Yes. We do have all of the money that has ever been designated to the building fund, plus we have been putting back 10% most months since we planted Exodus.

Not all of the money in savings has been designated to a building fund. Of the money we have in savings, some of it will be held as a reserve fund and the rest is there for future facility needs. Our goal with the Stretch Campaign is to raise money for future facility needs. We believe that raising $500K would give us enough to renovate an existing space and provide for the necessary soft costs (chairs, equipment, kids area) while retaining some money for future facility needs.

The Stretch Campaign is raising money for future facility needs even though we don’t have a finalized specific facility to date. We are working on an option, but nothing is finalized. Therefore, all money given to the Stretch Campaign would remain in the savings fund until needed for a future facility.

We are currently pursuing a lease on a building. There are two reasons for this. First, time—if we were to purchase land (which we don’t have leads on) it would be a long time before we could occupy it. Second—what we could afford to purchase, we believe we would outgrow fairly quickly. Given the options available to us, we believe that to lease a space and renovate it would be a better transition between where we are now and purchasing something.

No. Currently, we are working on a space on McAdenville Rd that includes the current Planet Fitness location. We are in the early stages and working hard to move that along at a reasonable pace.
Once we have a lease agreement and renovation bids, we will bring that to the church so that the members of the church can vote on this in accordance with our bylaws.

We don’t know what the total cost for renovation will be at this time. We are raising $500K for future facility needs. Our prayer is that we would have a significant chunk of this left over so that we can save it for needs in the future. We will work to spend God’s resources wisely throughout the process.

Not for a lease or for renovation. We are not opposed to borrowing money for the purchase of land or a building. We would put that in the same category as a mortgage for our home. But, there are no plans to borrow money for a renovation.

We have not finalized anything on the space we mentioned above. We are anticipating that our renovation and the soft costs needed to occupy the space would be covered by $500K.

The space we are currently pursuing at the lease rate we are hoping to finalize would reflect about 17% of our budget.
The lease we are currently working on would be a five-year lease with a renewal option for another five years.

We love church planting and will continue to give money and time toward this. We would love to start the process of planting another congregation in 2016. This is not a goal, but a dream at this point. However, there are two realities about planting.
- First, planting will not address our current facility needs. Even if we took 30 people and planted tomorrow, we are still in need of a facility where Exodus Kids doesn’t have to set up and tear down every week. Also, getting us under one roof is an important step.
- Second, if we are going to plant, we need men who are qualified and called to serve as elders and a first among those who is called, qualified, assessed and trained to plant. So, we need more men to serve as elders and we need at least a man who has a sense of calling to lead. Both of those affect our timetable.

Though we desire to be generous with God’s resources and we want to support our Northlake congregation, we do not anticipate using these funds for anything at Northlake. Northlake would be responsible for raising capital for their building needs.

We are asking the money pledged to be turned in by the end of 2015. However, if you need to give into 2016, we are grateful for your gift and will use it for future facility needs.

Exodus Stretch: FAQs