“Building on the Master’s Plan” Building Update

…“build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, say the Lord.” This is a passage from Haggai 1:9 that we have used as part of our vision in the building campaign, Building on the Master’s Plan.

Our desire remains to see a building that will glorify God and be able to be used by Him to reach others. God is good. He has blessed and provided First Alliance with a tremendous location and resources to impact this area for His Glory.

He has been faithful and we have seen lives and hearts transformed by His power. It is our vision to reach others that do not know God so that they may come into a relationship with Him and have their lives intersected with Christ. We know that that new building addition is a key tool to aid us in accomplishing that vision.

For years thoughts ideas and plans were made to build an addition to our facility. In 2007 the current building team was formed and the work began. Just a side comment here, this has been a fantastic team that I really believe that God put together for this project. Through this process God has lead, guided and protected us. We are so grateful for God’s Hand in this.

Members of the Building Team are Beth Elger, Wayne Beebout, JoAnne Miller, Jason Downs, John Pluta, Roger Daniels, and myself, with Pete Schwab being a new addition to our team. Linda Johannes, Allyssa Rittenhouse, and Tonya Blaubach have also all serve. James Kinsey, Bill and Kim Fahrow, and Al Henke are members of the Building Finance Team. Thanks also the many other that have been involved.

Plans were made with a few ups and downs along the way, but God guided and protected. We held a capital campaign in 2007, set up a Building Fund and money began to come in.

On October 6, 2009 the Congregation voted to approve a loan from Cornerstone Community Bank which is funding our project. Equipment began to arrive by mid October and excavating began. Two storm water retention ponds were created along with other landscaping. The foundation was laid and the parking lot was expanded with the first layer of asphalt. We stopped for the winter and two days later we had a ten inch snow falls.

Work began again in April 2010 as soon as the snow melted. We have had excellent spring weather for construction and have been making great progress. The blocks have been laid and the ceiling deck on put on the sanctuary. A lot of electrical work has been done both inside providing fire protection and outside providing service to the new addition. The steel for entrance and tower is up and the concrete floor has been laid. The framing for the whole building framed and the roof will soon be done, and by June inside work will begin. The target date for completion date is mid August, 2010. Services should begin in September 2010. The grand opening is being planned now and will be announced when we know more details.

The Building committee meets on a regular basis. The Elders monthly reviewed the process. We have great partners; Excel Engineering our design firm and our General contractor Maas Brothers. We have been able to be financially responsible coming up with some great pricing and wise decisions.

We phased the project into several parts. The original plan was to have the sanctuary, lobby will be finished – ready to occupy, but we are going to shell out the office classroom area, nursery classroom and kitchen, remodel old office area for children’s ministries, etc… It turned out that it would cost the same amount if we did the work ourselves verses having the “professionals” do it.

We really felt it was necessary to have the completed classrooms, office area, nursery, and children’s areas. So the decision was to have Maas Brothers complete these areas.

We are responsible for some finish work in the sanctuary. We will be hanging the ceiling clouds, side panel, sound booth, clean up, etc… We are responsible to finish the kitchen and remodel the exciting office area into children classrooms and nursery. We are also responsible for all the landscaping and other miscellaneous items.

We have a volunteer coordinator getting ready for the work that we will be doing. Around 80 individuals have sign up which is fantastic. This is going to be crucial for everything to be accomplished.

Giving to the project remains strong. We are so grateful to all those who have committed to supporting our building project. We are now evaluating our next steps and working on our next strategy. When the project started, we asked for a three year pledge. We are in the second year of those commitments. This was to begin the process of understanding the level of support we had and was especially beneficial in securing a loan. The bank needed to see if we were really behind this project as a congregation.

As I mentioned earlier, after evaluating the whole project it was determined that we really need to finish some of the shelled in areas. But we are a little financially short to accomplish this by about $200,000.00. We are working on this funding now.

We are looking at the option of an additional loan $180.000.00 loan from Cornerstone. Additional giving and in house bonds have also been discussed to make up the difference. This continues to be an area that we need to trust in God to provide. We need to be in prayer through this process. More on this in a moment.

The important thing is to Give. If you are not giving please consider being involved. If you are giving, thank you. God is blessing. We are in this for the long term and excited to watch as God continues to work.

Someone once asked me about our project. We were talking about different aspects of it. I told them, giving is great, we praise God so much for His blessing. But we are not quite there yet, we don’t have enough to do everything. But I told him this is a good thing. We have a dependence on God. It isn’t something that we can say, boy look at what we did. Instead we will be able to look back and say ‘see how God provided.

We talked about not able to hire out for everything. I said this is also good. We as a congregation are coming together and have ownership of our new facility. It is something that we can do together with God’s strength and for His glory.

The most important thing to keep in mind through the entire building project is PRAYER. This can be emphasized enough. We believe this is a spiritual issue. The building is simply a tool we can use. A tool to build up the body of Christ, to reach out to the community and the world, and to bring glory to God. We need to be continually before God, praying.

Pray for our neighborhood and Village relationships, safety for the construction worker, minimal job site problems, FAC leadership, our volunteers, finances, unity in the congregation, that we keep proper perspectives on the building, and that God would be Honored and Glorified.

For His Glory

Pastor Dave Berghuis

Building Chair