The following article is taken from the February Tidings.
As part of our congregational meeting on February 7th, we will experience the joy of electing a new group of talented women, men, and youth to serve as Deacons and Elders at DPC. We will see the details of a record-breaking year of giving by our members despite the greatest financial challenge in generations, the operating budget approved for 2010, and act upon a motion regarding changes in the pastors’ compensation. All of those pieces have become standard aspects to the February meeting in recent years, but there is another part to that gathering which I’d like to address which will shape the future of DPC in tangible ways.
During that same meeting, you will be asked to act upon the following two motions endorsed by our Session:
- That DPC begin Phase One of the Master Facility Plan with the renovation and addition work in Andrews Hall and bridge connecting to the Sanctuary.
- That Doylestown Presbyterian Church borrow up to $5.2 million for its construction and renovation effort included in the Master Facility Plan, using the real property of Doylestown Presbyterian Church as collateral and that the Trustees of Doylestown Presbyterian Church be authorized to sign all documents necessary for said borrowing.
To help you prepared for those votes, let me offer some additional background and reflection.
In December, the Session hired the Lancaster firm of Caldwell, Heckles and Egan to serve as our contractor. CH&E has looked through the design documents and offered a probable cost estimate of the project making clear that we do not currently have the financial resources required to do everything our congregation approved for Phase One of the renovation effort. While it would be possible for us to renovate the parking lot and chancel area and replace the sanctuary elevator without borrowing funds, it is the feeling of the Session that to focus first on the renovated and expanded portion of Andrews Hall along with the bridge which will connect to the Sanctuary will meet more of the needs identified by our members as initial priorities.
The proposal to borrow is significant and historic, too. Currently, our congregation does not have any debt. The motion in this regard will change that fact and commit us to repaying the borrowed funds after we have moved into our improved facility. The cash flow model for that effort includes all kinds of assumptions. Among them: that we will have two more capital campaigns after the “Bridging the Generations” campaign ends in 2012, that the second and third campaign will have a mission component as well, and that any debt remaining in 2018 would become part of the operating budget. All of those assumptions can change and are not part of what you are being asked to approve on the 7th, but they do stand behind the model.
At the Session meeting when we finalized those recommendations, I shared the following verse from Scripture as I believe it speaks to what is happening here and what is ahead: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Such words seem fitting for this moment as despite the countless hours given by your fellow members and officers to get us to this point, there is much that we do not yet know which can only be learned as we move ahead. Yet what we do know with certainty is that the One who has set us on this path will continue along with us in what is ahead. Such confidence allows us to act.
I look forward to sharing in the meeting with you and continuing along this special journey as we together discover that which remains unseen by us, but already known by God.
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