Update Progress of Come, Grow, Celebrate! Campaign

 

August 16, 2006

Dear Church of the Good Shepherd Family,

I’d like to take a moment to update you regarding the progress of the Come, Grow, Celebrate! Capital Campaign. The Vestry prioritized our goals for the Campaign and we have already made great strides in our first few months! We first focused on eliminating the operating debt that accumulated during our time of growth and we paid over $16,000 to bring the line of credit balance to $0. The next priority for the Vestry was to prevent further structural decline of our church building by replacing the worn out roof, which was completed within the last two weeks. These two major steps along our journey are certainly a cause to CELEBRATE!

At the August Vestry meeting held last week, the group took a moment to reflect on our successes thus far, and to review the list of future projects to ensure that we are continuing on the right track. The Vestry focused on the criteria used to prioritize the list several months ago; the first projects would be to address the immediate structural concerns of our building, and the second was that the church would not proceed with a project until the funds were on hand to pay for it. With that in mind, the Vestry changed the priority list to the following:

The Vestry agrees that the replacement of the windows is a structural issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The project would bring added benefit for heating the church during the winter, as well as supporting the air conditioning planned in the future. The Building Committee is in the process of obtaining bids for the windows project, and with your continued giving to the Come, Grow, Celebrate! Campaign, we should be able to support this project later this fall.

Projections based on current giving levels predict that the funding will likely be on track to install the air conditioning next summer. This is a tentative projection, as the project will not move forward until funds are available to pay for the installation. To ensure that we can complete this project prior to the hot and humid days of 2007, we ask for your diligence in giving toward the Come, Grow, Celebrate! Campaign.

Once the air conditioning is in place, our attention will be focused on the installation of an elevator. This will involve a fair amount of preparation work to ensure the structure can support the installation.

Lastly, the Vestry also agrees that we should review the balance of the operating line of credit on a monthly basis to determine whether it’s appropriate to pay down or pay off the balance. Since paying off the balance of the line of credit this spring, we have accumulated roughly $6,300 in operating debt and continue to make monthly interest payments. We must be diligent in the giving of our operating pledges to keep this balance under control.

To summarize, the Vestry congratulates the Good Shepherd family on the accomplishments made thus far on our capital projects. We are seeing the fruits of our giving, but there is much that is still ahead of us. Together, we will make major improvements to our church building and enhance the quality of our ministries. God is leading our Vestry with a VISION of our church, a church where you COME to worship your God, a church where you GROW as a Christian, and a church where you come to CELEBRATE all the good things that God has given you. It is a vision of growth and friendship, of lots of people gathered together on Sunday, and of prayer raised up to God.

Thank you for your generosity and commitment to Good Shepherd!

Sincerely,

Bill Lenker

Follow-up Team Chair

Come, Grow, Celebrate! Capital Campaign