Capital Campaign

Project Introduction

Our mission is to see a gospel movement on the North Shore. We know that buildings don’t create movements, yet these past few years have shown that our building can be a limiting factor to fulfilling our mission and vision.  In 2023, NSCBC leadership began having conversations about improving our physical spaces to better support our mission.

On April 28th, we will seek the affirmation of the congregation to move forward by an informal show-of-hands to move forward on two parallel fronts:
1. Direct an architect to help move from priorities and values to concrete ideas and plans.
2. Engage a campaign consultant to help us raise money toward our project, through an approach that is guided by scripture, that involves a large percentage of church members in the work of the campaign as well as the giving toward the campaign, and is based on prayer and joyful sacrifice instead of pressure and manipulation.

Our discernment process

In consultation with Elders and church leadership, a capital campaign committee was formed. This group has been hard at work gathering information from ministry leaders, meeting with consultants, organizing our listening sessions, and dreaming together about what could be.

One of the first questions we asked is “how big?” We knew that something needed to be done, but how much would be required? The longer we sat with this question and the closer we looked at our needs, the more we realized that our building is not adequately supporting the ministry contained inside.  Not only are deferred maintenance projects accumulating, ministries are hindered by lack of physical space and the energy of our leaders is being wasted on unnecessary projects in attempt to work around the constraints of our building.

Rather than dozens of small projects to fix the dozens of small needs, we found wisdom in developing a single unified plan. This would allow us to explore an organized reconfiguration of space that would unify ministries geographically, streamline workflows for staff during the week, and create casual spaces for organic ministry.

A unified project would allow us to keep our mission the main focus, allow us to methodically address our needs, and create something sustainable that will bless the church and the community for generations to come. The committee found consensus on this concept from Elders, staff, and lay leadership. 

 

Listening session summary

In 2024 we went to the congregation for your thoughts and ideas (for a summary of the content shared at those sessions, see this page). As a Baptist church with a strong congregational polity, we believe that God speaks strongly through the collective voice of the congregation. So as we gathered and organized feedback, we looked for consensus to help us discern what to explore. From the listening sessions and the survey, we found consensus in…

  • Unifying our children’s ministry spaces within a single, expanded location, on the lower level, including under the gym (capacity issues, need for convenience, storage, check-ins, safety, noise during worship service, etc.) 
  • Unifying and beautifying the sanctuary (reuniting and opening up the front and back, natural light, addressing sensory/accessibility issues, beautiful focal point at front, possible balcony, etc)
  • Making the building easier to navigate (eliminating confusion, welcoming visitors, etc.) and creating a larger gathering area for Sunday fellowship.
  • Opening spaces for discipleship, outreach, and ministry (e.g. small groups, places for prayer, small and medium classrooms and spaces, as well as informal ‘living room’ spaces for fellowship.)
  • Improved supportive spaces, including centralized offices, accessible bathrooms, a sensory respite room, nursing mothers’ space, and better storage throughout.

Our March 24th listening session had a great turnout! For a complete summary of our building needs listening sessions and survey, see this document.

Our next step

Based on this consensus, we (the capital campaign steering committee) recommend exploring a capital campaign to address the needs and explore opportunities of our physical building. Our by-laws do not require a vote to conduct a capital campaign but we know that we can’t do any of this without support of the congregation, so on April 28th, we will seek the affirmation of the congregation to move forward by an informal show-of-hands.
With congregational agreement, we’ll move forward on two parallel fronts:
  1. Direct an architect to help move from priorities and values to concrete ideas and plans.
  2. Engage a campaign consultant to help us raise money toward our project, through an approach that is guided by scripture, that involves a large percentage of church members in the work of the campaign as well as the giving toward the campaign, and is based on prayer and joyful sacrifice instead of pressure and manipulation.

Please join us on April 28th for this exciting step in the life of our church!

NSCBC Capital Campaign Committee
Bobby Warrenburg (pastor), Andrew Rennekamp (Chair)
Natalie Crowson, Laura Range, Clay Range, Adam Kurihara, Debbi Tuck, and Jim Pocock.

FAQs and Timeline

FAQs

How much will the project cost? It is too soon to know. A large scale project is very hard to estimate at the conceptual design stage. As we narrow in from a conceptual design to an actual architectural plan we will have a better idea of the total cost. The step of affirmation on April 28th will allow our committee to do the necessary research to bring an estimated cost to the congregation. We will know the total cost before beginning the capital campaign fundraising, so donors can make meaningful donations to the total goal amount.

Will the church take on a new mortgage? Ultimately, the campaign committee in consultation with staff and elders will discern the scale of the building project based on the money pledged by November 17th. If the money raised is significantly less than the amount needed, then we will revisit the scope and scale to build something in proportion with the amount of money raised. Our campaign committee is committed to being good stewards of your financial donations and will not send the church into debt that hinders ministry, however we cannot say with 100% certainty that we will not take on any debt. Large building projects might require loans to pay certain up-front costs. If we do require a mortgage, there will be time for congregational feedback and a formal vote according to our bylaws.

What is the scope/scale of this project? Ultimately, the scope of what we can accomplish really depends on the generosity of the congregation. Our goal is not to significantly expand the foot-print of our current building or to move to a different location. Rather the focus is on refreshing and reconfiguring the current spaces to better support the ministry inside and outside our church.

Why are we focusing on the building at all? Doesn’t ministry happen outside our walls?  Ministry happens both inside and outside of 9 Hart Street! Just as a body breathes in and out, so the body of Christ is both gathered and sent. Our building provides an important function as we gather both believers and those who are being drawn to the Lord for worship, discipleship, and community. As we are gathered, we are also sent to live out the gospel where we live, learn, work, and play. Additionally, our building is used for outreach and to bless the community through a variety of means, including Night to Shine, the REAL program (summer program for at-risk youth), Alcoholics Anonymous, community sports, Vacation Bible School, and more.

We also want to be good stewards of the building already given to us by maintaining it so it is able to serve our church and our community for generations to come.

As part of our commitment to serving a gospel movement both inside and outside our walls, we are considering whether there is an external mission partner who would benefit from receiving 10% of the funds we raise toward our campaign. Richard Wallace, our associate pastor overseeing outreach ministries is leading a team to identify the best ministry to partner with. If you are interested in joining our outreach team, please reach out to him!

How will we hold church services during construction? Because of the hard work and generous donations of the previous capital campaign in 2000, we have a beautiful gym and kitchen that would allow us to continue to hold worship services (in an air conditioned space!) temporarily while the sanctuary is being worked on. 

Can we phase the building project? There are often cost savings in quantity, so while we could just do one area now, and then another area in 10 years, doing so would not save money overall, and would limit the amount of strategic thinking and space planning we could do. Additionally, some of our needed improvements require that we have a master plan (for example, as we replace our boilers, we need to reconfigure them to work in our future spaces).  We think that developing one master plan is the best. Once designed, construction will happen in phases as makes logistical sense (for example: children’s spaces first, then fellowship/offices/classrooms, then sanctuary).

What about the old debt? The old debt is on track to be paid off in the next 1-2 years (if not earlier), out of our regular operating expenses and would not influence or impact this capital campaign.

Timeline

A proposed timeline. This may change as we seek wisdom from our consultants. Click the image to view a larger size.