Huge Project

[revkev]

As many of you know the title of Revkev is for real. I'm the Senior Pastor of a Congregation of 1,000 people that operates a Christian Day School of 250 or so students ages 2 through 8th grade. We have been on our current property since 1960 and our sanctuary was once hailed as the most beautiful church in the South.

 

You could visit our website www.grace-lutheran.com and you would see why!

 

Sadly our sanctuary has fallen into disrepair and the congregation has experienced several aborted attempts at building the one thing that our school facility lacks. A gym!

 

Those two factors have hampered the ministry and limited the families that we can do ministry for. (Market to for the non-church folks).

 

In developing a Long Range Plan we decided once and for all to determine whether or not the city of St Petersburg would allow us to even build a gym on our property. After two years of meeting with them they said yes, so long as we repurposed existing spaces and didn't add too much square footage outside of it's footprint or go higher than our existing structures.

 

We hired an architect and went to work. The City liked what we came up with so much that they told us we needed no approvals beyond the normal building permits because in their opinion is a remodel. And so after a year and a half we presented the plan to the Congregation. It includes a sanctuary refurbish, a new narthex (pre function area), new restrooms and the repurposing of a wing of our school as a gym/multipurpose room.

 

On Sunday the congregation voted by a margin of 85 to 15 percent to not only accept the plan but to fund it's 2.5 million dollar cost through a combination of fundraising and a loan from our church body. Best case scenario we break ground New Years, worst case in the Spring.

 

This is the third parish that I've served. I don't know why but it is the third time that God has used me to lead the Congregation into a project that provided something the Congregation needed and lacked. The other two congregations are flourishing in large part because of the addition to their facility.

 

I hope and pray that I get to stick around to see this one through and to see some of it's benefits come to roost.

[The Dansome]

You're one of the good ones Rev. All the best and look forward to completion.

[fozcycle]

Now that is one big undertaking........I was part of a church that constructed a Family Life Center (fancy words for Gym) in Louisiana.....when we opened the doors in 1983 it was paid for. I know that costs are much higher today.  It became the center of activities for the church as it housed, Boy Scouts, After School Program(1st one in town), several Ladies groups, Sunday Schools classes, Gym for Winter Volleyball and Basketball Leagues,the Men's Association and a terrific kitchen used for all fundraisers.

 

I applaud your undertaking Rev, and wish you many successes with your school.

[BIG STU]

I also echo the sentiments of MBP and Foz. With the Lord's help you are a natural born leader and "sparkplug" one of those that gets things done

[MattF]

Congratulations with Phase 1 and best of luck with Phase 2!

[Jmikecpa]

Congrats on the project.  Having built and run two casinos in the last 4 years I think that the build is a true rush and a lot of fun.  I was on my way to building another in Vegas and last night I found out that I will be staying in NY and running one for a few more years at least.  

 

Also, any finance issues that you may have I would be willing to lend and ear and give some advice if you need it. My role during our construction projects was the Director of Finance and Construction so that kind of became my wheel house these days.

[revkev]

Thanks everyone. I'm not so worried about the construction stuff JMike, one of our lead people is a land use attorney with great connections. We wouldn't be where we are at if it weren't for her.

This project has been tried twice by the congregation with no success because it kept getting shot down at P and Z. Jessica found a way to do it with a little help from two other friends.

 

Fundraising and financing are another matter. This will be the fourth big project of my pastoral career but all are different and I know tha. Florida is weird. We have a church body lending agency that will give USA loan. Sustaining the effort we need to make the payments or better fundraising to pay the note down quickly is far more difficult. Of course more students would take care of that also. That's the goal, more students = more parishioners.

[kygolfer1980]

Good luck Rev!!  Sounds very promising so far!

[wbealsd]

Great development, God Bless!

[Maverickping]

Sounds wonderful!

[BK in TEXAS]

Good deal!  Occasional pics along the way would be cool.

[SeeRed]

Congratulations Rev! Here's wishing you continued success with the phases to come.

[sp0rtsfan86]

good luck

[sp0rtsfan86]

and congrats as well on the new building. Hope that everything stays on time and any issues are resolved quickly.

[revkev]

and congrats as well on the new building. Hope that everything stays on time and any issues are resolved quickly.

 

 

Check this out - one of our congregational members is a land use attorney.  The group that worked on the proposal is made up of her, a mortgage broker and another attorney.  They are very professional and well connected.  We have another member who was the deputy mayor of St Pete for 8 years and now have her onboard for the project.  We've done tons of things upfront to make sure that the project will go as smoothly as possible.  We've already had the upfront site inspections so that we know what we are getting into in regards of site prep and issues with the spaces that are being remodeld.   

 

I'm sure that there will be issues but we have the right folks in charge of the project, ones that know how to handle these types of issues on a professional basis.

[sp0rtsfan86]

Check this out - one of our congregational members is a land use attorney.  The group that worked on the proposal is made up of her, a mortgage broker and another attorney.  They are very professional and well connected.  We have another member who was the deputy mayor of St Pete for 8 years and now have her onboard for the project.  We've done tons of things upfront to make sure that the project will go as smoothly as possible.  We've already had the upfront site inspections so that we know what we are getting into in regards of site prep and issues with the spaces that are being remodeld.   

 

I'm sure that there will be issues but we have the right folks in charge of the project, ones that know how to handle these types of issues on a professional basis.

 

sounds great Rev... keep the updates coming.

[revkev]

We break ground, I mean start demolition in mid-January. I will have some renderings here shortly.d

[Kenny B]

Great news! Sounds like you have a wonderful opportunity here. Keep us updated.