News from Metropolitan Community Church of Austin

(continued from above)

Over the course of the last year, we've been easing toward the actual start-up of our capital stewardship campaign and building campaign. Three weeks ago, our congregation met Tom Melzoni, our capital campaign consulting partner from Generis. As a final step in Tom's assessment of MCC Austin's readiness for a capital campaign, he invited members and friends to take a survey related to our overall attitude toward our worship services and church programs, our leadership, and our desire to enter into a major capital campaign and building project.

Your responses were overwhelmingly positive. Here is the narrative summary of your responses as created by Generis:

The responses represent a generally positive attitude toward MCC Austin and its ministries and effectiveness for and with Austin and beyond. Nearly all respondents believed in MCC's mission and vision and knew the church was planning a capital campaign to fund a new facility. A high level of respondents felt that communication efforts were effective, they have a trust of leadership, and will be supportive with giving and volunteering during the campaign. MCC's worship services and pastors rated highest in the church's strengths while the need to improve buildings and facilities were noted as the highest priority for improvement.

I was very pleased, though not surprised, by this assessment. You are an amazing community, growing in spiritual awareness and maturity and building strong, meaningful relationships with God and each other.

Now here's where the chicken and the egg come in.

In the open response section of the survey, you had two questions which came up over and over:

Why are we being asked to raise money for a building that we haven't seen and have no details about?
Why are we being asked to plan a new building before we have any idea what our actual budget will be?

See? Chicken and egg. And those of you who asked those questions are in good company. They are questions your board of directors and building team have been asking from the beginning. What's the right answer? Remember the chicken and the egg?

We know some things with certainty. Our church has reached this 400 member, 350 average attendance plateau three times now. Each of the first two times, a lack of adequate facilities and too few staff members kept us from meeting the many needs of the congregation that went beyond a once a week worship service. Attendance fell back again because people were, as they still are, hungry for more Christian education, more social gatherings, more programs such as estate planning and relationship building, and more community building events. Unlike the two times before, this time we have adequate staff and knowledge to begin addressing the needs. Like the two times before, we do not have adequate facilities.

The process of determining our financial capabilities and the process of determining the size and scope of our new facility are not linear. We do not have the luxury of completing one and then beginning the other. To have success in our capital campaign, we have to give you something concrete to get excited about and to work toward. To have a successful building campaign, we have to be well-educated and realistic about our needs, our potential costs, and of course, our potential financial resources.

What this means is that this whole process is more like a waltz than a relay race. Our building team, capital campaign team, and finance team cannot simply hand the baton off to one another after completing their leg of the race. Instead, the building team leads the dance for a few measures, then the finance team for a few, then the capital campaign team for a few. While all this is happening, your board of directors is trying to keep the musicians paid, the band playing, and the dancers moving with as few bumps and spills as possible.

Got it? If you do, praise God and keep the faith! If you don't, feel free to bring your questions and concerns to a board member. We want you to know that even when we cannot give you a quick or simple answer, we value your questions and want you to feel informed every step of the way through these major undertakings.

In the meantime, keep praying for wisdom and faithfulness for all of us.

Always in Hope,

Rev. Karen Thompson

Sr. Pastor

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