Growing Again for the Glory of God : Cary Church of Christ Building Expansion Program

6640 Tryon Road, Cary, North Carolina 27511, 919-854-9988

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Questions and Answers

Q. With a lot of focus on the building, what is happening with our other efforts to evangelize and what are the short/long term strategic plans for the congregation?

A. The Elders have given extensive thought and discussion to both the long and short term objectives for the Cary congregation. Our first objective is to ensure the spiritual health of every member and maintain this congregation in a manner which God would have us to be. We have identified several areas of focus as we strive to achieve and maintain this goal. Our work as a congregation of The Lord’s church includes many elements. These include:

Local evangelism
In the growing community in which we live, there are numerous opportunities for local evangelism. This congregation will become more involved in local campaigns and efforts to spread the message of Christ to our neighbors across the Research Triangle area. We are looking at everything from mass communication to door knocking. There is consideration for adding additional ministerial staff as the number of members increases.

Local benevolence
In keeping with Biblical example, there are many benevolent needs in our community and the congregation will continue to expand our efforts in this area.

Mission work
Historically, this congregation has been very active in supporting domestic and international mission work. The Missions team has recently completed a thorough examination of the current and proposed works and is rolling out those plans in the near future.

Preacher Training
There are many areas in North Carolina and around the world that do not have enough scripturally sound, trained preachers. This congregation has supported numerous men in the past and continues to provide support for individuals as well as dedicated preacher training schools.

Congregational welfare
Benevolence is not limited to the community at large. Economic and personal difficulties have resulted in challenging times for members of our own congregation. The Elders are committed to ensuring that members of the congregation will be assisted in whatever way possible to help them deal with those challenges.

State and area leadership
The congregation in Cary has the resources and numbers to be a leader amongst congregations in North Carolina. We have hosted the Carolina Lectures in the past and have plans to continue with that role in the future. Through various events and functions, this congregation is recognized as taking a leadership role and for ensuring that The Truth is being taught and never compromised.

Q. Why do the Elders feel it is necessary to expand our current facilities?

A. There are many good reasons to expand our current facilities:

We are desperately in need of additional classroom space.

We need more space in the auditorium. We have temporarily dealt with the lack of space in the auditorium by expanding to two services. The elders have always viewed two services as a temporary measure because congregations with multiple worship times tend to become “two congregations” with little interaction between the people who attend the first service and the second service.

An unfortunate dynamic is that churches stop growing when they reach 80% capacity. Visitors will not come if they cannot find a place for their family to sit or they cannot find a place to park in our parking lot. Both are problems for the second service now.

At the time we built our current building, our original plans were to build a larger facility. We could not afford to build as large of a facility as we wanted at the time, so our plans were always to add to the existing building when we had an opportunity.

The original acquisition cost of the property on Tryon Rd. was a good value. It is important to maximize the value of this property by fully utilizing the available space.

This building served us well for a few years. Then we began to outgrow the building. It has been a blessing and one of the reasons for our growth. We need to continue to provide those opportunities for more people to worship comfortably at Cary.

Q. Why not just stay as we are and use the money to start another congregation?

A. The related question is why do we need to grow to 600 members? We currently have a congregation of about 450. With that size congregation, we are able to manage our debt, support mission efforts, carry out programs to edify the congregation, and provide minimal benevolence. Everything that we have learned about church growth tells us that when we are ready to start another congregation, we need to have about 150 of our members of the new congregation (and hopefully a couple of elders). In theory, that should provide enough people for adequate size of classes for all ages, a viable youth program, and a large enough contribution to sustain the efforts of the church. If a congregation is not large enough to do these things, the members will slowly drift back to Cary or somewhere else that can provide the edification that the members need. We cannot afford to fail in our efforts to start new congregations that will hold to the same Biblical principles that have made us successful at Cary.

So, if we start a new congregation at this time, we would lose 1/3 of our members if we want that congregation to have the best opportunity for success. We simply could not sustain the programs that we have at Cary with a congregation of 300 members. We would likely be reduced to using most of our contribution for debt retirement instead of moving forward with other essential programs. We simply do not see the reason to start another congregation if doing so will put the Cary congregation in any form of jeopardy. A congregation of close to 600 members could have 150 of the members leave to start a new congregation and we could still sustain the programs that we feel are important to the members at Cary. The elders feel this is the most prudent approach to starting new congregations.

Q. Shouldn’t we use the money that we are spending on this program to evangelize and do mission work?

A. The investment in the property on Tryon Rd. is intended to assist in our local evangelistic efforts. It is imperative that visitors to our congregation have adequate parking and seating to encourage their attendance. The building program funding has not decreased or changed the amount of money and effort that the congregation has directed towards other mission efforts.

Q. Economic conditions are very severe. Is this a prudent time to be building?

A. The bankers have told us that this is an excellent time to build – if you can afford it. Interest rates are lower than they have been in years. The price of building materials is dropping as building in the public sector is slowing down. Contractors need business and are willing to accept less profit in order to keep their employees working, so bids have been a little lower. The bank we are working with has been very conservative in making loans and, according to their calculations, we can carry a debt of up to $3 million. If we wait until the economy improves, all of these prices will go up, making it more difficult to build.

Q. Can we afford the expansion, given the current budget and economic situation?

A. Despite the economy, we came very close to meeting the budget last year. Our weekly contribution in 2008 was $10,640 – very close to the budget figure of $11,000 per week. Can we do better? The elders believe we can. While there have been a lot of people in the area who have lost jobs, we have been very fortunate in that most of our members have escaped the layoffs. We have chosen not to increase the budget target for 2009, but we are hopeful that the congregation will, once again, step up to the challenge and provide special contributions that will help us meet our goals.

Q. What will the building expansion cost?

A. The bank has told us that we should be able to manage a debt of $3 million with our current contribution. We still owe about $1 million on the current building, leaving us $2 million for the building addition plus our building fund, which was approaching $500,000 (We have paid some of the fees up to this point from this fund). We have gone through a number of different plans in order to get as close to our building goals as possible and stay within the budget. At this point, cost estimates are just that – estimates. It will be very tight, but we hope to be able to complete most of the expansion at a cost of $2.4 million plus furnishings. We are a little short of that at this time, but we have time to build our building fund between now and the time our construction is completed.

Q. Will we be able to complete the entire building expansion at this time?

A. No. How much will remain to be done in a year depends upon how much we are willing to contribute to this project. As it stands, we will not have enough money to finish the fellowship hall downstairs. There may be some other items in the building that will have to wait to be completed. If we can grow our building fund similar to the way it was grown last year, that could be a possibility. This expansion will add classroom space, but we know that as the congregation grows, we will need additional classroom space. Classrooms can be added to the back of this building at a later time.

Q. How large will the congregation be?

A. The size of the congregation will be determined to some extent by the seating capacity of the auditorium. The current plan for the auditorium will have a capacity of approximately 670 (using the Town of Cary standard of 18 inches per seat). We have taken a more realistic approach and estimate the seating capacity of 520 (24 inches per seat). However, since we seldom have every member present for any given Sunday, we anticipate that this building will accommodate 600 members.

Q. What is the timeline for completion of the construction?

A. The final permits were granted by the Town of Cary. We signed the documents with the bank for the loan. Construction began immediately. Site preparation began in early June 2009 and we anticipate approximately 12-13 months for the project to be completed. It is anticipated that occupancy of the new auditorium will be approximately 10 months from the start of construction with an additional 2-3 months required to retrofit the existing building.

Q. What is the next step?

A. We believe that God will bless this effort to spread His gospel in this community. We anticipate that within five years, we will have grown to the point that we will be starting another congregation.