GBF Land and Building Team

The land and building committee for our church has been established and charged with the mission of finding an appropriate site and designing the first phase of our new church home. The team is carefully following the steps Nehemiah took in his journey to rebuild the Jerusalem wall. The book, “Next Step”, written by Bill Chegwidden, an architect out of Atlanta, outlines these steps Nehemiah took and applies them to designing a church campus. Our team is excited and already hard at work on our “first steps”. Please join us for our exciting journey ahead and keep this committee and our future church home in your daily prayers.

Drew, Kris, Dee Dee, John

About Them:

Drew McDonald: Drew received his Business degree from Stephen F. Austin and has spent over 20 years in the mortgage banking industry. Drew has been with Fannie Mae for nearly 12 years. In his work he provides consulting expertise to mortgage servicers on all aspects of loan servicing, accounting, escrow admin. and compliance with financial and net worth requirements. Drew is active in the Men’s ministry of G.B.F. He is married to Becky and they have 3 children, Ryan, Jessica and Christopher.

Kris Roberts: Kris, educated in both Louisiana and Texas, has a paralegal degree and her Texas real estate license. She spent approximately 15 years in the property management field. She currently owns A & K Product Specialties offering promotional advertising products. Kris is active in the Gunter community as well as in our Women’s ministry here at G.B.F. She is married to Gane and they have 2 children, Andy and Katie.

Dee Dee Wilkens: Dee Dee is a veterinarian trained at the University of Tennessee. She practiced small animal medicine and surgery for 9 years before selling her hospital and practice in Frisco to stay home full-time to raise her children. She found the challenges of designing and building her own hospital quite rewarding. Dee Dee is active in our Children’s ministry here at G.B.F. She is married to Brent and their 2 children are Colby and Garrett. Dee Dee is the chairwoman for our committee.

John Hansen: John has been practicing architecture for over 20 years and has experience in the community, government and private project sectors. He is a licensed architect and Project Manager for a Dallas architectural firm specializing in School Architecture working with school districts in long range planning, bond supervision, project implementation and facility construction. John graduated with a Masters Degree in Architecture from Oklahoma State University and has lived in the Dallas area for 12 years, with the last 8 years living in Gunter. He has four daughters, 2 living in the Gunter area and 2 in northeastern Oklahoma. He is active in our Men’s ministry at G.B.F.

Current Prayer Requests for the Land and Building Committee

Except the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain who build it. Psalms 127:1

It has been said that “Few other journeys in life help your prayer life more than being involved in building a portion of God’s kingdom her on earth”. We covet your daily prayers now for the following:

1. Pray we are proactive not reactive regarding future growth, the harvest is coming.
2. Pray we don’t have attitudes that hold us back and prevent us from becoming all that God has designed us to be.
3. Pray we expand to reach the unchurched in our community, not be content to provide for our current congregation only.
4. Pray for wisdom and direction from God in every step.
5. Pray for good stewardship of every resource in physical, emotional, financial and spiritual terms.
6. Pray for each team member and their family that they balance this ministry with other areas of their lives.
7. Pray for our Pastor, leadership and their families; There will be tremendous decisions ahead with impact for eternity.
8. Pray for unity in pursuing God’s plan for our future, not our own personal plans.
9. Pray for God’s hedge of protection around this church and strength to withstand Satan’s attacks as he surely will be pursuing us on this journey.
10. Pray that this journey does not consume us as a church body and our resources; We must continue to focus on our current ministries and needs of our community.
11. Pray for patience, with one another, with the people we encounter and work with and ultimately with God…He has a plan for Grace Bible Fellowship.
12. God owns all the land. He will give us the exact land he has prepared for us in His time. Pray we search for this land not with our eyes, but on our knees.
13. Pray this building—God’s House, is His design, (not ours) to draw the lost sheep of Gunter, Texas to the Shepherd.
14. Pray that we as a church body bathe this entire journey, every step, in prayer.

Current Updates on the Land and Building Committee

July 2007:

The land and building committee began its first meeting in late May of this year. The following is a list of items we are currently researching and working on in the “first steps” of our journey:

• What is the face and need of our community?: Community Demographics
• What will our community look like in the next 5 years? Proposed development and the paths they will follow
• Who are we at G.B.F.?....What are our Vision and our Ministries?
• Current facility analysis
• Future facility analysis
• Future site analysis
• What are our financial resources?

This information will ultimately become part of our strategic master plan. The master plan is the roadmap for our church. It coordinates our church’s vision, ministries, strategies, facilities and resources. Vision determines your church’s ministries and the ministries determine your facility needs. The purpose of the strategic master plan is to develop a phased development plan that is in balance with our ministry needs and can be supported with our funding resources.

January 24, 2008:

The Land and Building committee addressed the church congregation in its first formal address the first Sunday of December. The committee shared the highlights of the community demographic studies that they have been working on. They informed us of current population trends seen in the community and the Gunter I.S.D. In addition, data was shared regarding current residential development and proposed future developments in our area. Average land costs were also given at this time. A snapshot of the future was also given to the congregation… proposed development- both residential, commercial and the paths they will likely follow in terms of location and road development.

Who are we at G.B.F.?....What is our Vision? Our Ministries? The committee shared with us The difference between a church’s mission statement and vision statement. The mission of a church is the general ministry objectives. Many evangelical churches share the same mission. However, the vision is much more specific and detailed. It is God-given and is unique to each church. The vision statement puts “Feet” on the mission. Our mission and vision statements were shared once again with the congregation as previously presented by our pastor. Vision is critical to a church. Our vision imparts our ministries and our ministries determine our land and building needs. It tells us who we are and where we are going as a congregation. An overview of each of G.B.F.’s ministries was given to the church. Questionnaires were completed by each ministry leader last summer. That information was shared and included requests for equipment, space and also summaries of purpose/dreams for each ministry. Future ministries were also discussed as relevant to this committee.

The committee also presented their analysis of our current facility. They went over the existing space allocation between adults, kids, nursery and toddlers on Sunday mornings in one service and gave an update on some of these numbers since going to 2 services. Other areas evaluated were storage, the kitchen and parking. Roadblocks to future growth were presented and solutions discussed and their impact.

Next, the church’s future facility was discussed. Bill Chegwidden’s rule of thumb for estimating your future sanctuary capacity is 2.5 – 3.0 times the size of your current facility’s sanctuary capacity. Currently, our committee is projecting a phase one sanctuary to seat around 250 in one service. Growth projections were presented for past, current and future numbers in terms of people attending worship on Sunday mornings. Then the committee shared how these numbers impact our use of space in our current facility. They shared when we could be faced with adding additional services and the critical path for getting into a new facility. It is possible that growth in our children/nursery areas could cap our growth before adult worship does. In addition, they reviewed our weekday ministries and the possibility of future staff impacting our new facility as well. They concluded this portion of the presentation with a brief overview of the proposed new facility and how it would function to meet the ministry needs of our church. It was emphasized that these projections are very preliminary and subject to change. However, it gives us a great starting point to aid in visualizing, planning and budgeting for our new phase one facility.

That previous discussion led them into sharing their thoughts and research concerning our future site. How many people do we need to plan for over the next 15-20 years? How many building phases do we need to accommodate? What special ministries do we need to plan for? These answers determine the total acreage we need to plan for on a new campus (not just phase 1). One usable acre provides for about 100-120 people. Roughly half your land will be needed for parking. After much prayer and research into these matters, the committee has recommended a future campus for the next 20 years. The goal is to purchase 15-20 acres initially with the intent to buy additional adjacent 15-20 acres in the near future. The committee has already developed a thorough checklist for individual site analysis. Estimated land costs were shared in conclusion.

The land and building committee concluded their presentation with a summary of their current work. They have begun establishing working relationships with financial institutions and touring numerous church facilities around the metroplex. In addition, they have started evaluating land in the area to meet the needs of our new campus. Please partner with our land and building committee and leadership in prayer as week seek our property that God has planned for us.