Summer is in full swing and I pray that each of you get some time to relax and reflect on this last year.  For some of us we sit back and wonder how we got through it all and still others wonder if the craziness will ever stop. One thing is for certain, God continues to walk with us and He is faithful to guide and direct our steps. 

I still cannot believe that Christy and I have been at South Everett Foursquare for two years.  For those of you with long steady history in the same location I completely realize that this is not too much of a feat.  For me this is a big thing.  I have known nothing but change for the previous 15 years and this is a new rhythm of life that I am getting adjusted too.

But no matter what, change still happens.

We have added space in our building and have given some back.  A wall here and there has gotten knocked down and most walls painted. Some awesome new people have started to call our church home and others have been led on to other great places.  We have had families move, both near and far.  Great community events have taken place as well as some key partnerships established.  We have had resources and we have been lacking. 

We have experienced a lot together and we are about to experience another change that I want to let you in on.  The lease on our current location expires Sept 30^th.  We are currently in negotiations with the Children’s Village to possibly rent one of the buildings they own. The Children’s Village is just down Casino Road, west a couple hundred yards and on the left.  It currently houses the Little Red School House and the local Head Start offices.  The space we would rent is the east building D.

This is a great facility that is well maintained and set up to accommodate kids. This whole complex is set up to help and assist the family and they are excited to potential partner with a local church to further build up the family.  We would be renting 2500 square feet of kid’s space and an office.  We would then be sharing the commercial kitchen, playground, courtyard and weekend meeting space with the other tenants for free.

We currently spend about $4600 per month on our lease and utilities. This has been a great space that has afforded us some awesome opportunity for ministry.  Most of you have spent lots of time remodeling and up keeping this building and we are so grateful.  However, the cost and quality of the facility has necessitated us to look at other locations.

This new location will be just under $3000 per month. This is a huge cost savings that will come with a little less flexibility.  Since our weekend space is shared we will have weekly setup. We will also have considerable less storage and will need to go minimalistic on all non children’s related supplies. 

We have had all of our partner ministries as well as our finance and advisory councils look at this space and we have decided unanimously that this is a good direction to pursue. The pros significantly outweighed the cons. Both from a financial and a ministry standpoint we feel good about this potential move.  If all goes as planned we will make the move in September and at the latest it will be October. 

So what do we need from you in this move? 

Number one thing we need is a flexible servant hearted attitude.  This will not be an easy transition, but I look forward in seeing each of us step out in our gifting as we move forward.  Things will need to be moved, thrown and sold.  We will need to figure out how to do church being partially mobile. Church might look a little different.

We also need everyone to participate financially.  So many of you give sacrificially and my gratitude cannot be expressed.  If you have not yet experienced the joy of given a tithe to the church this is a great time to start. I want to challenge all of us to tithe faithfully for the next three months.  I know when we give faithfully we will experience God’s blessings (and those are not necessarily financial) both for you and the church.

For the last year our monthly income has not covered our monthly expenses.  We have been using our savings that we built up two years ago to cover this negative income and that savings is close to zero. Even though our finances do not look good on the spreadsheet, I am confident if we all align our giving we have more than enough resources within our body to continue to move forward.

All in all much has happened in our last two years and 14 year history as a local body of believers.  Many of you have seen this before and are not caught off guard by the moving of Holy Spirit and direction of the Father.  We look forward to experiencing much more in the coming years. 

If you have any questions please ask myself or any of our council members.  Let’s continue to be in constant communication during this transition time.