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TOWARDS A KES 100M MINISTRY CENTRE
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Preamble
The desire to construct a ministry centre that helps us fulfill our vision of “The Great Commission” while meeting the need of our community was born initially at the launch of Lifespring Chapel, and re-born at our “Vision 2015” casting. In it we reaffirmed that;
Lifespring seeks “To be a Community transformed by Christ, transforming our World with Christ”. And we do this by “Developing a whole heart for God, His people and the world”
Our Core Values, remain
To Honor God
To Develop People
To Pursue excellence
During the vision casting, there was a felt consensus that for us to do the things we felt the Lord leading us to, we had to see Him in light of Romans 4:16-21, that He is the God who sees the things that are NOT, as though they WERE, and for that we could trust Him to come through for us even when the things we dream of seem out of reach for us. This is the platform we seek to build on in our desire to construct a ministry centre.
Vision 2015
By the year 2015, we desire to have grown Lifespring Chapel to a Worshipping Community of 5000 people. Hence in the following areas; (Note that B is in bold)
A. Church Life:
To have weekly services with 5000 people in attendance
- To have 2/3rds of those in attendance to be 24 years and under
- To draw 25% of the church in leadership every year with one annual conference
- To have 75% of our attendees in Lifegroups
B. Facilities
To have developed ministry centers which adequately cater for a weekly attendance of 5000 people
- A multi-purpose facility that seats 1000 adults
- Administration offices
- A proper access road
- A kindergarten (begin 2007 – 2008)
- A Youth Resource center (begin 2007 – 2008)
Notes
We recognize that the current property does not have the capacity to carry a weekly service of 5000 attendees. It is for this reason that the recommendation is made for the purchase of another property (on the road around Utawala) on which another ministry centre can be established. This being the case, it is imperative that the purchase of the property be done by the end of next year latest due to the scarcity of land and the escalation of prices
It is intended that the structures proposed above be first done at the current property before we replicate the same or something similar on the next property (Utawala)
We cannot be apologetic about finances. The giving must grow to meet the task ahead. We must challenge the church as a leadership and ourselves to grow in this area.
C. Missions
To ensure that 75% of the church is actively engaged in outreach
- 3/4 sharing the gospel with one person per month
- Partnering with 2 social justice ministries, with one in the slum
- To have 2/3rds of outreach activities geared towards to those who are 24 years and under
- To plant two churches – Mlolongo in 2008
- (Kampala in 2009)
- Utawala in 2010
In examining the above vision, anyone will notice that this will require faith and great trust in God. In addition, a lot of ideas, organizational input and execution of these must be welcomed! Before we go to the execution, lets first look at the plan.
By God’s grace, we have been able to put in place a Master Plan which outlines the way forward. The master plan takes into account the needs of the church arising from vision 2015. It also seeks to make maximum use of the facilities since there is very little room for land acquisition at our current facility.
The estimated total cost of the project is Kshs 100m as at February 2009. Depending on how long the entire construction takes, this figure is bound to rise, unless miraculously the cost of construction drastically goes down. It nevertheless gives a fairly good analysis to guide us in our fundraising activities. So the question remains, how do we tackle a Kshs 100m project with a congregation of about 200 adults? The answer is plain simple, we must rely on the God who “calls the things that are not as though they are”, we must believe that He will call the hundreds and the thousands, the hundreds of thousands and the millions from wherever they are so we can put up this awesome ministry centre. We must recognize that the ministry centre belongs to Him and not us, that He will indeed provide the resources required to do so. Ours is to ask Him to provide and to remember to honour and give Him back the glory when He comes through every step.
To be able to move together with the congregation, the facilities committee has requested that this be done in bits that are manageable and achievable (this is not to say we are remitting God, but it is a recognition that we are all at different levels and we need to walk with everybody on board. The project has therefore been broken down to phases, with each of it individually costed. Doing it this way will help the congregation to see if and when they are making progress on their giving
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In finding out what was of utmost necessity, many people felt that the greatest need is a proper sanctuary. That a physical building would help many people identify themselves with it as opposed to the current tent setting. But to be able to do the sanctuary, some of the structures would have to be moved to create room for the main sanctuary. This means that the first phase would involve construction of Sunday school classrooms complete with an ablution block. When this is done, it means we will have catered for our children as well as rest rooms, which opens the door for the clearing of the area where the main sanctuary would stand
Specifically, the first block can be constructed in the following phases
Ground Floor (Including External works and contingencies Kshs 5856500/=
First Floor Kshs 4632500
Second Floor Kshs 4823500/=
The total cost of doing the first block all charges inclusive is Kshs 16833500/=
(See appendix for detailed estimates)
Our desire it to have a ground-breaking ceremony on August 30th 2009 during our 10 year celebration service. What will it take to do this?
Prayer
This is so indispensable that there is so much to say that we do not need to say it here, everyone understands the importance of this. We must pray and be seen to pray, so we can birth the process under God’s hand!
Publicity
We must work to ensure that all our members, including the cockroaches and frogs know that there is a facilities drive happening!. The elders MUST know, the Staff MUST sing the song, the lifegroup leaders, MAST and WASH, the youth leaders must read from the same script. This has to be done before it is brought to the congregation. In short, we must seek to sing the same song, in the same key and in harmony! Caution: We must tie our facilities drive to the 2015 vision, otherwise we loose everybody!
Actual Fundraising
There are 2 modes that we would like to follow in fundraising:
1. Gift Sundays for Long-term and sustainable management.
The acquisition of the land we’re in, as well as the putting up of the tent was done through gift Sundays. These were simply Sundays when members of the congregation were asked to come with a “gift” towards facilities, on top of their regular tithes and offering giving. They were carried out every month and in every way they proved very effective. However, we would like to add a twist to the gift Sundays in this manner. That for every gift Sunday, we will have different members of the congregation say 5 for every Sunday and assume the role of a “guest of honour”. These would go and raise money outside of the Lifespring congregation and present it on the day there are guests and ask the congregation to “sindikiza” them. The variations in this could be as varied as we have groups in Lifespring; MAST, WASH, Lifegroups, Café etc. There’s no end to the potential here
2. Fundraising Events
These are specific events organized with very specific goals and target groups to help fund-raise. These would be major but far-between. They can be run by the different groups but ultimately that these are and remain Church events. Examples could be a dinner, a run, mountain climb, exhibition, car boot sale etc.
“We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”
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Facilities
