It’s a reference to Acts 2:47 where it says that the Lord added daily those who were being saved to that first community of believers. There’s also a play on words because we want to be involved in reaching people daily, 24/7.

God is adding to our number daily those who are being saved. But FOF is out of space. More people continue to come and we’re out of room to accommodate. We want people connected to Christ and FOF offers a unique way for people to do that. Without space, we can’t.

The growth rate at our second service is pushing us to capacity. Additionally, our congregation overwhelmingly said they’d prefer to be a one-service church. To the greater congregation, one service seems to be worth $5 million. Also, two services doesn’t solve our other space issues. We need group, meeting, NextGen, and storage space throughout the week. On top of that, our current worship space is limiting what we can do in worship.

We don’t think so. Going to two services jeopardizes the one-church feel far more than adding more seats. For the last two Easters we went to the Vixen and had well over 500 people gathered at one service. Many were surprised at how intimate it

still felt.

A new 660-seat worship space that’s more conducive to our worship style. It will include a sensory room, production room, more parking spaces, more bathrooms, a bigger coffeehouse, a catering kitchen, more usable space for NextGen, and storage space, along with furnishing and AVL. Potential add-ons include a mezzanine, outdoor “beer garden,” and new covered-canopy entry.

Yes. New top windows in the existing sanctuary are incorporated. One issue FOF has had to contend with is whether we would need to add a sprinkler system throughout the whole building. It looks like we won’t have to – only installing it in the new addition. That, of course, means the addition of a reservoir tank as well. Our HVAC system is original to our first building and nearing the end of its life. Unfortunately current estimates add over $1 million to the project to replace it. For now, our plan is to continue with our current system.

For this round, yes. It’s phase 1 of a larger campus plan. Phase 2 will expand NextGen, group, and office space. But that’s a separate project for some time in the future. Any add-ons beyond our reach in this initial phase will also be given next priority.

It gets retrofitted into more fellowship space. Think expanded coffeehouse!

Current project estimates are about $5.7 million. (This does not include add-ons.) It would be great to raise that and more so we can incorporate all the add-ons. That said, we’ve received $3.14 million in pledges – an incredible amount for a congregation our size!

Most likely. Unless more unforeseen gifts or pledges come in, we’ll have to finance the rest. We won’t know how much exactly until we submit final bids to our lender, but it looks like we’ll be able to finance up to $2 million.

Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF). They’re our denomination’s lending arm. Our existing mortgage is with them and so was our First Wave loan. They’re friendly lenders with unbeatable rates. Everything they make in interest is poured back into other church and ministry projects around the country.

Not directly. Our total facility expansion plan includes this, but due to cost, we have to save it for a future phase 2. That said, new rooms are being added that can double as group space: sensory room, green room, new worship space, expanded coffeehouse space and NextGen space, on stage, back stage, potential mezzanine…

Yes. There are people who regularly attend FOF virtually that we plan to reach out to. But don’t get too excited. Unlike Covid days when FOF witnessed 200,000+ tuning in every week, that number has dried up as life has gone back to normal. (Not to mention we were never able to ascertain who most of those people were.) That said, we’ll be reaching out to the faithful few in our online community.

We sure hope not! A danger for every church and every believer is to focus so much on the “circus with new toys” that we forget spiritual wellness and formation. This is what our mission, vision, and values are about, and why we follow them so tenaciously – to keep us true to our purpose of discipleship.
 

This expansion is a tool. It’s a tool for spiritual formation. It’s far less about new toys than it is about raw space to accommodate people who want to grow spiritually. That said, we’re happy to get a cool ball you can balance on your nose like a circus seal if you’d like to try that for us some Sunday!

We received a number of questions on specific aspects of the designs as presented. 

  -    With expanded parking, are we adding entrances? We’ll develop a second entrance to the facility from the new parking lot. There won’t be a new entry from the road onto our campus.
 

  -    Is the sanctuary going to be flat? The floor will. We’re not doing stadium seating. The roof? No. Slanted like our current building.

  -    Why isn't there a basement? The architect recommends against it. Cost prohibitive and not enough bang for the buck. Better to invest in first floor square footage.

No. LCEF will extend an interest-only construction loan to cover us through the duration of the actual build. Once we move in, all remaining debt is converted to a typical mortgage on the property. That said, we do need to know how much will be pledged before we can commit.

There’s a number of contingencies. We could eliminate the beer garden, canopy entrance, and mezzanine. We can reduce square footage. We could reduce the amount of inside refurbishing. None of these are ideal. Plans go out to bid June 2025. At that point it we’ll know actual costs and decide how to proceed.

Wouldn’t that be great! We’d use overage to eliminate our current mortgage (~$270,000). If there’s still more, we’d keep it in our building fund for future expansion, improvements, and maintenance.

Construction documents go out for bid June 2025. We hope to decide on a contractor by July and break ground late summer. Grand opening is slated for Fall 2026!

Since most of the construction is new addition, use of our current space will continue like normal. There will be a month or so when they’ll have to take down the dividing wall between our current sanctuary and the newly added one. When that time comes, we’ll get creative. This is not an insurmountable obstacle. Back to the Vixen, anyone?

We hope we will! When the new sanctuary fills, we can either go to two services or do a second site. We also anticipate the need for more NextGen and office space if this happens. That would most likely be the focus of any next build.

Pledge, give, and invite!

If you consider FOF your church home and haven’t made a pledge, please make one! The campaign runs through December 2027. Fill out a Commitment Card of what you can give through then. You’ll find them at the front Mission 247 table at FOF and drop it in an offering box. Or, you can email your pledge to our business manager, Sara Bodinus, at SBodinus@fellowshipoffaith.org. Or, if you’ve made an initial pledge, but can now pledge more, please consider it! Just give us your new total amount on a Commitment Card or email in the exact same way.

Then give. The goal is to have all monies received by December 2027 (or early January 2028 if you need the advantage of an extra tax year). The sooner we receive funds, the less we have to borrow up front.

Then, continue to invite…

In any of the current ways you typically give an offering. Just make sure to memo “Mission 247” on your offering envelope or check or select “Mission 247” if you’re giving online or by text. Visit our Giving page at www.fellowshipoffaith.org for details.

Yes! You can give securities or RMDs directly to FOF.
In fact, it’s often tax advantageous for you to do so!
Contact our business manager, Sara Bodinus (sbodinus@
fellowshipoffaith.org), to get this underway.

This webpage will be your go-to for general information. Otherwise, reach out to Pastor David Gaddini at pastor@fellowshipoffaith.org or one of our staff. Also pick up one of our Mission 247 booklets at FOF.

First, don’t think of this as your tithe. Anything we give to this expansion has to be over-and-above our current giving. Otherwise, our operational expenses won’t be met and ministries will have to cease. We don’t want that!

After that, it’s up to you! Ask yourself what you can give over and-above. Pray about it. Then challenge yourself to sacrifice one or two steps above it. The gift pyramid you’ll find in the Mission 247 booklet is one tool to help you target how you can do that, and how you can stretch yourself.

Pray about what role you can play, and the sacrifice God is calling you to make.

Pray about the people we’re trying to reach that God wants to add to our number.

Pray about who you can invite, and then act on it.

Pray protection and provision over the whole campaign, the church, and its leaders.

Pray that a white-hot zeal for the will and way of God grips us, with wisdom and boldness to act on it.

Pray that God expands his kingdom in and through FOF.

Yes. One we’d encourage you to consider is inquiring as to whether your place of employment will do a matching gift. Some will! Let us know what documentation they’ll need to process this. We’re also interacting with some local businesses to see if they’re interested in sponsoring.

That said, the vast majority of this will be funded by direct donation from attenders. We don’t receive money from a denomination, sell a product, have trusts that we live off…. FOF is self-supporting.

The FOF congregation overwhelmingly voted to move forward with this project in November 2024. As part of the vote, they entrusted final design decisions to our board of directors.