As most of you know, on Sunday our elders made a proposal to suspend our present plan to add-on to our church facility and pursue selling our property so as to make purchasing and remodeling 1st Baptist Church possible. If you haven't read the actual proposal, which answers many questions, we'd encourage you to stop by the church office to pick up a copy. For those of you who have read it, what do you think? We'd like to use our blog to foster healthy discussion about the pros and cons of this potential opportunity to greatly enlarge our meeting space debt free. Leave a comment here to get in on the discussion.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Building decisions
As most of you know, on Sunday our elders made a proposal to suspend our present plan to add-on to our church facility and pursue selling our property so as to make purchasing and remodeling 1st Baptist Church possible. If you haven't read the actual proposal, which answers many questions, we'd encourage you to stop by the church office to pick up a copy. For those of you who have read it, what do you think? We'd like to use our blog to foster healthy discussion about the pros and cons of this potential opportunity to greatly enlarge our meeting space debt free. Leave a comment here to get in on the discussion.
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9 comments:
Unless the church ever sees itself being able to afford to really build a bigger, better facility on the land we own now, then the only value that land holds is in what we can sell it for.
If we truly can sell it for enough to buy and remodel the current First Baptist building, I see that as the only likely way we will ever be able to improve our building situation.
Whether we can get what we are asking for our land is another question and remains to be seen.
One of the possible drawbacks cited to buying First Baptist is that it is not located in a residential area. While the immediate surroundings are public and commercial, First Bsptist is only a few blocks away from Lincoln Elementary School and just down the hill from Jim Hill Junior High. These schools are both located in residential areas. So yes, First Bsptist is within a well-known commercial neighborhood but it is also within walking distance of residential neighborhoods.
Another of the drawbacks listed is that it's possible our land may continue to increase in value, and if it does, we could sell it later on and buy a different facility or build new.
While I agree it's possible the land could continue to rise in value, if it does, the cost to buy other land and build new would almost surely rise along with it. Without some different radical influx of money, building new is never going to be an option.
Also, does anyone have a vision for a different pre-existing facility they'd like to buy that would be available? The only other one I've heard might be available would be First Assembly, which would at least be worth considering if it is truly available.
I believe that it is best to stop our plans of adding on to the current facility that we have. The fact that our land has the increased value and that we need several additions to our building shows me it's time to sell.
We need to prayerfully determine shall we buy a lot and build new or is it better to buy an existing structure. In my experiences it has always been thriftier to purchase an existing structure than to build new.
Is the 1st Baptist building the best option for us? If we build new we can plan a building that is perfect for our needs but we would go into debt. Any existing structure will probably not be the ideal building we would design for ourselves so we would need to adjust accordingly.
P.S. To thefourwinds - would you please identify who you are. I tend to give less value to comments from anonymous people.
The Four Winds is Greg Demme. :)
being in a residential area shouldn't be a concern based on where we have been. we haven't had many from the area and most have driven from other parts of town. if it is decided to move in to 1st baptist, this might be trinity's permanent spot and any future growth will have to be in a church plant in another part of town.
Below are a plethura of things that come to my mind.
1) If the First Baptist facility is purchased it should be a separate decision as far as when to do improvements/additions and how much to spend
2) I think the offer price for First Baptist should be determined independently of what we are able to obtain for our current facility. (obviously less than what we get for our land/building)
3) If First Baptist is purchased, I think they should be the responsible party to move into a temp facility as opposed to Trinity unless they are willing to significantly reduce the overall price. If it is decided the facility should be shared, Trinity should have primary say.
4) Contractual agreements should be considered with the nieghbors of First Baptist who offer parking. Otherwise, there is always the risk of those options disapearing. Snow removal costs should also be considered. What about parking for weddings, funerals, and other events that are during the week.
5) Plan for many more maintenance costs than expected. This is a wise financial decision that will allow us to avoid debt in the future.
6) Consider our current remodel project separate from the First Baptist purchase. The costs have gone up significantly and will continue to escalate. For that reason, the issue needs to be voted on again regardless of the First Baptist offer.
Luke Steen
As you all know we are not in favor of the First Baptist purchase. That being said we made the right decison today to test the market and try to sell all our property. The 1st Assembly building is a very good option to study as is the North half of the old wal-mart build next to Hobby Lobby. It has air conditioning, lots of paved parking and could be remodeled to fit our entire needs. So if our place sells lets be in prayer for the direction God wants to take us weather it is North, South or the central part of the city.
Sorry I did not get my name to the last anonymous coment. It is Robert Hargrave
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