Dear friends,

On June 22 we held a meeting called Next Steps, attended by close to 200 people. Our purpose was to call our congregation to prayer regarding the next steps in the development of our facilities. We began the meeting by talking about our vision and strategy. I explained that our vision from the beginning has been to gather and scatter. We desire to be a gathered and scattered community at the same time; to live with one eye on ourselves and the other on the 50,000 or so people living within a 5-mile radius of our church who have no connection with Christ or his church. Our strategy is 2-fold, to equip our people to represent Christ in their spheres of influence in the world between Sundays and to develop "demographically targeted ministries," each with a scattering component. We currently have ministries to kids, students, single young adults, men, women, couples and seniors, each seeker friendly and with a heart for those who don't yet know Christ. It's exciting to see how each ministry has incorporated scattering components in thier ministries. Kidz Rock, for example, conducts summer camps, adventure clubs and special family events, all of which are opportunities to reach out to unchurched people. Another example is our womens ministry. Approximately 30% of the women who attend our womens studies do not regularly attend our church. We want each of our ministries to be a "side door" into the life of our church. The strategy is working as more and more people are coming through these side doors. Our Sunday morning attendance for the first half of '08 has significantly increased over the same period last year.

We must adequately resource these "growth engines" which includes the provision of adequate facilities. I spent a few minutes highlighting the crowded conditions and the need for secure children's space, additional gathering spaces for adult activities and a worship center with adequate stage area, lighting and sound. Also I mentioned the need for additional storage space and office space. We're currently out of both.

Dick shared the Master Site Plan which we have been developing for the past few months. On the right side of this page you can see the slides we shared at the meeting. We have room to build a 1250 seat worship center in the front of our property with the necessary support spaces. We also have room to put a major facility at some point in the future on the large tract of land on the corner of Greenhill and Ashbridge. We also have room for the additional parking which will be needed to support a worship center.

We closed our time with small groups praying for the next steps. We need prayer for wisdom for our elders as they grapple with the timing of all this. We will do our best on this site to keep you posted on what we're thinking and how you can be involved.

Cordially,