Gift Campaign
Property Development Committee
G.I.F.T. Giving
The purpose of the GIFT Campaign is to seek God’s will as a congregation for the future growth of VGBC. Please prayerfully consider your personal giving commitment, above and beyond your tithe, to help VGBC make a Greater Impact For Tomorrow!
How To Give
What are my options to give to the GIFT campaign?
- Use a GIFT Envelope available in the lobby
- Financial institution bill pay function (Designate GIFT Campaign in Memo block. This feature is typically free through your banking institution)
- Tithe.ly (Select GIFT Campaign, be aware of 3% fee that must be paid, so please check that you will pay the fee otherwise the church will have to pay)
How We Got Here
Vista Grande Baptist Church was started in February 1973 when they bought land and built their first building at 5075 Flintridge Drive, in the Vista Grande area of Colorado Springs just east of Academy on Flintridge Drive. This original building was just under 20,000 square feet and had a sanctuary that seated approximately 200. In comparison, the sanctuary at Flintridge was approximately the same size as the current foyer is.
As Vista Grande began to grow, they started to reach capacity at the Flintridge facility, so they looked to acquire land and build a bigger building. In preparation for this expansion Vista Grande sold the Flintridge Drive building in September of 1999.
At this point with the building sold, the church used the revenue to acquire the land at the corner of Powers Blvd and Stetson Hills Blvd, where Vista Grande Baptist Church is located today. However, because they needed the funding from the sale of the Flintridge building to start the Stetson Hills building, there was a gap.
During this set of gap years, the church offices were relocated to a rented store front in the Flintridge Plaza at the corner of Flintridge and North Academy. For Sunday morning activities the church met at Mitchell High School in the classrooms and auditorium. Despite all the data about churches moving, and losing members during a multi-year gap, Vista Grande continued to grow at Mitchell High School.
The new building located at 5680 Stetson Hills Blvd opened in September 2001. The new building was over 30,000 square feet and although the original plan was only finishing the multi-purpose sanctuary and ground level area, the church had grown so much at Mitchell High School that the basement area was finished before the building even opened. The new building and its multi-purpose sanctuary was configured to hold a maximum number of 457 people in a single service.
After continuing with multiple services and ever-increasing membership, Vista Grande Sunday School space became an issue and so the church added on both the ground level and in the basement with the addition of the Youth Wing expanding to the north off the original building. With the Youth Wing expansion, the Sunday School capacity of the church was increased to 650 for youth and adults, not including the children’s wing.
With Sunday School expanded, the Sanctuary became the next constraining facility. So, in 2011 Vista Grande embarked on expanding the multi-purpose sanctuary area with the addition of two wings. Each wing can seat 127 people. With the addition of the two wings and the original sanctuary, the current worship space can seat a maximum of 711 people on the floor per service.
It should also be noted that the original plans for the building included a multi-phase build out on the property with several options including a larger dedicated worship area beyond the multi-purpose sanctuary the church currently uses, so expansion was always the vision.
Additionally, many studies have shown that church growth is significantly impacted when attendance reaches 80% of worship center capacity. This is not a hard and fast rule, but many studies show it has impact. Those impacts are felt in many different ways, with things like 1) the only available seating is up front, 2) some of the available seating is uncomfortable seating, like the back of the wings, 3) even though the numbers say there are seats, they are not available in contiguous sections for a family to sit together, 4) it is difficult to get in and out of the worship center at 80% capacity, and 5) the perception of “full” or only “uncomfortable seating” remaining tips members away from coming when they are on the fence and also from inviting guests.
So, prior to the COVID pandemic we were reaching levels that were testing the 80% rule. And it felt full. Vista Grande experienced several Sunday mornings with over 1000 in attendance across both services, so on average that is 500 in a service, but the services are never evenly balanced number wise, so we were closing in on that threshold where it starts to feel full and hopefully will be again in the next couple of years, so if it takes several years to build, we are on track.
To this point in the capacity discussion, we have only looked at worship center numbers, but what is more constraining for VGBC currently is the Sunday School space especially for Senior adults on ground level, even in the pandemic. And with the current setup we are having to “flip” the Youth wing multiple times a Sunday and we have a class meeting in Fellowship Hall, neither is an ideal situation. So, we need more Sunday School space on ground level even without 80% capacity issues in the worship center.
Reference: https://alban.org/archive/the-80-percent-rule-fact-or-fiction/
Where We Are
Based on “How we Got Here“, the church chartered a committee to look at the future. The church voted to form the committee at the church business meeting in December 2019. The vote that meeting approve the following people to be on the committee:
Kirk Dickenson
Jennifer Dale
Gregg Shade
Stuart Kurkowski
Devin Knuckles
Jennifer Dale
Gregg Shade
Stuart Kurkowski
Devin Knuckles
The vote also established the charter for the committee which is:
- Specific responsibilities of the Property Development Committee shall include
- Bring to the church for approval a Property Development Plan to increase the use of the existing church property on the corner of Stetson Hill and Powers Boulevards. The Property Development Plan shall convey to the church membership, in layman’s language, the finished state of the property, impacts to existing facilities and ongoing church ministries, along with recommended phasing of construction projects. The Property Development Plan shall include recommendations on how to pay for these plans.
- Bring to the church for approval any needed updates to the Property Development Plan that may arise from the passage of time, changes in public policy, the fiscal climate, church demographics or other external or internal factors.
- As finances permit, bring to the church for approval recommendations consistent with the approved Property Development Plan to instruct the Trustees to enter into financial or contractual transactions required to implement the approved plans.
- Serve as primary liaison on Property Development issues to any outside organizations such as City Government, Regional Building, architectural firms, general contractors or financial institutions in matters not reserved for the Trustees under Article II Section B, paragraph 1 of the Church Bylaws or the Properties and Space Committee or Stewardship Committee under Article III Section C paragraphs 4 and 5 respectively.
- Form and recruit from the church membership individuals to participate in temporary working groups to plan and conduct events related to property development such as awareness and fundraising events.
How long does the committee have?
Charter states: The Property Development Committee will disband upon either (1) submitting a final report to a church business meeting indicating completion of construction activities required to fulfill the Property Development Plan or (2) a church approved recommendation to cease any further Property Development activities.
So, since that charter, the committee has
- Prayerfully considered the numbers and need for expansion
- Determined we need increased Worship space and increased Sunday School space, especially on ground floor.
- Received an initial plan proposal from Building God’s Way (BGW) just to gauge the effort, feasibility (with the city), and cost, but no commitment to the plans or BGW
But based on that analysis the PDC has determined that we are definitely going to build and at our current location, the only question is timing and ability to afford to do so as good stewards.
What is Next?
- The committee is continuing to work on designs and plans
- We would need to finalize a design
- We will need to secure financing in the form of a construction loan
- We will have to hire a General Contractor
- We will have to get plans approved from the city
- We need to acquire the material
- We would need to coordinate construction pads and things for equipment
FAQS
We will assess level of giving at VGBC 50th anniversary in February 2023
For the glory of God’s kingdom, we bear fruit where we are planted. John 15:8: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
We are not targeting a specific goal for GIFT. We do not have specific cost of the effort, because we don’t have finalized designs, but overall it looks like with the price of materials and size, it will be at least $15M.
And to secure financing from a bank, we would need at least 25%-30% down.
We are planning to get a loan.
We will have to have 25%-30% of the cost in cash to secure the loan.
Yes, the committee looked at that, but the recommendation by the staff was that the structure and governance of VGBC would likely not be successful with a church plant, we also already support several church plants via the Mission’s committee and Pike’s Peak Baptist Association.
Traditionally the costs are in line with expanding our current building, and due to many of the same reasons above for “planting” a church we did not go in that direction.
The committee is concentrating on a larger worship center with corresponding Sunday School space to compliment the number of people.
We are also committed to expanding the current facilities and to minimize impacts during construction so we can continue to use the current building.
Based on the acreage available for parking our maximum is around 1200 person sanctuary and corresponding Sunday School space, based on an 70% Sunday School attendance level.
The church has looked at a parking garage but it is very much cost prohibitive, so we are restricted to surface parking within the boundaries of the land we currently own.
Yes any final designs will include adding parking throughout the current property both towards Powers Blvd as well as up the hill to the west.
There are old plans and new plans showing the Worship Center to the East or to the West of the youth wing, but there is no commitment to either one at this point. Those decisions will be made as further need assessments, design constraints, and cost analyses are completed in the future.
It all depends on the price of materials and the design, but all initial efforts show that it will be at least $15M
Our goal is to preserve as much of the current building as possible so we can continue during construction.
Once the new building is done, there will be potential for reconfiguration of some of the current areas to accommodate more members and staff.
