Building FAQ

Our initial phase will include a new Children’s Addition, located in the open “wedge” on the southwest corner of our building. The new addition will include classrooms and two inside play areas for young children. We are also planning to renovate the Church Offices to turn them into classrooms that can be used by Children’s Ministries, AWANA Clubs, and Encompass Preschool.

With new families registering their children every week and with building occurring in multiple areas within a few miles of our campus, we anticipate rapidly reaching the point where we would have to turn away children on Sundays, especially those in elementary school, due to lack of space. Designing, permitting, building and occupying a new addition will take two to three years. If we wait to start, we may fill up before we can open and use new space.

Our goal is pay as we go, using money given through pledges. We also have a small reserve capacity, which was approximately $250,000 at the beginning of the campaign. We anticipate that there may be months when large bills are due, but sufficient pledges have not yet been received. If bills exceed pledges received and reserves available, we plan to use what amounts to a line of credit. This allows us to borrow funds on a short-term basis and pay off the balance as soon as pledges are received.

We plan to use Elder Construction, which is located in Colorado Springs. They have been in business for 30 years and have experience with many large projects, including building and expanding multiple churches. We have been in contact with other churches who have used Elder with excellent results.

As is done with most projects like ours, we have opted to go with a “Design-Build” process. The contractor bids each sub-trade to multiple subcontractors, including architects, to get the best price and results. The Design-Build process also allows the contractor to make modifications to the project at the project owners’ request in order to keep prices within a desired range. Though Design-Build can’t eliminate all unexpected change orders, it can help us to minimize costly overruns or surprises.

The largest increase in the first phase will be in spaces used by elementary school students on Sundays. Initially, we plan to move those students out of their current rooms and into the newly built and renovated spaces, which will approximately double their footprint. Adding the existing spaces to the new spaces means that we will have nearly triple the square footage we now use for those age groups on Sunday. Those spaces will also be available for AWANA Clubs. Some of the new Preschool spaces will be used primarily on weekdays, but others will be available Sundays and Wednesdays.

Yes. The Preschool will gain several rooms and play areas in Phase 1. If we are able to complete Phase 1A simultaneously, we will also immediately gain multiple much needed bathroom spaces essential to expansion of our enrollment, as well as changes to increase our weekday Preschool classroom count and configuration.

Our intermediate plan is to move the offices into cubicles in one or more of the larger classrooms. Those staff who are less frequently on campus may share cubicles. Others may have dedicated space. Though not perfect, this will allow staff to remain on campus during construction, rather than relocating outside.

If we do not raise the funds for earlier phases, we will not be able to build later phases. So, giving generously now is important. Phase 1 is immediately necessary. It will enable us to serve more families and provide more ministries to the community around us. Phase 1A is immediately useful. Phase 2 will become more important later. As we grow, we trust God will provide what we need when we need it.

Each Sunday, two or three members of our Finance Team meet to process all gifts made that week. Those FT members count, record, and prepare all donations for deposit. Those FT members will not have knowledge of pledges made at the beginning of or during the campaign. Two specifically-designated FT members, a primary and a back-up, will be the only persons who have knowledge of pledges made by specific individuals or households. No other Pastors, Elders, or  individuals will have knowledge of your gifts or pledges. You will receive periodic reports of gifts we have recorded, so that you can know your progress toward your pledge goal. You will also have access to your records at any time through our online tools.