May 20, 2023

Dear Rockford Reformed Church Family and Friends,

Here’s another reminder that we have a special congregational meeting immediately following our worship tomorrow. Our agenda will revolve around our progress and next steps related to the Welcome renovation. This letter is provided so that you are informed and prepared for this time together which will culminate in our vote to affirm going forward with the project. Bear with me as this letter is a bit longer with information so that our meeting can be shorter. We will also celebrate our graduates and gather in the Family Life Center afterward with cake.

I will start with a bit of the history. In May, 2019, our consistory initiated a team to develop a plan for renovating our facilities. On the evening of March 12, 2020, our consistory approved and was excited to unveil this plan to the congregation. Our worship attendance was steadily growing, and we wanted to proactively work to add space for worship and for facilitating conversation, connection, and fellowship. God was wonderfully working to open our hearts for invitations and new relationships, but our facilities were getting tired, dated, and uninviting. And then, on the way home from that meeting, I heard about schools shutting down because of Covid-19. The next day, we cancelled in-person worship and began recording and then live-streaming our worship. And our lives were radically changed.

God graciously preserved and carried us through the challenges of the pandemic so that our consistory was confident to go forward again with presenting the renovation (estimated at $1.3 million at that time) and the Welcome Giving Initiative in December, 2021. Your generous commitments for sacrificial giving toward this effort confirmed that we should keep moving forward. The next steps involved detailed architectural work and then, the bidding work where a general contractor solicits competing estimates from various contractors based on the detailed plans. The bid process has dragged on, in part, because the pandemic has significantly slowed down, complicated, and increased the expense for the materials, trades, and contractors.

In January of this year, our consistory received, considered, and unanimously agreed to go forward with a preliminary total bid expense of $1.9 million. And again, God has continued to preserve and carry us through the transition into the ARC and many other challenges. A part of God’s provision includes our current finances where, through April, our ministry and missions giving totaled over $215K which is $18K short of the budgeted amount. While giving was less than planned, expenses were less ($210K) and so there is an accumulated gain of $5K year-to-date.

We finally received a final total bid two weeks ago for $1.999 million and scheduled this congregational meeting for Sunday. Below is a chart that provides an overview of the bid expenses. You may remember, as we presented a chart like this in February, that the total renovation cost had increased significantly because the roof and HVAC were not included or anticipated in the early stages of this process. The roof and HVAC are near the end of their service life and would have required replacement even without a renovation. However, while the roof expense ($160K) is significant, God’s provision through our giving in recent years has provided a capital fund reserve that can cover that expense. And so, the renovation expense that we will cover through our giving and a loan is $1.84 million.

Many of us have committed and are sacrificially giving after making a pledge through the Welcome Giving Initiative in December, 2021. We have received $607K so far and the pledges yet to be received are $320K. Design, planning, and engineering expenses/fees ($137K) have already been paid so that we have $470K on hand and will have a balance of slightly less than $1 million that remains to be paid through a loan. We expect the minimum required loan payment to be around $67K per year, which is approximately 10% of our annual budget. We will look to pay this debt through giving that is above our giving/tithes that support our daily ministry and missions expenses.

The loan and debt are larger than we earlier expected, but we believe that this will be a challenging step of faith that God can use to stretch, encourage, and build us up as we pursue his vision for us. Some of us who have pledged to the Welcome Project will increase our giving beyond what we pledged; and some of us will give sacrificially for a longer season to cover these increased expenses. This is also a great time to sign up, pledge, and contribute if you haven’t already. Earlier giving works to reduce our interest expense over the term of the loan.

Our consistory long ago committed and re-committed to this project, most of us have already given toward and are committed, and as noted above, we have already paid $137K in expenses. But, because of the added expense and commitment, we are meeting tomorrow to once more affirm through a vote that, with God’s help, we are all in. Our consistory will soon thereafter vote to fully commit and once the loan is ready, material orders will be placed, and wheels will go into motion.

In anticipation of our going forward, a loan process is in the works, and we expect a likely start date of July 1. This would mean that we would likely make the transition to worshiping in the Family Life Center beginning on June 18. We will distribute a letter with more details relating to the transition, demolition, pews, VBS, and how you can become involved, beginning next week. This will be work, but it will also be exciting to roll up our sleeves together and to worship together in a different venue. The work is projected to be completed in 6-7 months.

Our focus on Joshua 3 tomorrow will show how God works powerfully in us and through us as we take steps of faith. Even through the pandemic, God has immeasurably blessed us with abundance and during those times, we can tragically get weaned from leaning on him. This now becomes a God-sized vision and a step that makes us gulp a bit so that we will increasingly learn to trust. I know that I need to learn to trust him more. I hope you will prayerfully vote to take this step with me.

Facilities facilitate ministry. We want to be a home for anyone who is searching. We want to point to the love, joy, and welcome of Jesus from the moment that anyone enters our home or drives into our parking lot. A renewed facility can be wonderfully used by God for a fresh wind of renewal for our church family and our community. I look forward to the journey with you all—with great hope in what he can and will do—for his glory.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Tim