We’ve watched as God has added Seth Kravig to our staff and the incredible blessing he has been to our church.  Adding not just needed administrative acumen, but also an amazing heart for Jesus.  It has been so exciting watching how the Lord has grown him over the past several years and put on his heart now to become a pastor.  Our prayers and encouragements will continue to be with him as he begins this journey next fall.  And we are forever thankful… that there is a way for him to do that while staying at our church.

And then in the spring, we watched God bring us together in a remarkable way to change the name of our church to Hope Church Lutheran, giving us a new message to share with our friends and the community around us.  Our prayer, through this process, is that God would indeed bring Hope not only to North Phoenix, but also to the whole world around us through our ministry.

And now the Lord has brought us all to a point where we need and are able to address revamping and adding to our current ministry facility.  If you haven’t had a chance yet to look at the schematic drawings that have been up on our website for several months now, please take some time to do so.  And as you ponder what it is that God might do in this place, let your mind run wild with the different ways that it can be put to use for the Kingdom of God.

But the truth is… it’s not just our amazing God that has allowed us to accomplish all these things and now has put this opportunity before us to expand our physical site… but it is also you!  We are so beyond thankful for you as well.  For you have been so amazingly faithful.

And so with this new opportunity to expand our site, I would also like to encourage you to remain steadfast to your commitment to God and to this project that lies before us.  We are almost ready to begin!  Satan will try to frustrate these plans, but with Christ we know that nothing can defeat us – for we have been given victory over Him once and for all.  Thank you so much for being faithful to Your Lord. Everyone on staff here at Hope is very proud of you.

With this letter of thanksgiving to you, I am enclosing a list of the things we hope to accomplish through this campaign.  With all the growth that we have experienced this last year and with the addition of another staff person (Seth) it has become evident that we must proceed with two very important components to continue our growth over the next decade.

We need to create more parking.  The truth is as we re-grow our “in person” worship experience we need more parking here at Hope.  And while the summer months certainly provide a reprieve, all the activities that we do throughout the year in conjunction with our services have put an emphasis on the need for parking spots.  With this campaign we will be able to add more parking spaces in close proximity to the church as well as expand our temporary parking spaces out back (both should be considered huge wins).  This also will allow us to comply with city ordinances which discourage us from parking in the dirt as well as the city’s mandate that these spots must be added to this capital project.

We need space.  When the building committee got together to look at next steps.  We walked through the question… what is the best thing we could do to add useable space for the money?  And we believe that what we have presented is the answer to that question.  For as we cover over the courtyard it gives us just that… SPACE.  Space to do interior fellowship events, space for our youth and pre-school, space to converse every Sunday in comfort, space to do big events.  Just SPACE.  But it also provides FLEXIBILITY.  It gives us a solution now to overflow seating, banquets, interior youth activities, climate-controlled fellowship space that we’ve never had before.  And it even adds QUALITY.  Quality for our pre-school rating that will now be able to increase because of the increased safety, interior bathrooms, and interior space this adds to our facility.  Quality to our curb appeal as it ties the rest of this site together in a spectacular way.  Quality to the weekly experiences of the members of our church.  The quality of having an interior nursery and bathrooms.

In short, this capital campaign, whether it can be accomplished in three years (in one phase) or this next decade (in three phases) will give us the space, flexibility, and quality additions we need to keep growing into the future.  And my prayer is that just as God has blessed us over the last several years He would continue to bless us and our faithfulness moving forward.  And the only additional thing I’d ask you to do is pray.  Pray that God will also do that “something more”… (like HE did, when He built for us 31st Street)… so that all of Phoenix would know… that there is a God at Hope Church Lutheran.  And His name is Jesus!

Pastor Mike