Some church business (or, Festina Lente)
Hey there, church family— long time, no blog.
Festina lente
At worship yesterday I shared some important church business.
Soon after I came to Shepherd’s, I knew one of the biggest parts of my calling to these ten acres was to help our church family get on firm financial footing. In order to keep bringing the Kingdom of God here on Earth as it is in Heaven we have to be able to pay our bills!
One avenue to help us accomplish that would be to parcel a portion of our 10 acres and sell the northern 5 to a community developer. This community developer would build a residential community and we would be given funds enough to pay down our mortgage or pay it off entirely.
After receiving approval from the LEAD Team, I began working on our denominational process to put the property up for sale.
After compiling and submitting all the documents needed to our District Committee in charge of church property, we were given another task: rezone the property.
This isn’t what normally happens when property is sold— typically buyers rezone property. But this extra step has been given to us from the district in order to maximize the amount of money we could receive from the sale.
Rezoning a property is an expensive and lengthy process. Typically, a church would contract a firm to work with the county to get the property rezoned. After all the process, the property may not be rezoned.
As your pastor, I am always trying to keep my open to what the Holy Spirit may be showing us. I felt that this extra step might be an invitation to pause and see if selling the back five acres is exactly what is best for our church right now.
So we are pausing on the sale. We will revisit this course of action in the next few months and see if getting the property rezoned is something we should work towards.
This doesn’t mean we won’t sell the property and it doesn’t mean that we will. It just means that we are taking a pause.
Festina lente
From the very beginning of my time as your pastor, I have tried to pursue a mantra of “festina lente,” or “to make haste, slowly.” I am so thrilled about what is ahead for Shepherd’s. We are absolutely in the “good old days,” our grandkids will be talking about.
We need to constantly be addressing problems we see ahead and what sort of changes that need to be made. We need to be flexible, adaptable, and teachable, ready to address the next great mountain.
But we do not need to sprint. And so join me as we make haste slowly. Not just in property matters, but ministry matters, discipleship, and worship. All of these things have done and will continue to make Shepherd’s a church that loves its city.
