The State of the Church gathering was incredible! It was so exciting for me and everyone there to hear stories of what God has been doing through Encounter Church as we have moved into our new home. I want to take some time and lay out our next steps.
As we continue to pursue a refinance, we have heard two pieces of feedback from the banks
1) You are church with profit generating properties? I do not understand. I am not interested in that kind of loan. It has too many moving parts.
2) We like everything we see, you just need a longer track record in the building. Come back after you have been there longer.
No one has had any problems with our financials. They just are not willing to take the step of faith that God will continue to move. We are pursuing lenders diligently with the goal of refinancing by the end of 2018. At that point, we will have been in the building for 1 year, which is often a benchmark for lending.
In the mean time, we do need to keep moving forward in order to keep up with growth. The Leadership Team has outlined 3 goals we would like to accomplish this year in order to keep keep up with and foster more growth.
1) Get a sign on the highway side of the building $9,000
2) Order Air Conditioning diffusers to better cool the worship center. $5,000
3) Finish the children's rooms we have started $47,000
4) Finish paying off our existing renovations $23,000 remaining of the $158,000 original renovations that allowed us to get into the building!
The total coast to accomplish these four goals before the end of 2018 is$84,000 God can, and He wants to do it through you!
The total renovation costs remaining is $317,000. We believe the remainder will be received when we finish the refinance process.
If you have any questions, please contact michael@ecstl.org. He lives in these numbers daily and can answer any question you might have.
God has done so much! WeeKids is growing and thriving. Since we began services on our new campus 6 months ago, 31 people baptized! We have another baptism party coming up on June 10. We have added a hundred people to our average Sunday attendance and have doubled the number of regular attenders. As long as we are faithful with our time, talents, and treasures, God will continue bringing us into a huge season of abundance. He has taught us so much through this move. I can't wait to see what He has next!