We give because we have received!
Our dedicated pastors, Jerry and Scott, our devoted staff, and our committed Session are feeling a sense of awe as we reflect on the generosity that you, our ZPC community of faith, have so graciously demonstrated! You give of your time and talents daily, to our covenant children’s journey of faith; to Noah’s Ark; to the Zionsville Food Pantry; to Awakening and Great Banquet weekends; to each Sunday’s worship; to Momentum; to our collaboration with City Life and Progressive Life Ministries; to Habitat for Humanity; to local and international missions, and to this week’s VBS! And now, you have generously pledged your treasure to God’s future vision for ZPC...the Catching The Wind Property Campaign! Praise God! Proverbs 11:25 beautifully states, “The generous person will prosper; and whoever refreshes others will, himself, be refreshed.” Indeed, God is guiding our steps and our hearts to “prosper” together, as we glorify him!
Our deepest thanks, ZPC Generosity Team
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
John 3:8
Since ZPC’s birth in 1983, we have been a congregation that has taken seriously this mission statement to come together and be released, to gather and scatter, to breathe in and to breathe out. We believe that this is how disciples of Jesus are born and how they grow. After nearly three decades we believe it is time for us to focus again on the place in which we gather so that it can continue to be a generator of disciples and mission. By refreshing our current building as well as adding on new space, we will be able to create a space that is more inviting, that increases our ability to cultivate relationships, and therefore, that helps us to flourish in making and releasing disciples.
At at Congregational Meeting on Sunday, March 26, the congregation voted to move forward on a $13 million property project that has been a long time in the making. Around $6.5 million of the $13 million needed has already been raised for this project. The session is comfortable with a $3 million mortgage which means we need to raise at least $3.5 million dollars more, though we are hoping to get as close to $13 million as we can!
Catching the wind
We are creating a physical space through which we believe the winds of the Spirit will blow and take us further in our journey of building for God’s Kingdom. While we cannot control the wind, just as we cannot control the Spirit, we can create spaces in which the Spirit more easily works in our lives and in the life of the church. It is like a sailboat. While we do not control the wind, if we want to move across a lake we can certainly build a sailboat which allows us then to be prepared for when the winds pick up, filling our sails and allowing us to glide across the lake. That is why we are calling this property campaign “Catching the Wind.”In Greek and Hebrew the word, “Spirit,” is the same as the word “wind” and we believe that this building will be a place in which the Spirit continues to breathe life and carry us further in our journey.
In John 3:8, Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus to which Jesus, after talking about the Spirit says, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” We are offering this building up to the winds of the Spirit and we trust that God will work through this building in ways that we think and in many ways we cannot even yet imagine.
CATCHING THE WIND VIDEO TESTIMONIES
PROPERTY CAMPAIGN FAQS
Our hope and prayer is that we will actually be able to raise, in total, within a range of $10 to $13 million. This extra range, beyond $10 million, would enable ZPC to reduce the anticipated mortgage of $3 million (as approved at the March 26 Congregational Meeting) to a lesser amount. The campaign will kick-off on Sunday, April 16 and run through Sunday, June 4. We already have a generous total commitment of $6.6 million in a pre-campaign outreach to several church families; but it will take all of us, as a community of faith, to assure the campaign’s success and impact. Since the campaign is scheduled for a limited number of weeks, it is important that pledges be made as quickly as possible between April 16 and June 4. Take the time you need, but please don't delay! There will be a three-year payment period (if needed) for pledges, beginning in June of 2023. A $10,000 pledge to the campaign can be paid at $3,333 per year, a $25,000 pledge at $8,333 per year, and so on. While you may take the entire three years to pay your commitment, you may also give over a shorter period of time or up front in one lump sum if desired. Choose a payment plan that works for you: a one-time payment, annual, semi-annual, or monthly to complete your pledge over that three-year period. You will receive quarterly statements from ZPC letting you know the status of your pledge. You will also receive an annual statement for tax purposes. Yes. We ask that all members and friends consider the vital importance of stabilizing and upgrading our well-used building so that it may serve and inspire future generations! Everyone is being asked to stretch to make a capital campaign pledge, but the amount is entirely up to you. Some people will give from assets such as savings, IRAs, appreciated stock, or real property. Others may be giving entirely from income. Every pledge of every size is important! A pledge is not legally binding; it is a gift, one you have made through your own discernment process with God. All we ask is that you do your best to fulfill your pledge and advise us of any changes that may affect your commitment. Cash gifts, automatic deductions, stocks, mutual funds, life insurance, retirement assets, and other non-cash donations may be made. If your financial circumstances change significantly, contact the church to adjust your commitment (increase, decrease, or timing). The design phase is complete. The construction phase began April 2024 and will take 10-12 months to complete. Every ZPC family is asked to be a part of this effort. It is our hope that every family will make a truly sacrificial pledge to ZPC’s Catching the Wind property campaign. About 1,400 individuals from more than 450 households call ZPC their church home. Our construction team is experienced in this type of work. They understand it’s essential for the mission and work of ZPC to continue and are planning accordingly to minimize disruptions. However, prayers for the PATIENCE of all of us are so important; as we realize that patience and grace will be essential, as, together, we await the final vision becoming complete and actualized. ZPC pastors, staff, and Session are fully committed to continued transparency throughout this dynamic time and will be using our ZPC midweek videos, the ZPC website, our Sunday Services, and the Sunday bulletin to keep everyone well-informed and engaged. For any questions about building construction, please contact one of these team members: For any questions regarding the Catching the Wind property campaign, please contact one of these team members:
SEE THE PLANS
ZPC BUILDING PROJECT FAQS
The phasing of the project has been outlined and will be shared as construction proceeds. We plan to continue to use the building during construction though adjustments will need to be made throughout the building process. We will do everything we can to make sure that our programming is able to run as close to normal as possible. 25 years have passed since the last building expansion in 1997 and there is a general need for renovation and refreshment throughout the building. More importantly, our project goals address emerging building concerns while noting community growth adjacent to our property in terms of new rental properties and single-family housing developments. The project goals are best summarized as creating an invitational space that optimizes relationships, provides flexibility, and facilitates growth. The building project and design goals, which are all reasonably addressed by the proposed project, are: Our mission has always been “called together by God to make disciples and release them for service in our broken world.” The guiding principles of the building project are to enhance the invitational, relational, and “respirational” aspects of our ministry and the tremendous facilities we enjoy, while updating and preparing the building for future generations. The “respirational” aspect of the life of ZPC is that we gather into the building, through all the interactions and events at ZPC, and then we scatter, or are sent out, into the world as growing disciples prepared for service. ZPC’s Session launched a property and building needs assessment team in 2015. Stakeholders from staff, user groups, and every key ministry were engaged on both practical needs and visionary dreams. The feedback was synthesized and brought to Session with specific recommendations. Session also launched a facility security team resulting in temporary and long-term recommendations to address evolving needs and concerns. In 2018, Session launched a property-design team who engaged an architect on design options to estimate potential construction project costs to address needs. Session also engaged a capital campaign firm to evaluate feasibility and consult and later selected an Owner’s Representative firm to project manage design through potential construction. In March of 2020, a dinner and information meeting was scheduled to present the project plan to the congregation but the pandemic resulted in cancellation of the meeting and all plans were put on hold. In early 2022, Session picked up the facility discussion anew and determined that the plan needed a refresh with new specifications allowing us to address post-pandemic construction cost and availability concerns. They also decided to immediately move forward with two parts of the plan: the building of a separate Food Pantry on our campus and renovation of our Chapel (both projects were completed summer 2023). With that work completed, we kicked off a building campaign called "Catching the Wind" and have since received generous pledge support of more than $11,000,000! NextGen Ministries will have new space and newly renovated space. Our Littles Ministry (birth-K), which is concurrently shared with our Noah’s Ark Ministry, will have one entrance and one exit securely dedicated to those ministries; thus allowing us to better secure and track our covenant children. Bigs (1st-4th grades), MSM (5th-8th grades), and HSM (9th-12th grades) would also have newly renovated and dedicated space. This allows each of the respective ministries to have dedicated space and amenities, so we can reach our covenant children in a comfortable environment for them. Because we have invested in our Sanctuary over the last few years, the updates in that space would be limited to new carpet and reupholstering the chairs. A great way to reinforce our desire to be invitational, relational, and respirational and to be more outward facing is to upgrade the main entrance of our building with new space and amenities to allow the community to visually see that we are God’s Church. The Gathering Space is another focus area for these reasons and will be restructured to allow for more pocket spaces, such as a Coffee and Donut area, space for additional family seating and small group gathering spaces, as well as easier access to the Gym, NextGen Ministries, and other areas of the building. The Kitchen will be renovated and designed by a kitchen professional. All the mechanical systems of the building will be upgraded during the project. In general, there will be improved way-finding, better flow of crowds, more security, and general necessary renovations to our aging building. The project will add approximately 20% or 13,000 square feet to our existing 67,000 square foot building. Most of the building will be renovated. There are no plans for renovating the Church Office or Gym. There are no specific growth objectives in terms of attendance, but ZPC needs to continue to attract new members and families to, at a minimum, sustain our ministry for future generations. The proposed project targets addressing facility concerns and optimizing use while ensuring capacity for potential growth. We project that a more secure and invitational facility will result in growth in attendance. If growth occurs, several existing ministries are in place to maintain health including Hospitality, Assimilation, New Member, and Home Group ministries. The facility design expands space available for Children’s Ministries through high school, the kitchen, Great Banquet, and general, flexible meeting spaces including the Gathering Space. Although the Sanctuary remains the same size, we currently have capacity for 60% growth in two-service attendance and the option of adding additional services remains. ZPC commonly operated with more than two Sunday morning worship services over the past many years. It should also be noted that expanding the Sanctuary would add substantial cost. Our facility is a mission and discipleship generator, fueled by making disciples that will fund and participate in on-going and future ministry, mission, and service. We believe investing in the facility will result in budgetary growth, generating on-going investment in sustainable ministry, missions, and service in terms of dollars and people. The cost of the project is estimated at $13 million. Built into the cost estimates are contingencies that total nearly 28%. Those contingencies planned are: Design (5%), Construction (5%), Escalation (6%), Pricing (9%), Owner (3%). Inflation has been built into the contingencies above, but the availability of the materials and raw goods seem to be getting better, although we really don’t know the full impact yet. In a perfect world, start to finish on this project would be nearly 13 months. We estimate due to working around church events, weather, and other unknown items, the project will likely take an estimated 18-24 months. ZPC went through a thorough process to select our current partners, interviewing three candidates in each respective area below. This process, which involves the owner representation role, was designed to help us put the experts in the right places. With the contingencies mentioned above and the partnerships we have in place, we feel comfortable with the current budget. Our current Partners are: Our best estimate today is that our operating costs will increase by 2-3%. We currently have nearly a $3 million operating budget, so total increase is expected to be $60,000-90,000. The Session and Staff of ZPC would prefer not to have a mortgage. Much of that depends on God’s plan and generosity. However, the Session and Finance Team are comfortable with a mortgage up to $3 million if one is needed. The operating costs would be impacted by the interest on the mortgage (current environment is 6-7%) which would add nearly $200,000 to the operating budget. Final plans for the Cabin have not yet been made but it will likely be taken down.
VIDEOS
