Northlake,
We are entering some very exciting times, but they will not come without challenge and flexibility. Let me update you on our Becoming a City of God building expansion campaign.
First, as many of our parents have noticed, we have completed phase one of our remodeling in the children’s ministry over the last few months. Two new classrooms have been added, one specifically to meet the needs of our children with special needs. We have also installed double glass doors, a patio, and a walkway that will lead to a new playground space outside behind the children’s ministry facility. The playground will be installed the third week of September, when new fencing and handrails will be placed for safety, creating a wonderful area for our children to play. By the end of September, everything will be complete.
This week, we are filing our site development permit application. We need your prayers for this crucial step. We hope and pray that this process will go smoothly and expeditiously with Travis County. Assuming we are approved in a timely manner, it will require us to be very flexible. Throughout our planning process and working with Travis County and LCRA, it has been determined that we need to address a few issues on our current site before we start the site development of our new land. The issues to be addressed are the movement of water and our current parking lot, and I use that term loosely.
Our current timeline is to receive approval for our site development permit in November and begin our site work in December. The first phase will address our current parking lot and the associated water drainage issues. The current “parking lot” will be excavated down to a gradual slope, moving north to south into the new facility’s location. Doing this will allow us to lower the foundation/slab of our new building, minimizing the amount of fill previously required and benefiting us with some additional cost savings. This will also bring us into compliance with what Travis County and LCRA require of us.
This first phase of site development will take six to eight weeks and disrupt our normal weekend worship operations. Essentially, it will require us to relocate temporarily to complete the work. We are currently working with the school district to potentially hold our weekend worship services in the Performing Arts Center on Sundays when the parking lot is under construction. We are confident that we can accommodate the same level of excellence that your family expects while we are displaced at the LVISD Performing Art Center.
Let me tell you the upside to all of this. First, it will be exciting because once this phase begins, we are off to the races with the construction of our expansion. Second, after six to eight weeks away, the next time you pull up for church on Sunday, a brand new parking lot will await you—an actual parking lot with asphalt, parking lines, and even additional parking spaces to accommodate everyone. Lastly, our goal is to simultaneously address the lack of bathrooms in our children’s ministry area by adding a suite of bathrooms in our children’s space. All of this is great news.
Again, this is an exciting time, but it will require everyone’s flexibility. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not break. Although we have a plan and a timeline, we are at the mercy of our permitting authorities. Church, this is where we need your help. Pray. Pray that our General Contractor and Civil Engineer team will find favor with the governing bodies that issue permits. The quicker we get approval, the faster we get started.
Northlake, thank you for your commitment and continued sacrifice, which allow us to accelerate the vision. It will be joyful to see the dirt start moving for those who have committed to the Becoming a City of God campaign. I want to encourage all of us to be steadfast in our stewardship commitments, and for those who have yet to make financial investments in the kingdom through Northlake Church, this is a great time to begin. May we all consider biblical stewardship and walk in obedience.
It will take every one of us to be involved and invested. It is not about equal gifts but equal sacrifice. It means, as we say in Lago, “We all row.”
Walking In Faith,
Pastor Denny
Comentários