Pastor's Corner

April, 2003

In the middle of last month, our architect, Jack Christensen, submitted an application with the required architectural drawings to the City of San Jose for approval of the Conditional Use Permit. This officially started the process to secure a building permit to build our sanctuary. If Lord’s willing, we will see fruition of the efforts in putting together a building scheme that we believe is suitable and within reach for our church. Last month, I shared with you that God doesn’t object us purchasing a nice home in a good area or fixing up our own homes, but on the other hand, we shouldn’t ignore God’s house and give Him the “left-over” (Haggai 1). Like purchasing a home, building a church also depends on the ability. We don’t want to “dream” of a building that we can’t afford, nor do we want to misrepresent God with mediocrity. The Church Building Committee spent hours of studying and meetings to plan out what we believe will be a nice functional building that we can afford.

Now, while we are waiting for the Lord’s timing and the City’s approval, I believe it is important for you to always remember the purpose of building a sanctuary. We didn’t start this project because we had a dream one night; nor did we want to compete with other churches. We do this based on needs. We wanted to have space to grow so that we can reach more people to Christ. About two years ago, during a Deacons’ Retreat, I shared with the leaders of the church the need to have a new sanctuary when the church grows to about two-hundred in attendance in order to effectively minister to the people. For us to be proactive, we needed to put a plan together when we approached 180 people. We have reached this mile-stone since 2002. Our current facility doesn’t have enough space and rooms for fellowship groups and Sunday School classes. Space is directly related to church growth. I see this as an indication of God directing our project. In surfing, a surfer needs to catch the wave for a ride. It is the same with church growth. If we let the waves go by, the church will cease to grow.

In the beginning, we plan to build the sanctuary in two phases due to the inadequate number of parking spaces. Since then, we realize parking spaces will always create a problem for us, and therefore we had to re-think the process. We have now designed an underground parking. In so doing, we satisfied the city’s requirement, solved our parking issue, and eliminated the two-phase construction, which would cut down on future construction cost and inconveniences. We calculated that the benefit to build an underground parking outweighs its costs. This has brought you up to speed with the building project.

Before I sign off, I would like to suggest how you can support the project at this time. You can pray for a smooth approval from the City of San Jose on the site plan. You can start saving money to financially support the project. We will roll out a fund raising plan as soon as we’ve received the Conditional Use Permit.

Pastor Larry