Over The Hill We go

Three years ago we faced a tough choice.  Will we choose comfort or get “out of the boat,” face the wind and the waves, and give sacrificially so that Thunder Mountain Church may continue to be ever growing, ever reaching this generation for Christ?
The verdict is in! A total of 230 households gave $1,031,626.62  in our Relentless Love expansion project! ALL expenses were covered in the three-year initiative and our original mortgage has been reduced to only $243,733!
Because we tithed those gifts, we were able to contribute $103,162.66 to the much needed expansion of  Lori's Place!

We are grateful for the faith exercised by so many and look forward to continuing to progress towards building the needed worship and connection space in a few years.

The power of setting goals was very evident. Of the $1,031,626.62 received, $881,330.82 (85%) came from 116 households who set goals.  The 114 who gave without setting goals, contributed another $150,295.80. An incredible 90.2% of the amount originally pledged was received! For comparison, with Building Faith (our previous capital initiative), we received 73.8% of the amount pledged.

A big reason we did the building expansion as phase two was because it best positioned us for the building of the new worship center and connection space.
We had intended to start this project immediately after our “Building Faith” capital initiative (2013-2016) and we thought we were positioned perfectly to do so until we learned that to break ground on a new building, we would be required to do the full site development of our entire ten acres and THAT was what pushed the cost of that project beyond reach at the time.
As we prayed, God revealed another path forward and the one we chose for “Relentless Love”. We could provide additional children’s space we desperately needed, connect to the city sewer (a major but necessary cost), AND we wouldn’t be required to pay for the site development yet.

Why build again? We believe this is necessary for the Lord’s will to add daily to those who are being saved to be done through Thunder Mountain Church!
We imagine a campus that will become a seven-day a week destination for people to connect. A campus where, after gatherings, people would be allowed to linger, process decisions, and pray for one another without being run over or pushed out the door of the “fatal funnel” of our lobby!
If you are someone who is excited about this opportunity and wants to plan ahead, the next capital initiative is being scheduled to kick off on Easter of 2023.

The two major factors that will determine when we can break ground on our next building are: 1) How much we will be approved to borrow and 2) how much we are willing to borrow.

The cost of the project may exceed what we are approved to borrow but also anticipate the amount we are approved to borrow will exceed the amount we are willing to borrow so in this case we will have a lot of work to do before it will start.

Where do we start? It starts with eliminating all current debt and banking money in our
Building Fund to get a “running start” on this project. A similar approach helped significantly in lowering the costs for the Relentless Love project but for the next project, it won’t be just about lowering the cost, it will be about making the project happen.

After fulfilling our Relentless Love commitment, Kim and I have continued to give half of what we were giving to the Building Fund. We are doing this for three reasons: 1) When God shows us what He can do, we didn’t want to go back to what we were doing before and 2) we saw the benefit a “running start” had on the success of Relentless Love and 3) the significance of this next project is worth the sacrifice!  

Let’s charge the next “hill” together! The best is yet to come!