Life in the Church has just gotten real interesting

Last time I left you, I was in a quagmire. I'm better now. Thank you for your prayers. I see God working all around and He's got something BIG planned.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that Dale left our church in February to pastor a church in Hemet. Very sad times indeed. But right now, it is starting to become clear what is happening.

Last year, we were talking about a church who wanted to buy our church property. It was a Spanish speaking congregation, which makes sense in our current location since 80% of the people around the church are Hispanic, with a huge amount of them actually speaking only Spanish. We, as a church, were not equipped anymore to reach our immediate neighborhood. It was a time of excitement in our church. Was God going to do something here? We were hoping for between $4.4 Mil and $4.8 mil (listed at 4.8) The offer came in. They offered $2 Mil for just our sanctuary. How that was going to work, I don't know. It was a ridiculous offer that was impracticable. So we voted against it. The excitement drained. Dale was discouraged. It felt like we missed an opportunity. God was changing Dale's heart to make it where he would listen and move to where God had him for his next ministry -- Hemet. If we as a church would not have gone through that disappointment, I don't think Dale would have ever listened to God saying move.

So, when we voted no, we, as a church, agreed to put the church on the market in case this was God's way of making it so we would be open to it. We said we would actively place the property on the market until January, 2009. In the meantime, Dale feels God leading him away. He interviews out at Hemet, lets the staff know what God may be doing, and we are all in prayer. Dale gets called on February 15, 2009 to move away from FBC Fontana and be the new senior pastor at Hemet Valley Baptist Church.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Our church financial officer and one of the trustees is a real estate agent. He is showing a church out in Western Fontana to another church because they are interesting in moving to a permanent building. Coincidence has it (or Divine providence...) that one of the people looking at the church property for this church is the sister-in-law of our financial secretary. The church they were looking at was too big (it is an old community hospital so it was large and with a $48 mil price tag.) She remembered that our property was on the market at one point, so she asked Jim about it. He said, well it was on the market but not anymore. She asked if they could take a look at it anyways. He agreed and brought them to our property. They looked around and loved it. They looked at the original listing, saw the $4.8 Mil listing price we had 10 months ago (and if you've been paying attention, property values have plummeted since then) and figured out that they could make an offer for the listed price.

Now was a matter of bringing it to our congregation. We are in the middle of electing a new pulpit committee when this gets tagged onto the end of a business meeting as a possibility. Kinda floored everyone (although I knew about it before hand... it still amazes me.) We had a second business meeting already planned for the following Sunday to vote on the nominees to the pulpit committee so the discussion was held until we had more information.

The second Sunday evening business meeting happens and we vote for a new pulpit committee. Then begins the discussion on do we as a church want to sell our property to this Spanish-Speaking church who is offering us full price on the property and move to a property in North Fontana where there are about 3 churches total, and only one with a building, merge with our mission church we started up there, and build on a property we had talked to the housing development company that owns it currently with their blessings because they want a church in the area, or do we stay where we are and change who we are to reach our community?

Back when we were first talking about moving up to North Fontana, we had a contingency come down from the California State Convention to do an assessment of our church, our congregation, and our demographics. They have decades of experience in making sure churches are healthy and capable of growth. They pointed out that they have never seen a better case of a church moving. They said we either move, stay and die, or stay and radically change. The fact that there are no Southern Baptist churches up there, much less any other churches of note, a Catholic church and a Muslim mosque are currently being built in the area, and the property company was willing to work with us just added to their message.

Back to the second Sunday. We began our business meeting at 6:30 pm. At 8:30 pm, the discussion was still hot and heavy. People were starting to get tired but no one wanted to leave. It was suggested that we open up the Wednesday night prayer service to continue the questions and that was accepted. Finally, we finished for the evening. Wednesday night has not seen so many people in quite a long time. More discussion.

Then comes Palm Sunday. In the morning we had the Easter cantata (I had a minor speaking part --- real minor. I played Simeon the man who waited in the Temple because God promised him he would not die until he saw the messiah -- a usual Christmas/Epiphany story but a good starting point for Easter.) In the evening, we had our third business meeting in that many weeks. It was only to vote on whether we were going to accept the offer or not. While the votes were being counted, we did 'All Music Night', a chance for anyone who wants to sing (my whole family sang 'Shine' and I mean everyone -- Becca, Micah, Ali, Zoe, Trina and I.) Finally, the vote came back. There were exactly 100 voting members at the meeting. The final tally was 86-14.

So, we're moving. I need to get some tubs to store all my stuff indefinitely because I probably won't have an office again in too long to mention if ever. That's ok though. God is working and his work is bigger than me having an office. AWANA will still happen, even when we are not in a building. I am starting to think how we need to do VBS outside in a park and where. We have recaptured some of that excitement that dissipated back in August with the bad offer.

Here's a link to the exact location we are looking at purchasing:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Lytle+Creek+Rd+%26+3+Mile+Rd,+Fontana,+CA+92336&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.37814,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=34.155444,-117.464554&spn=0.012962,0.019312&t=h&z=16

Just south of the property is a new housing development which is real nice. South of that is a huge community center, brand new, that we are talking with the city about to let us use as a place to meet for 2 years while we build on our property. South of that is Summit High School -- a nice location to build an incredible youth ministry. This is an incredible location, just off the 15 freeway (so we can put up a sign where people are constantly stopped on Friday evenings on their way to Vegas sharing Christ on an electronic marquee) and the area is still booming despite the recession. Construction costs are down. Property costs are down. We are going to be able to get more property and more building for less money than if we would have moved 10 months ago. God's timing is perfect.

Pray as we move that God will make the transition smoother than we hope for, the merging of two churches loving, and start opening hearts in the area.