It’s a reference to Acts 2:47 where it says that the Lord added daily those who were being saved to that first community of believers. There’s also a play on words because we want to be involved in reaching people daily, 24/7.

God is adding to our number daily those who are being saved. But FOF is out of space. More people continue to come and we’re out of room to accommodate. We want people connected to Christ and FOF offers a unique way for people to do that. Without space, we can’t.

We plan to before construction is completed. But this isn’t our final solution because the congregation overwhelmingly said they’d prefer to be a one-service church. To the greater congregation, one service seems to be worth $5 million. Additionally, two services doesn’t solve our space issues. We also need group, meeting, NextGen, office, and storage space throughout the week. On top of that, our current worship space is limiting what we can do in worship.

We don’t think so. Going to two services jeopardizes the
one-church feel far more than adding more seats. Last Easter we went to the Vixen and had 560 people gathered at one service. Many were surprised at how intimate it

still felt.

A new 660-seat worship space that’s more conducive to our worship style, sensory rooms, a production room, 130 more parking spaces, more bathrooms, a bigger coffeehouse, a catering kitchen, covered entry, more usable space for NextGen, storage space, and possibly an outdoor “beer garden.” Along with all the furnishing, AVL,
and landscaping.

Yes. Our HVAC system is original to our first building and

on the brink. We hope to replace it. Other improvements to windows in the existing sanctuary and possible expansion of our septic field are also incorporated. One issue FOF has had to contend with is whether we would need to add sprinkler systems throughout the whole building. It looks like we won’t have to – only installing it in the new addition. That, of course, means the addition of a reservoir tank as well.

For this round, yes. It’s phase 1 of a larger campus plan. Phase 2 will expand NextGen, group, and office space. But that’s a separate project for some time in the future.

It gets retrofitted into more fellowship space. Think expanded coffeehouse!

We’d love to raise the full 5 million. Wouldn’t that be great? That said, our target is 3 million.

Only if we have to. If we do, we really don’t want to take out more than $2 million in debt.

Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF). They’re our denomination’s lending arm. Our existing mortgage is with them and so was our First Wave loan. They’re friendly lenders with unbeatable rates. Everything they make in interest is poured back into other church and ministry projects around the country.

Not directly. Our total facility expansion plan includes this, but due to cost, we have to save it for a future phase 2. That said, new rooms are being added that can double as group space: sensory room, mother’s room, green room, mezzanine, new worship space, on stage, back stage…

We’ve contracted with LCEF to take us through this capital campaign. They advised us to target $3 million as a more realistic estimate of what they thought FOF could raise. That said, let’s not limit ourselves. Are we willing to come together and collectively commit to $5 million? Then let’s do it! Just remember, it will call for deeper sacrifice by each of us to raise this.

Yes. There are people who regularly attend FOF virtually that we plan to reach out to. But don’t get too excited. Unlike Covid days when FOF witnessed 200,000+ tuning in every week, that number has dried up as life has gone back to normal. (Not to mention we were never able to ascertain who most of those people were.) That said, we’ll be reaching out to the faithful few in our online community

We sure hope not! A danger for every church and every believer is to focus so much on the “circus with new toys” that we forget spiritual wellness and formation. This is what our mission, vision, and values are about, and why we follow them so tenaciously – to keep us true to our purpose of discipleship.
 

This expansion is a tool. It’s a tool for spiritual formation. It’s far less about new toys than it is about raw space to accommodate people who want to grow spiritually. That said, we’re happy to get a cool ball you can balance on your nose like a circus seal if you’d like to try that for us some Sunday!

We received a number of questions on specific aspects of the designs as presented. 

  -    With expanded parking, are we adding entrances? We’ll develop a second entrance to the facility from the new parking lot. There won’t be a new entry from the road onto our campus.
 

  -    Is the sanctuary going to be flat? The floor will. We’re not doing stadium seating. The roof? Possibly.

  -    Why isn't there a basement? The architect recommends against it. Cost prohibitive and not enough bang for the buck. Better to invest in first floor square footage.
 

  -    Why is the sanctuary black? It might not be. The interior picture is strictly an architectural concept. Exact colors and designs will be decided if the voters approve the project in a further development phase. But it will probably be a dark neutral color. 

No. LCEF will extend an interest-only construction loan to cover us through the duration of the actual build. Once we move in, all remaining debt is converted to a typical mortgage on the property. That said, we do need to know how much will be pledged before we can commit.

There’s a number of contingencies. We could reduce square footage, or axe the beer garden, entry, and kitchen. We could reduce the amount of inside refurbishing. None of these are ideal. We’ll have all pledges in before our Nov 24 voters’ meeting. At that point it will be up to the congregation to decide how to proceed.

Wouldn’t that be great! We’d use overage to eliminate our current mortgage (~$300,000). If there’s still more, we’d keep it in our building fund for future expansion, improvements, and maintenance.

We hope to break ground in late spring 2025 and see the project completed sometime in Summer 2026.

Since most of the construction is new addition, use of our current space will continue like normal. There will be a month or so when they’ll have to take down the dividing wall between our current sanctuary and the newly added one. When that time comes, we’ll get creative. This is not an insurmountable obstacle. Back to the Vixen, anyone?

We hope we will! When the new sanctuary fills, we can either go to two services or do a second site. We also anticipate the need for more NextGen and office space if this happens. That would most likely be the focus of any next build.

It starts with a capital campaign and we’d like everyone to pledge. This October we’ll ask you to consider what you can sacrificially give over-and-above your current offerings for the next three years. And we’ll give you a pledge card. We’re asking for your pledge to be turned in on Nov 10. Whatever you pledge can then be given in whatever time frame you want, whether an up-front lump sum or spread out between Dec 2024-2027.

Then, continue to invite people to come sit with you at
FOF. Invite people who don’t have a church home or who
would benefit from the unique way of doing church we
experience here.

In any of the current ways you typically give an offering. Just make sure to memo “Building Fund” or “Mission 247” on your offering envelope or check or select “Building Fund” if you’re giving online or by text. Visit our Giving page at www.fellowshipoffaith.org for details.

Yes! You can give securities or RMDs directly to FOF.
In fact, it’s often tax advantageous for you to do so!
Contact our business manager, Sara Bodinus (sbodinus@
fellowshipoffaith.org), to get this underway.

Visit our Mission 247 webpage at www.fellowshipoffaith.org.

You bet! We’ll first have to make sure all other expenses are falling within estimated amounts, but if we can raise enough to do some of those phase 2 renovations now, we can!

First, don’t think of this as your tithe. Anything we give to this expansion has to be over-and-above our current giving. Otherwise, our operational expenses won’t be met and ministries will have to cease. We don’t want that!

After that, it’s up to you! Ask yourself what you can give over and-above. Pray about it. Then challenge yourself to sacrifice one or two steps above it. The gift pyramid is a way of helping you target how you can do that, and how you can stretch yourself. We hope to meet with you this October to guide you through a process of discerning this.

Pray about what role you can play, and the sacrifice God is calling you to make.

Pray about the people we’re trying to reach that God wants to add to our number.

Pray about who you can invite, and then act on it.

Pray protection and provision over the whole campaign, the church, and its leaders.

Pray that a white-hot zeal for the will and way of God grips us, with wisdom and boldness to act on it.

Pray that God expands his kingdom in and through FOF.

Yes. One we’d encourage you to consider is inquiring as to whether your place of employment will do a matching gift. Some will! Let us know what documentation they’ll need to process this. We’re also interacting with some local businesses to see if they’re interested in sponsoring.

That said, the vast majority of this will be funded by direct donation from attenders. We don’t receive money from a denomination, sell a product, have trusts that we live off…. FOF is self-supporting.

No. The vote will be to move forward with construction based on the concepts presented, along with use of funds, and financing. The general concept pictures we showed are just that, general concepts. They will no doubt morph in the blueprint and construction phase based on all kinds of factors. This is inevitable in any building project. Our board of directors will make the final call on designs once the voters give the go ahead.