clear. We could move in moving in this direction would allow us to expand the ministry of our school to 1,300 people without, as in the previous plan, adding new construction at the end of the A building and at the end of the E building. So, if the school were to operate more exclusively in this facility, it could move into some of the spaces that they can't move into now because of all the other ministry that is taking place in the church. And on top of that, it would provide the school with the opportunity to utilize the existing facilities more fully, meaning that they could be renovated to address the specific needs of the school. And I know we understand this, but I think it's good for us to be reminded for us to have a ministry of the school and to make that commitment, which we love doing. **[36:19] Speaker A:** It's a commitment that we have, a vision that we want to see fulfilled. To have a school means that we need space that is appropriate for education, for a school to meet in, that they can accomplish the vision that they have for the school and the needs of the school. This would allow us to let and allow the ministry of the school to design the spaces as they needed to effectively accomplish the mission and vision. So again, all of that, I want you to hear in all of that, the word is campus expansion. The school is a ministry of our church, and we believe this allows our ministries to grow in the most effective way and provide us with a long-term solution as we think about the next 25 years. **[37:10] Speaker A:** And so, let me take you Let me give you just a a snapshot of the outside. There's not much to show you on the inside. What we would be committing to do is to painting the exterior of the building to build and to have and create a kind of unified aesthetic across our campus. On the inside, I'm going to We're proposing that as a part of this project that we work on the things that we said we needed to steward well with aging facilities, that there are significant mechanical issues that we need to readjust and replace in some of our HVAC units. We would be doing that. We would be providing new flooring and new paint throughout the interior of the facility to again to create a consistent aesthetic across the campus. And as a part of that, there would be some renovations that would take place in order for the school to more rightly move into some of those spaces and operate and get to that 1,300 number. **[38:04] Speaker A:** Now, we'll also be looking to the school through their budget to fund some of those renovations as well, even as we think about you know, the ministry of the church and the church's investment into that ministry. And so, Calvary family, I hope my prayer is that you can begin to see how this accomplishes everything we set out to do. How it accomplishes our priorities and how we can do this faster, and how we can do this in a more financially responsible way, which leads to the question that is on all of your mind. Your question is, "Will, how much does all of this cost?" Well, throughout the process, let me share this. I've been praying the prayer that my father prays for me. You know how much I love my mom and dad, and over the years, my father has prayed for me when I call him and say, "Dad, what do you think about this? **[39:02] Speaker A:** How should I think about this?" And he just says to me, "Boy, I said, "I'm praying that God would give you the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it." The wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it. Church family, that's what I've been praying for this. And I want to give you the confidence. My expectation not my expectation. What I imagine you expect from your leadership, your pastors, and your elders is that we're thinking carefully about the future. And that we would be abdicating our responsibility if we didn't think carefully about the future. And so, we've been seeking wisdom in the process. We know that in Proverbs chapter 21, the scripture tells us that the plans of the diligent lead to profit. Part of wisdom is making plans for the future, thinking beyond today and into tomorrow. **[39:58] Speaker A:** And you know, I've heard vision said, you know, as I as I've shared with you, vision is just a picture of the future that instills passion in the present. It's this picture that we want to instill a passion in us to make wise plans, but we also know that wisdom dictates that we seek the multitude of counsel. But plans fail, the scripture says, when there is no counsel, but with many advisers, they have succeed. So, over these months, we have listened carefully to our staff and leadership and sought their input. I'm so thankful for the work of our impact planning team who now for two plus years have been working to this point in their faithful stewardship of their responsibility to help us formulate a plan that we believe will carry us into the future, and we have their unanimous support. I want you to know that along the way for the last many months, every single month with our deacons, I bring this up on our agenda and we talk about this plan and they have challenged us to help **[40:54] Speaker A:** us think with clarity and conviction and challenge. They provide their counsel along the way and their affirmation along the way. For that, I'm grateful. We have been talking with our finance teams as we consider the financial implications and responsibilities, but I also know this, we have been seeking wisdom. But I was reminded several days ago just reading in God's word what it says in James chapter 4 that when it comes to making plans, we should not be so cavalier as to say, "We're going to go do this and we're going to go do that." That we actually come with a humble posture and with open hands and say to ourselves, "If the Lord wills, we will live and we will do this or we will do that." If the Lord wills, we will live and we will do this or we will do that. And so, we have been begging and crying out to God for wisdom, but wisdom is only half of the prayer. **[41:48] Speaker A:** You see, there comes a point when we need courage, when careful planning must be accompanied by courageous faith. So, let me speak very plainly to you about the financial commitment that would be required to accomplish all of this and I want to be clear, it's significant. It's a significant amount of money and it's not lost on me how significant it is, but I'll I want to be clear that this is the cost to accomplish everything that I've shared with you, everything with our West Campus, everything with our Peace Haven campus, the new build as well as the implications and the investment into our school. Our current estimate for all three projects would be between 50 and 60 million dollars. So, we know that that is a significant investment. And I also know that it would require extraordinary generosity from our church and sacrifice from the people of God. **[42:42] Speaker A:** And I know that the natural question in all of that is like, "Well, well, how would we accomplish that? How could we accomplish that?" And here's our commitment to you. We are working closely with our finance committee and with our deacons and with our leadership team to develop a funding plan that reflects two things. It reflects first of all our confidence in God that nothing is too difficult for him. And that he owns all the cattle on all the hills. And we trust him for that. And it's going to reflect confidence in God. But church family, it's also going to reflect careful stewardship. It's going to reflect careful stewardship. We believe that there are some very clear next steps that we need to take. But our hope is to come back to you at the beginning of the year with a clearer picture of how we can financially move forward with this. **[43:33] Speaker A:** And so as we gain, listen, this is very important, as we gain clarity around the financial capacity, we'll allow that to begin to shape the scope, the timing, and the sequency of our work. And so our prayer and our commitment is to move forward wisely, is to move forward prayerfully, is to move forward with open hands. But I want to tell you, it is to move forward with great faith. You know, I think about, you know, I think I can probably say amongst this crowd, I've got about as long a time as anybody here in this room. My family came and joined this church in 1974. This is the place where I came to faith in Christ. It's the place where I came to know him and felt called to the ministry. I got to see and be the beneficiary of the investment of many who have gone before us. **[44:25] Speaker A:** Watching previous leaders stand in this very pulpit and call the church into great and sacrificial things. I was here when Dr. Courts called us to take that step of faith and say, I think we need to build a CAC that's got a gymnasium and roller skates. Y'all remember that. I remember when he said, I think we need to actually remove the old chapel. That was significant in the life of our church. We need to bring it down so we can expand and see God do even greater things. I was here when you led the church to say, "Hey, I think we need to build a building down here at the end of the A building. It's going to help our school grow and accomplish the vision that we have there." Here's what I want you to know, church family. Your staff and your leadership, we're believing and hoping and dreaming for God to do even greater things in the years ahead in the life of our church. **[45:22] Speaker A:** And I'm excited about what God is going to do through us. But can I tell you something? I am equally as excited about what God wants to do in us. Because it is going to require great faith. And it is going to call us to step into something that we say, "Man, we're not sure how we're going to do that." I've told our teams, I wish there were an easy button here that just figured out all these problems in a really simple way that was, you know, $100,000 and it'd all be done. It's not that. There's no easy buttons here. It's going to require great faith, but I can so excited. I've been talking to people along the way who said, "You know, I was a part of that previous campaign. I was a part of helping buy West Campus. I was a part of investing in all of those things." **[46:00] Speaker A:** And I think about that and I'm like, they're telling me stories about how God worked in them and how excited they are for God to work in them again, but how they are excited they are for the next generation to be able to say, "Man, I can't wait to see how God works in that 20-year-old or that 30-year-old or that young family just as he worked in ours when we walked through that." Our commitment is to go forward with great faith knowing and understanding how this story ends. Which brings me all the way back to the beginning. Where it all ends, Calvary, is with people from every tribe and nation and tongue worshiping at the feet of King Jesus. And I want you to know, our commitment to you as your staff and leaders, our commitment is we're going to do our very best to bring as many people along with us as we can. **[46:47] Speaker A:** And we want to be faithful to that end. I know that Steven's commitment and Nathan's commitment and Josh's commitment and my commitment and Chad's commitment and ministry leaders' commitment Ellie and Jennifer and all of us, man, we're running hard after this vision. Richard Hardy, this is the dream. To see more people come to faith, more people equipped, more people discipled, and more people deployed to the nations. So, our hope and our dream is that God would do that and accomplish even more. Yes, we're this is important. And yes, we're talking about buildings, but let's not lose sight of the fact that it's not about the buildings. It's about the opportunity we have to see God do a measurably more. So, let's faithfully, and my prayer is this, again, going back to the vision. God, let's give ourselves to this greater mission, so that Calvary would be a place of belonging and hope for generations to come. **[47:43] Speaker A:** Amen? **[47:45] Speaker A:** Here is my Here are the next steps. The next steps will be a few things. The first of all, I would imagine I know I know you have questions. And our commitment to you is to be transparent through this process. Nothing to hide, open hands. Want to ans- answer any question. This week, there's a couple of ways for you to get information. This week, on Monday night and Thursday night, Monday night here, tomorrow night from 6:30 to 8:00, Thursday night at West Campus from 6:30 to 8:00, our staff and I will be there just to answer questions. This is not going to be a presentation. It's just going to kind of be a drop-in time. Come anytime between 6:30 and 8:00, and we'll be there to help you answer the questions that you have. Or, you can email us at IPT, which is the Impact Planning Team, at calvarynow.com, and we'll get answers to you the best we can. **[48:35] Speaker A:** Tomorrow, I hope that we will be able to give you, based on the questions you asked today, we'll have online a place for you where there are some frequently asked questions about this. We'll have the information that we've shared today, and maybe a little bit more that helps answer your questions. So, that's the first thing, and we want you to ask great questions about that. Secondly, let me share with you that the next step in the process would be for the church to affirm us moving forward with the schematic design for the new facility as well as design documents. We already have that for West Campus. The next step would be design documents for our West Campus. And so, you'll get information about that and how we propose moving forward with those things. So, here's what I want to ask us to do as we close this morning. **[49:23] Speaker A:** I want us just to spend some time praying. We've talked a lot about vision, a lot about what we're believing God to do. And we don't want to be ahead of him. If the Lord wills, we'll live and we'll do this or do that. And so, I want to ask you to pray two things with me this morning. First is this. Would you pray that God would give Calvary wisdom and courage? As leaders that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, that he would make our path straight. And then secondly, would you pray that God would give you wisdom and you courage to begin praying about, "Well, God, how might you be leading me and my family?" Julie and I have been praying about that now for a good bit. What do we need to What does it need to look like for us? I've kind of laughed with some other groups for the last 7 years the Tiberians have been sending a lot of money down there to NC State. **[50:17] Speaker A:** A lot of college tuition. That's getting ready to come to an end. So, it's like, "Well, Lord, how are you going to call us to do even more? Even greater things beyond the generosity of to our church to do even more." Cuz it's all yours. You own it all. So, will you pray and ask, "God, what do you want to do in me and in my family?" So, let's