Building Boldly for...What?

No doubt you've seen this little green logo at least once or twice in recent weeks. Most probably it was accompanied by a brochure which briefly outlines that the Forest Lake Church is expanding...

So what, right? Forest Lake is way over there, but we're at Deeper, and we're sitting pretty. The thing of it is, while Forest Lake Academy has been kind enough to let us worship in their Schmidt Auditorium, it is just a temporary (even if "temporary" lasts a few years) solution to the bigger problem at the church, of which Deeper is an integral part.

Deeper, maybe more than most, understands that Forest Lake is literally bursting at the seams. If it weren't for the Academy's generosity, we'd be in a real pickle because 350 people do not fit in the Upper Youth Center! The three Bible studies that meet on Sabbath morning wouldn't have a place to meet if we were still confined to the main campus.

So, the leadership of Forest Lake (which does include the leadership from Deeper) decided to take the next, biggest step: building a larger, modern facility that will help the entire church family better worship together and invite their friends and neighbors to do the same.

The first major step in the project will be to acquire five acres of land from the Florida Conference. For those who might not know, the Conference is the administrative offices for all the Adventist churches in Florida, including Forest Lake, and they also are the entity that owns all the land every church and SDA school in Florida sits on, as well as numerous other pieces of real estate obtained over the years. Part of that land is the large field to the west of Forest Lake.

"Why do we have to buy land for the church from...the church to use for....the church?"

I know, that does seem kind of weird, like the Conference is trying to make money off of us when they will still end up owning the land anyway. Some people have been quite upset about that. But the answer is actually very simple when you look at it from an investment perspective. The land that Forest Lake wants to use is owned by every church in Florida. If the Conference were to sell it to, say, Wal Mart, the several million dollars would be reinvested throughout the state in schools and ministries, etc. What Forest Lake is doing, since we want exclusive use of the land, is to buy out everyone else so they get a fair return on that investment.

Truthfully, we are still getting a pretty good deal. The Conference has agreed to sell us the land for $2,184,000. That might seem like a lot of money for a mere five acres, but there are two things to take into consideration. The land is zoned for commercial use, so it has a higher value. Not that there are immediate plans to sell it to Winn Dixie or anything, but since a commercial entity like that could use it, the value is higher. The second, and to me best thing, is that the Conference will make the land useable for us as part of that selling price.

Why is that a big deal? Well, because the strip of land we need is currently little more than a ditch. If you drive into the main church entrance and could drive straight, that's the land we're picking up. So the Conference will fill that in for us so that we can actually use it for driving and parking without needing four-wheel drive.

Which brings us to "Phase I" as it were: a new parking infrastructure. If you've ever tried to drive onto the main campus on Sabbath morning, you know that "nightmare" isn't quite adequate to describe the traffic situation there. And, sadly, there have been numerous stories of visitors coming to church for the first time, and after driving in muddled circles for awhile, give up and go back home...all because they couldn't find a place to park.

So that's where we're starting, with a parking lot. Paving, sidewalks (so kids aren't darting in and out of traffic, like now), and better access. But asphalt isn't cheap (another oil-based product) and that will cost us about $4,000,000.

"Why do we need a paved lot? Why not just do more grass parking like now?"

A couple of reasons. With dirt/grass parking, you have to continually repair it. As we know from Deeper's days in the Youth Center, there was near constant washout on the parking over there, making it almost impossible to get cars in there. Over by the Community Services building, where the pavement stops, there is an ever-present drop off where the dirt just keeps washing away. If we lived in a drier climate, it might be less of an issue, but with the daily (or better) rain showers we get in Florida, the long-term cost of having to continually come back and repairing the dirt/grass lots would be greater than a larger up-front investment in longer lasting material.

The other reason is more basic. With a paved lot, there are lines for distinct parking places, which means you can maximize the number of vehicles taking up a certain area. With a grass lot, there's no paint, just people parking as they see fit, so you get fewer cars in the same space. That means we'd have to buy even more land to fit the same amount of cars. This way, we really do get the most bang for our buck!

The last expenses, at least with regard to "Phase I" is $300,000 for architectural and engineering fees to get the design and layout all down.

Expansion Project: Phase I Costs
Land Acquisition:	$ 2,184,000
Parking Lot Construction:	$ 4,000,000
Engineering/Architectural:	$ 300,000
Total:	$ 6,484,000

As you can see, that's quite a large investment! As Pastor Dany and Pastor Derek mentioned last Sabbath, Nehemiah had some serious prayer time with God before embarking on his mission to rebuild Jerusalem. Sabbath, August 30th, is going to be our family's Day of Prayer when the whole church body will be coming together and praying in shifts from 7:00a until 11:00p. If you are able to join us, 242 will be praying from 6:00p - 7:00p and the Deeper leadership will be praying from 10:00p - 11:00p. We hope you can join us in the Classroom Wing of the main church!

Over the coming weeks, we will be doing out best to keep you as up to date and informed as possible. We've put quite a lot of information up on www.deeperfaith.org and, for those of you who are visual, the guys also put a podcast together to give you an even better sense of what's going on.

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