BodyBuilding Update - 7/23/2007

Extreme Makeover: Buildings A & B

Entrance to Building A

Buildings A and B have been a flurry of activity as a design team, artists and a number of servant ministers have been working on the renovation of Buildings A and B thanks to a gift to the BodyBuilding campaign. The design team made up of Meredith Barnes, Joanne Dorr, Amanda Knight, John Stiles Williams and Mark Wollard has been meeting since May and last month turned the buildings into a giant coloring book with murals designed by artist Chad Thompson.

Building A Hallway

The team was charged with coming up with a theme and
transforming the buildings into a fun, multi-functional space that is child-friendly and exciting. To find out what kids like, go to the source. The theme God-o-sea came as a suggestion from 7 year old Caroline Stiles Williams.

Building B Hallway

The first floor of the design will bring the Bible to life with murals of Moses parting the waters, Noah’s ark and a seaside resort on the Sea of Galilee. The upstairs gathering space will be turned into a cool surf shack and the hallways upstairs will help all surf the scriptures in a fun way.

Building B Hallway

Room A201

Building B Upstairs Hallway

Churches transplant their DNA to make new disciples - Florida UMC article

Achieving A Milestone in Our History - 4/1/2007

Were you at St. Luke’s back in 1988 when we started building the sanctuary? I was, and it was so exciting! At the ground-breaking we all lined up around the cross-shaped outline of the building and held hands, sang hymns and said prayers. It was a huge milestone in the life of St. Luke’s.

Last month we achieved another milestone. After nearly twenty years of making large mortgage payments and refinancing loans, we have finally retired the debt on our beautiful sanctuary! We also retired the debt on the Annex property. For the first time in twenty years, St. Luke’s is completely debt-free! What a victory!

Last spring we held a church conference and decided to use BodyBuilding funds to pay down our debt. That decision saved us over $21,000 per month in the operating budget. Each month we paid all the extra money we had in the BodyBuilding account, which allowed us to be able to pay off over $2 million of debt in a year. God has truly blessed all of you in your faithfulness to the BodyBuilding campaign, and in turn you have blessed St. Luke’s. We can now focus on other BodyBuilding goals. When we find the right piece of property for HopeSpring, our plan is that your continued faithfulness will allow us to finance the purchase on our own and not go in to debt again.

Thank you all for your continued financial support of St. Luke’s. With the retirement of our debt, we can use that money to help even more people in need. God bless you!

BodyBuilding Update 3/1/2007

A Note from Pastor Bill

Dear Saints:

Do you remember BodyBuilding? Do you remember our vision for “Building the Kingdom One Heart at a Time?” Do you remember the priorities we set for Phase 1?

Well, if you need a refresher, here it is: Our first priority was the establishing of the new congregation, using the first $2.5 million we received. That will fund property purchase and possibly some first unit building. We continue to look for the right location, but in the meantime, HopeSpring Church has begun preview worship services on a monthly basis at Thornebrooke Elementary School, and Pastor Gary has assembled his staff. Operating costs for HopeSpring (a ministry of St. Luke’s until the congregation is chartered on its own) are being covered through the reduction of our debt service.

We have paid off the mortgage on the Foxshire parsonage through BodyBuilding receipts, and we continue to reduce the sanctuary debt. We will be burning another mortgage before the end of 2007.

The Missions Endowment fund now totals over $300,000, as we have tithed (given 10%) every dollar received in the campaign. Now we begin to look at what portions of the needs on our St. Luke’s campus can be funded with what we expect to receive over the next two years of the campaign. You really have been receiving news about BodyBuilding all this time. It just has been coming in the form of celebrations of things we have accomplished already. Thank you so much for your faithfulness, and for claiming the vision of building the body of Christ in so many important and creative ways.

With faith, hope, and love,

Dr. William S. Barnes,
Lead Pastor

BodyBuilding Update 11/5/2006

We Have a Name!

After more than sixteen months of thinking, praying and dreaming together our new church strategy team has chosen the name HopeSpring for St. Luke’s daughter congregation. Naming a church is not an easy task. Many of you know we had two previous names that were suddenly taken by other congregations in our target area. Obviously these were good names! So we had to come up with something else.

The name of a church needs to convey a sense of who the congregation is and what they’re about. To insure broad appeal a church name needs to be attractive, inviting and inclusive (just like the congregation it represents--especially to those who don’t consider themselves “church” people. We believe HopeSpring offers this and more!

People are looking for hope. Hope is defined as “a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.” People all around us hope for love, acceptance, grace and justice. Unfortunately, many of the people around us just don’t expect to find these things in “church.”

We believe the hopes of the human heart find their greatest fulfillment in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ culminating in acts of love and service in the world. And just as a spring is a natural source of refreshment and revitalization we believe HopeSpring will extend the “living water” of Christ to a parched and weary world.

We Have a Vision We Call “Grow to Go!”

HopeSpring is an externally-focused church partnering with the Holy Spirit to help people grow in relationship with Jesus Christ and go to extend God’s kingdom through selfless acts of love and service.

How Do We Know We’re Being Successful In Our Vision?

Two significant ways. The people of HopeSpring will be able to identify ways they are growing in their relationship with Christ and ways they are going out into the world to serve.

We Have a Date For Our First Preview Service- Sunday, January 28, 2007!

As we move toward a fall 2007 launch HopeSpring will meet monthly for worship as we gather the members and friends of St. Luke’s who are interested in becoming a part of the mission of the new church. In addition to monthly worship we will invite people to become part of a small group for fellowship, study and spiritual growth; participate in regular outreach events in the target area and join one of several essential teams to help us build the necessary ministries we will need for our launch of weekly worship services in the fall of 2007--these teams will include children and youth ministries, hospitality, worship, music, mission, set-up for Sunday mornings, small group leadership, marketing and more!

Our first preview service will be held on Sunday, January 28th at Thornebrooke Elementary School just off of Maguire near Windermere at 10:00 a.m.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in helping us get ready for our January 28th event please call me. I’d love to hear from you and get you connected to HopeSpring! If you want to get involved fill out the form (form no longer available) on the HopeSpring site.

The Rev. Gary Shockley

BodyBuilding Update 7/24/2006

We are making great steps towards our goals related to the BodyBuilding Campaign. Below is a brief update on where we currently are:

• New Church Start – The Trustees in conjunction with the strategy team for the new church have been working diligently on finding property for the new church. We currently have a parcel of land under contract and are in the due diligence stage. Should the due diligence work have a favorable outcome we could close as early as September on this property. We would then go into the design phase of the work and then to permitting. As of now, Orange County permitting process is taking approximately 18 – 24 months. So even though we might possibly have the land we are still a ways away from seeing construction. However, this does not mean we won’t continue to work on the development of this new church. Pastor Gary Shockley and the strategy team are working on creative ways to begin the new church services as early as February, 2007 on the St. Luke’s campus. Keep looking for additional updates on the website, your newsletter and the E-news Update.
• The Capital Missions Endowment Fund continues to grow. We currently have over $500,000 in this account. What a great praise!! The Church Council is reviewing a document to create a Permanent Endowment Fund Committee which will put processes in place for ways to apply for these funds for Mission capital needs. This fund will continue to grow as pledges are paid. Remember 10% of each dollar received goes directly to this fund.
• Debt Reduction is another area where we are making great strides. During worship in July we celebrated the “Burning of the Mortgage” on the Foxshire parsonage. This debt is now completely paid off and St. Luke’s owns the parsonage. We continue to pay down the loan on the Sanctuary at an accelerated rate and anticipate we will be out of debt by late 2007.

Your gifts to the BodyBuilding Campaign are helping to do the work of Building the Kingdom here at St. Luke’s and beyond. Thank you for your faithfulness and continue to look for more and exciting news on how we are moving forward.

June 7, 2006

Dear Builders,

A Church Conference was held on Thursday, May 25, 2006 to review and vote on the BodyBuilding Discernment Team’s recommendation for distribution of BodyBuilding funds. This recommendation had previously been approved by Church Council at their April meeting by unanimous vote. The recommendation was as follows:

The recommendation was presented by our Vice Chairperson for Church Council, Cindy Hunter. There was a time for questions and discussion and then a vote was taken. The recommendation was overwhelmingly approved and actions will now be taken to make these recommendations a reality. Please continue to pray for clarity as we move forward with these exciting plans and begin steps towards a new church plant, mission beyond St. Luke’s and retirement of our debt. God has truly blessed us – once again!