God has us on a GREAT adventure! It’s dangerous being a RIVER CHURCH as you never know when you are going to hit whitewater speed!


But we are committed to: REACH, TEACH, MEND, & SEND! 


Our MINISTRY STAFF and LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, believe God has called us to 
“WIDEN THE RIVER!” 


We are purchasing a 16,000 sq foot church campus, 2 miles from us at 6465 Cherry Avenue. 



 

WHY? 


1. NEED - That neighborhood, which is in 90805 like us, has great needs we can meet! 


2. NEXT GENERATION:  Because we are looking ahead to 30 years from now. 


3. CHURCH PLANTING: This property has not only a main sanctuary but a separate building with a smaller sanctuary. We can grow church plants to 50 in that space; then send them out. 


4. GROWTH: This purchase will allow our church to grow to over 1800 people on a Sunday, making it easier to plant churches faster.


5. CRAMPED: Our MAIN campus is being overused, we can’t do all the ministry we want\need to do because every day of the week has something happening.

 



VISION?


1. 1 CHURCH, 2 LOCATIONS - Hold Services at both our MAIN Campus & CHERRY Campus. Perhaps on a schedule like 9 & 11am on Main, 10am & Noon at Cherry. Keep admin at Main campus. Use a preaching team at both campuses that predominantly uses Pastor Larry but also includes the best of our other preachers.


2. NEW MINISTRIES - Develop new ministries specific to Cherry Campus. 


3. CHURCH PLANTING - Use Cherry to help incubate new church plants.


4. NEW SPANISH SPEAKING CHURCH - Use Cherry to house a new church. 


5. URBAN LEADERSHIP TRAINING CENTER- Develop a Training Center there. 



 

PROCESS? 
This process went both SLOW and FAST! Many people have been involved in this. 


1. FIRST TIME - It's the first time, a large enough church in our neighborhood, in our price range has come for sale in 20 years. In receivership at below appraisal price of 1.79 million. 


2. 3 MONTHS AG0 - Heard about it, brought to Leadership Council and Staff and began to pray. Offered it to 3 of our church plants as a possibility. None felt that they could afford it. 


3. 2 MONTHS AGO-  After sending a contractor through it with Pastor Vern, we felt like it may be a possibility. Prayed more but still felt like it was a long shot.


4. 1 MONTH AGO - They dropped the price to $1.59 million. Felt like it was more of a possibility but still a huge hurdle for financing.


5. 3 WEEKS AGO - Our L. Council unanimously voted to put in an offer at $1.4 million and once we put that offer in, then the next Sunday I announced it to our entire church. 


6. 1 WEEK AGO - The Vice President of the Free Methodist Foundation, our denominational lending institution flew out to see us. He announced that IF the seller took our offer then they were prepared to loan us enough money to buy CHERRY and do remodeling on our MAIN campus and on CHERRY campus. And at a well below commercial interest rate...and with no money down...and with no actual payments for the first two years as we get it in operation. That’s when we felt now we were in the high probability range of this happening. 


7. THIS SUNDAY - We are announcing that our offer was accepted on Wed. and we open escrow next week. After counter-offers we ended up at $1.45 million purchase price...a real bargain for 16,000 square feet of building space in our urban setting.

 



HOW? 


1. YOU - You made this possible already. The reason we got this great loan is because of YOU! The REPUTATION of our church at our national headquarters is right at the TOP because of all the ministry YOU have done and are doing! We are model church in our Free Methodist family!


2. FREE METHODIST Family - Our FM family believes in the vision of our RIVER Church and is willing to put their money into us to prove it. 


3. FINANCING - We will raise money over the next few years from the following sources: 


4. CAPITAL FUNDRAISING - In September we will kick off our “Widen the River” campaign. 


5. GRANT - We are asking for a grant from our Free Methodist Conference of 250,000. 


6. INCOME PRODUCING MINISTRY - We will start a pre-school or some other form of ministry that ends up generating a net income from a through-the-week ministry.


7. INCREASED TITHES AND OFFERINGS - We believe we will grow 10% a year over the next 5 years with the increased capacity of another church building.


8. LOAN - A low interest loan with our Free Methodist family that will finance it, that we will pay off as quickly as possible.

 



DETAILS?


1. IDK - I Don’t Know - There is a lot we don’t know but are praying & thinking about.


2. DATES - If escrow closes by July 20th...we could be holding services at Cherry Campus by October 1 but maybe as long as January 1 til we get the doors opened depending on escrow and remodeling process. 


3. NEEDS at MAIN - We will also be using the funds we receive to address both MINISTRY NEEDS and FACILITY NEEDS at MAIN Campus.


4. CHURCH that’s there? - Bethel Miracle has dwindled and thus lost the property. A new smaller worship space for the congregation is being located by the receiver. 

YOU? 
We need YOU more than ever: By helping you can do something HISTORIC with your life.

 

1 PRAY! - we must cover this in prayer.

2. INVITE! - Now more room for your friends.


3. HELP! - there will be more places to help than ever  

4. LEAD! - We need more leaders.


5. GIVE! - begin to pray about how you can contribute and who you know that could help us.


 

QUESTIONS? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or talk to a Leadership Council member or staff.

 

Honored to serve you all as we Reach, Teach, Mend, Send;

Pastor Larry