Chapel Update - Church Vision, Sanctuary Reno, PreK

This will be a place over the coming months (and perhaps years) where we will add the occasional update so that you can stay informed about things that are happening regarding the church “vision” we shared recently.

Back on Thanksgiving weekend, we had a Fireside Chat titled “A Time to Invest.” In that vision-casting message, we laid out several ministry objectives that we believe the Lord has led us to over the next five years. If you didn’t see that message, I’d encourage you to go back and check it out, but to keep it short, we believe the Lord has called us to:

• Emphasize discipleship in our church, in part through hiring and investing in our biblical guidance ministry, including an emphasis on equipping our church in biblical manhood and womanhood.

• Make some investments into our existing church property, including: some lobby and sanctuary updates, giving some care to our HVAC units, and a few other small but necessary projects that we’ve been delaying.

• Start a PreK school that will not only provide excellent Christian education but will also be a ministry of the church reaching families in our area with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• And last, but certainly not least, take intentional steps to become a “sending” church. This would include building a School of Ministry where missionaries and church planters can be equipped and sent out. Our goal is to send out 10 missionaries and 2 church plants in the next five years!

This project will take place over several stages, beginning with the reconstruction of the stage. Just this week, that renovation has started in part. Bear with us as we work around this project with our music and production teams as we re-shape the existing stage.

Just one more comment on the sanctuary renovations: They won’t be extensive, and our beautiful sanctuary will keep the amazing feel that it has. It’s a beautiful room and we see it as a great blessing from the Lord!

Over the last few months, we’ve had three potential ministry partners come forward. We’ve used this time to pray and discuss, to seek the Lord about the most appropriate ministry partner to investigate more deeply. We felt like the Lord helped us to discern one of those ministries, and we had a face to face meeting to discuss the possibility of partnership a couple of months ago. Then earlier this month, Jeff and I flew out to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to do a more thorough vetting of this potential ministry partner.

The trip to Texas was a fruitful one! We were able to visit three churches in which these preK’s were operating. We toured the facilities, spoke to program directors (think day-to-day operations), community directors (think school pastor), and church leaders of the host churches. We also visited the home offices of this ministry and got the chance to speak to the executive leadership. Our greatest hope was to find that there was truly a heart of ministry in these schools, and we were pleased with what we found.

We also spoke to one of their architects while we were there and got some preliminary ideas about what it would take to get our building ready for the venture. Our next step is to receive a pro forma from this ministry partner which would further specify things like projected numbers of students, costs of construction, income projections, and more. After we receive that document (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) we’ll again pray and discern if this partnership seems to be a match.

At that point, it will get really interesting. And complicated. More to come!
Please be prayerful with us. I believe the Lord is leading us into a season that is going to require more faith than where we’ve come from, and it will test our unity and resolve. But I believe with all my heart that the Lord has plans to use us and pour us out for His purposes. And I couldn’t be more excited about it!

- Pastor Ritchie