Next Generation Facility Explained

In this episode we answer your questions about the Next Generation Facility Capital Campaign. 

Questions include:

Planning ahead

• How can funds be raised if the design isn't done and cost isn't known?
• What is our current budget and How much more giving beyond current will this be?
• What if the amount pledged or raised is not enough to cover the work we want to complete?

Practical concerns

• What are the projects we are planning to accomplish with timeline? (Will carpets be replaced?)
• How will the foyer be expanded—is there room?
• Where will the medium size gathering place go—same as expanded Foyer?
• How many Growth Group meeting rooms do you anticipate being able to fit? Where?

Property sale logistics

• How much are the two lots being sold for and where is the money going for each?
• Is the church involved in the development of the property, or just selling to a third party?
• Will we have enough parking?

Participation

• How can we pray for the campaign?
• What if we're not sure we can commit to an amount?
• Can I give to the campaign without making a pledge?

• Automated Transcription

• Dan Jarms 0:00
  Today on faith matters, we're going to hit frequently asked questions about our capital campaign, Seth is going to interview Mark Frankian. And while Takasaki.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:15
  I'm Dan Jarms. And I'm Seth Weber. And you're listening to faith matters a podcast to help update you on matters of faith Bible Church, as well as equip you in matters of the Christian faith.
  
  Seth Weber 0:35
  I've got with me, Mark Frankian. And Walt Takasaki in the studio, and we're going to be talking about the next generation capital campaign and going through a few frequently asked questions on that. And first, though, I'd like to ask Walt about just sort of the history of this facility here at 440. West Cora, once you to tell us a little bit about the story behind this place,
  
  Walt Takisaki 0:56
  over 27 years ago, probably 29 years ago started looking for a property. And it was very difficult to find a facility that was going to hold the capacity that we needed. So all of a sudden, this popped up on the market. It was in foreclosure, large property in the middle of Spokane. So we said why not there were bidders ahead of us who were going to build multifamily apartments, and that was rejected. So they dropped out, and it was time for our bid. They accepted it and started construction. The vision was larger campus. But to start with an economical footprint building. The current auditorium was envisioned to be an auditorium but turned to ultimately into a gym and then a larger auditorium built later. So that was part of the original vision many years ago, and didn't have an education, two storey education wing then only had an F for children.
  
  Seth Weber 1:55
  When it was first built. I mean, it was first built. Yep. The educational aim was sort of part of phase two, correct was, and the third phase was going to be the additional auditorium. Yeah, which never happened to me, it's
  
  Walt Takisaki 2:06
  never happen. So now that that brings us even to the present, where the auditorium is still on auditorium and will rain that way. The decision was not to build further facilities and incur that large debt. So we said, let's live within the footprint we have, and plant churches. So that has happened multiple times, Christ, our hope, community, Bible, church and Trinity zoo, just to keep our costs contained within the ability of the congregation, and then look at how we can utilize the rest of the property as good stewards.
  
  Seth Weber 2:44
  So Mark, why don't you tell us sort of what we're looking at doing over the next few years, with this capital campaign?
  
  Mark Frankian 2:51
  Yeah, so the campaign is three years on a goal to raise $2 million. And those figures were arrived at basically, through we've been in a master planning process for about 22 months already, and have some input from members of the congregation that including Jim Moeller, who's a retired architect. So we have some decent figures and ideas of what we want to do, but then are bringing that to a professional architect. And he's began the process of taking our ideas and what the needs we see in terms of expanding the foyer and other things to what it would actually be like. So there's some pretty good size projects in there, but some also quite a few smaller ones.
  
  Seth Weber 3:37
  Okay. Well, with that, let's dive into some of these frequently asked questions. And I've got, I got them broken down sort of into topics here. So the first topic planning ahead, how can the funds be raised if the design isn't done, and we actually don't know the cost of all the specific things that we want to do?
  
  Mark Frankian 3:54
  I think part of that is that we have done some some legwork to get to this point and have involved some architects and some people who know more than I do about what current costs are. But the other parts, our construction costs have gone up like crazy amounts. And there's really not a lot helped by waiting. Plus, just in terms of setting the timeframe and the goal of the capital campaign, the three years and the $2 million, our current budget for the year is about 2 million and over three years. That's sort of an average capital campaign these days. So it just kind of fits with what we're doing. And it's not entirely wasted time, or money that will we'll just kind of fold that into hopefully By fall we'll have more detailed work done on the from the architect, it'll put some better numbers on that.
  
  Seth Weber 4:50
  So what if to get into the real tough questions here? What if the amount pledged or even the amount raised is not enough to cover the work that we are wanting to complete?
  
  Walt Takisaki 4:59
  That's good question. Part of the pledge is for elders to really assess what can be done and at timing. As Mark said, our annual budget for the just general fund for the church is 2 million. Most rules of thumb for capital campaigns are to say, if you take that annual budget for operations and spread that over a three year period, that's, that's fairly reasonable for a congregation to accomplish. And that is where we started. Obviously, part of the pledge is to really understand where as people pray, the evaluate their budget, I know, that's, that's kind of what the elders want as an indicator for, for what is possible. So we may have to slow projects down and defer them, that's yet to be had to be seen so so
  
  Seth Weber 5:54
  it'll be flexible on timing of things. Yeah,
  
  Mark Frankian 5:57
  I think the other part of that when I say master plan, I mean, we have something from where we are, and where we want to be some point down the road, maybe, whatever, 10 years or something. And so part of the idea of developing a master plan from an architect would be to say, over time, we'll be able to do this whole big plan in steps. And then as was mentioned, based on elders understanding of the priority in the budget, maybe we don't get all the way through, but we at least we can prioritize those projects. So this is a bigger picture. This
  
  Seth Weber 6:27
  is sort of just part of that larger master plan. And that master plan is flexible, and its timing. Exactly. Okay. All right. Well, moving on to the next section, there's some practical concerns that people have asked about, what are the projects we are planning to accomplish? And sort of what are the timelines on those and one specific one that keeps getting asked is, are we going to replace the carpets?
  
  Walt Takisaki 6:50
  Tell me about that. Well, yeah. And having been here for many years, living in some of those rooms, having ministry and looking at when the chairs are cleared, and what the carpets look like, it definitely has always been a top priority and will remain pretty embarrassing. I don't think he's a good testimony either. So I think it's, it's time, and that is the highest priority. So carpeting care what's already here. Yeah, taking care of the things there is there are many things that are broken, that need to be repaired, and that are falling apart.
  
  Seth Weber 7:23
  So so it's phase two, A is sort of just repairing what we already have, and
  
  Walt Takisaki 7:27
  repairing what we already have, you know, window shades that are sagging, or broken or things like that, that are pretty obvious. Some because we've moved chairs around and utilized our facility, you see many cushions ripped and stained. And so those are things absolutely, just like in your own home, you want to take care of gotcha.
  
  Mark Frankian 7:47
  I think the other part of that too, is we have been working on the finance side and the elder side to budget better. So we can take care of more of that on an annual basis and not only need special capital campaigns to take care of things that we should be doing normally. So we have been working on that for a few years. And it's getting better every year. But we're just not there yet to be able to handle the tension of payroll on ministry versus facility. So that will just keep on working on that.
  
  Seth Weber 8:14
  Okay, so that's the start to the answer. What what are some of the other projects that we're hoping to hit? Probably
  
  Mark Frankian 8:19
  the biggest one would be expanding the foyer in a way that helps movement of people between services, and also gives us more room for ministry, both on a Sunday and during the week. So that could be a variety things we'd like to if we can and as feasible, again, based on giving a budget but at a mid size room of say 175 200 people if we can work that into that kind of re renovation in the foyer. Great. So
  
  Seth Weber 8:49
  is that that's potentially the same space as the foyer?
  
  Mark Frankian 8:53
  It could it could be okay. That's that's part of the question for there.
  
  Walt Takisaki 8:58
  One of the other immediate projects if you live in the children's ministry wing, and if you've actually in the children's ministry participated, there aren't any bathrooms for children, they have to use the the general use bathrooms. And that just poses a class management issue for the teachers very difficult because our current policies for the safety of kids is they there have to be two people accompanying the children and watching them as they go to the bathroom which means that when you only have to work is in a classroom, you have to clear the entire classroom, whether the kids have to go or not. Yeah, so they're all standing out in the hallway in line. And so just managing the classroom so one of the requests and and assessments is children's bathrooms so that they are not out with the regular general bathrooms. So that was that attracts high priority to a couple
  
  Seth Weber 9:53
  more things that I was remembering is there is a desire for some more growth groupspaces is, can you when he told me kind of what that looks like, what the idea behind that is,
  
  Mark Frankian 10:03
  I mean, the idea of making our space more available and accommodating for making disciples would be to turn some of what is more looking like and use like a classroom space into more of a living room or, or warmer space for growth groups. So it might be just simply divide, putting up a wall and dividing a bigger room into smaller rooms, and then changing the decor so that it works better that way. Okay, so it could be as simple as that.
  
  Seth Weber 10:32
  So would you think like, maybe it would take like the three classrooms upstairs, that are often used as growth group rooms, and kind of turning that into like six rooms, potentially,
  
  Mark Frankian 10:41
  it may not be that many, but it's something like that. So just looking at the space, we have what can be used as is or easily changed.
  
  Seth Weber 10:49
  And then one more that I'm particularly excited about, as a father of young children, I heard there's maybe a outdoor play space in the works is that what's up
  
  Mark Frankian 11:00
  with that is definitely on the list. Ideally, it's something we could use year round, but okay, it could be some, it could be two things, one, where there's an indoor space, you know, use your round in the children's wedding that's accessible them along with some bathrooms that are added so that it's all self contained. Okay, you can think TSA security airport, once you get into download exactly once there, and they don't come back until the end. But there also is discussion of some an outdoor play area or court area on the east side. Okay.
  
  Seth Weber 11:33
  And then one last question in the sort of practical concerns is, how will the foyer be expanded? This seems like this sort of surrounded by stuff already. So where does where does it expand towards the parking lot at the front? Basically? Yes,
  
  Mark Frankian 11:47
  that's really the the easiest way to do that. Move the front wall, south.
  
  Seth Weber 11:52
  So what happens? Is there no porch anymore?
  
  Mark Frankian 11:55
  It could be enclosed, or it could be extended a little, there's quite a bit of asphalt out there. So there may be some room to do something with that. But yeah, that's that's the first question. And the architects already working on ideas of what could work or, you know, if there are any big red flags that would cause you know, huge, big cost ticket items, if we have to upgrade for code or something like that. So that's part of what has already started.
  
  Seth Weber 12:19
  This part of the idea also to maybe sort of raise the ceiling, so it feels more open. Yeah,
  
  Walt Takisaki 12:24
  I think the, again, envisioning what could make the current facility more welcoming for guests and facilitate visiting. So space expansion, definitely. But while we're at it, would it make sense to make the facility you know, obviously, more modern, are definitely welcoming and updated. I know some people have made the comment of looks like a nursing home. So we definitely would want to add whatever test is while we're touching the building. And if you look at the brochure, some somebody asked on the pictures in the brochure, are those are those real? What's going to be designed? No, those are actually just concepts that other churches have for for facilities that we thought were very inspirational and build a vision for for what could be. But again, as property around this gets developed, and with the apartments that are that are envision are very modern. So to adjust the decor,
  
  Seth Weber 13:29
  now just call these pictures, inspiration. Yeah, I
  
  Mark Frankian 13:32
  think on the ceiling thing to just there. We have about a foot we could go right now in the foyer up. But because of the construction done already, it would be quite a bit more expensive to do more than that. So but that's something we'll take a look at, we'll do what we can, it's just a matter of prioritizing, exploring, seeing how far we can get with with what we have. Okay.
  
  Seth Weber 13:53
  All right. So moving on to a sort of a related topic that we do get a lot of questions about related to this is the property sale, how much are the two lots being sold for and where's the money going for each,
  
  Mark Frankian 14:07
  the West property has been sold, and that was $300,000. And that money is going it's already come in, not all of its coming in, but it's been coming in for several months. I believe escrow was closed on that last fall. And it's been coming into what we call the all nations fund that's specifically for reaching out to people groups for training and missionaries to reach unreached people groups. So that's already happening. Some of that's already been spent on the east side, that is getting close to closing escrow looks like about May of this year that were closed, and that amount would go straight into this campaign. capital campaign fund on the order of 500,000. Okay, might be a little more than that, depending on what happens They're looking for some space to do some kind of court if we can work it on agreement. So if
  
  Seth Weber 15:04
  that number is correct, that actually brings our 2 million goal essentially down to 1500 or 1.5. Point 5 million, right? You can do that.
  
  Walt Takisaki 15:16
  Tomorrow, let's knock it out. The property sale recognition is that it's been sitting dormant for 27 years. And the decision to say, Let's be good stewards. And if we're not going to use it, that is we're not going to build a $6 million facility. Let's Let's be good stewards, and to see what is are the possibilities. Soon after the discovery is it's the possibilities are limited as to what can be done on the property because of being a fill, landfill, former dry landfill. So after core sampling, recognizing you can't build large structures over most of that, those properties, so, but multi family dwelling near the core of St. E's possibility, elders did not want to get in the development business. So we said, Let's sell the properties.
  
  Seth Weber 16:10
  So the church is not involved in development of the property at all. It's just selling to a third party. Correct? Yeah. And now so do I understand correctly that one of our elders, Jim Greenup, is involved with that third party? Can you sort of explain how that works? What the relationship is there? Yeah.
  
  Walt Takisaki 16:25
  So part of part of our goal as elders was to make the sale property sale, complimentary to not only ministries at Faith Bible Church, but also the neighborhood. So with Jim being an elder, he understands what the needs of both the neighborhood and the church. And so and also, he happens to be a developer. So we said, let's look at fair market value, get an assessment outside the church of what the property is worth. That was that was completed. And Jim and group of of developers will develop the property. So want to be above reproach, I
  
  Seth Weber 17:06
  assume Jim sort of recused himself from all those kinds of decisions?
  
  Walt Takisaki 17:09
  Yes, yeah. So the elders have made that decision said, hey, look, Jim, I know you don't, I know it's uncomfortable and awkward. But we are going to task you with this. As an elder, you have to take it, to take it off our hands. Actually, to be good stewards, we felt that that was the wisest thing for for Jim, who has sensitivity in all those areas development community and church.
  
  Mark Frankian 17:34
  And he did consider selling. And that was part of the task the elders gave him was sell or develop. So but, but with Jim Greenup, involved in the development, it's even more insurance for us as a church because he's very concerned. And he's, he's intentionally limited both the height of the buildings and the number of spaces of parking, made sure there's lots of parking to write to not do as much as could have been done by someone else. So once the property is sold, we'd have very limited power over whoever we sold it to, and what's really built that into the sale. But with him there, it's helped to keep the buildings small as as functional to keep, make the developments feasible. But also same with a parking spaces to have more parking spaces than required trying
  
  Walt Takisaki 18:23
  to be sensitive to the neighbors, if you minimize the amount of parking that would be needed on the streets. So actually, as Mark said, he had to cut down the number of units that were that were part of the development in order to make more parking within on the property itself. So So related
  
  Seth Weber 18:40
  to parking, one of the questions we also get a lot is Okay, does that mean our parking lots on the east and west go away? And like, are we going to have enough parking space for Sunday morning services? How's that work?
  
  Mark Frankian 18:52
  I'll take them in backwards order. So yes, we will have enough parking. But on the west, the gravel area, there is part of the development that was sold, property that was sold. So we still can park there for another month or so when, when that's, you know, to put up a fence and start start their work. At that point. We did keep out. I'll call it the northeast corner. That's gravel up against the slope. We have that that actually will hold more cars than the gravel lot on the West that we lost. So even though really right now, nobody has been parking on the northeast corner. We still have more space there for Carson, then on the west side. Will
  
  Seth Weber 19:31
  that be something that we kind of create a better way for people to access that at some point?
  
  Mark Frankian 19:38
  Probably. So yes, people can get in there now as is but yes, if if we do need to make it more accessible, we can do that. Okay.
  
  Seth Weber 19:48
  Moving on to our last section of questions, sort of questions of how do we participate? First thing I want to know is how can the congregation be praying for the campaign? Good question
  
  Walt Takisaki 20:02
  of paramount importance is to pray, as you look at believers over the previous, those who have attended, they have been praying for a vision of the Ministries of faith Bible Church. And now you see the resulting fruit over that 27 plus years, continue to pray, it really is not about a building. It's about the ministry that gets facilitated of, you know, training and sending missionaries raising up the next generation of children, which I've been a beneficiary of, to seeing the huge investment by the ministries and my own family, but also past pastors and missionaries around the world. So I think we have counted over 25, maybe nearing 30, who have gone through the training here at Faith Bible Church, ultimately gone to seminary are now in pastorates. So praying for God to continue to use this church, body of believers to raise up the next generation. And that's whether it's pastors or our own children, may not be a ministry, but just to be able to understand and walk with the Lord. So that that's kind of the prayer. And the money thing. I think God takes care of that, aside from all that. So that's as kind of the the money's not the focus is really what will God do and wants to use? Faith Bible Church to do next? That's
  
  Seth Weber 21:30
  good. So practically, what if someone's not sure that they can commit to an amount?
  
  Walt Takisaki 21:38
  Yeah, I have gotten that question. We're asking people to pray. As we had in our formerly we had a pledge campaign to reduce the mortgage on the facility. And people actually gave way beyond what was pledged. So people didn't know. And they said, I don't know my income for this timeframe, or the type of job I have, it's uncertain. That's okay, pray and give what God brings in. So the uncertainty, we all have that in our lives, but then God brings extra fun, some people actually didn't know. But they actually found out they said, you know, we have property that has been unused, and in the family, it's just sitting, we're just gonna sell it. Some people actually, the bleed was take care of your own personal finances first, right? Your own home. And some people said, our homes too big. They sold it downsized, and actually freed up funds. Some people sold your cars, they did other things, to free up funds that normally was not available in their income, but they actually were working on their own stewardship.
  
  Mark Frankian 22:49
  I think the elders have been clear. But even on the pledge card, we say, you know, this is over and above normal giving, so regular giving, and being a good steward in life and time, resources, finances, everything. That's the starting point for all this. So. So yeah, give what you can start, start with wherever you are, and by the grace of God grow and and if you can't commit, don't commit, but it's a three year timeframe. So Lord willing, if there's more down the road than then you can give them
  
  Seth Weber 23:19
  would you say there's something of a leap of faith of filling out a pledge card knowing like, I don't know where this money is going to come from? Like, is that a wise thing to do in some cases? Or is that foolish?
  
  Walt Takisaki 23:29
  You know, I think some people do that interesting, Lord. Even personally, I have to look at our own finances. Where are we at? And, and it is a step of faith. Because if you read any press, you know, we're on the verge of recession, what's the Fed going to do with interest rates, blah, blah, blah, and I'm retired. So I'm on a, quote, fixed income. Is it a step of faith, it always is our own stewardship of our own home finances always is. And that's where we want to be good stewards, always of our of our personal finance. So you know, and we also said, how reasonable is the total amount of what needs to be raised and it is significant. So if you look at $2 million, or basic 1.5 million over three years, it's about a 20%, little over 20% increase in total giving above the general fund. So that is a stretch to say, I'm gonna look at my current giving and give 20% more. Oh, wow.
  
  Seth Weber 24:29
  That means if you're giving $500 a month, you would give an additional What is it 100 or $100 a month to the capital campaign route that we expect everyone to be able to do that? Right. But that's sort of if you average it out. Yeah.
  
  Mark Frankian 24:42
  So I'm gonna be more so I'm going to be less but yeah, the giving us is faith, life is faith.
  
  Seth Weber 24:49
  All right, very good. Anything else you guys want to add before we we close out the episode?
  
  Walt Takisaki 24:54
  You know, I always just commend those who have a greater vision than, you know their current circle. all have their own ministry, their own family, but they're envisioning the bigger picture of what it what can God do at Faith Bible Church and use the facility, use the monies given? I think that's that's the exciting part when you see all that God has done and and dreaming and praying about what God could do and how you can participate in that.
  
  Seth Weber 25:21
  All right.
  
  Mark Frankian 25:22
  I think the other thing for me is going back to the prayer, we can all give something I think, but different amounts, of course, but we can all pray. So I think whatever the end product will be, it will be better and we're looking forward to what the Lord does.
  
  Seth Weber 25:37
  All right. Well, thank you both for joining us and answering some tough questions. Thank you. Thanks much.

Mark Frankian

Mark is the Ministry Operations Director at Faith Bible Church. He and his wife Nanette have four grown daughters. They love spending time outdoors, reading, and playing disc golf with their daughters when they get the chance.

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Seth Weber

Seth is the Communications Director at Faith Bible Church and loves anything to do with design, video, audio and tech. He and his wife Kaitlyn have four children.

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Walt Takisaki

Walt is an elder at Faith Bible Church and works in the tech industry.

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