How-dee!!! ... from the land of the Grand Ole Opry. I am in Nashville, TN, the site of the National Association of Church Business Administration 52nd Annual Conference. This is my second time to attend the conference. I really get a lot out of it. Almost all of the workshops here are first-rate professionally and the speakers have a strong heart for God and the purposes of the local church. There are also dozens of vendors and speakers here who are experienced resources for facilities planning and implementation.

Now for the drum roll… We will be announcing on Sunday that Dream God’s Dreams three year commitments to date total $835,412.96! Praise the Lord! 136 Families/Individuals (approx 350 to 400 people) have made commitments. If you add this amount (less the portion of commitments already given) to our current building fund balance of $2,171,780, the total cash in hand or committed by June 7, 2011 is very near to $3,000,000.

Thank You to all who have made commitments and given so far!

While we have never asked for commitments at this level before, our experience with past "Miracle Sunday" one year commitments to the building fund is that actual offerings were higher than commitments because some people who gave had not made a commitment and some of those who made commitments ended up giving more than the committed amount.

We are continuing to meet at least weekly with Studio Architecture to work on the many details of the plan. For those who have ever custom built your own home, you can imagine building a half million dollar home … "times TEN"! Times ten because it’s about ten times the $’s and because it involves at least ten times as many people’s opinions, input and needs. It’s fun and exciting, but it is a lot of work that demands time and patience!

We are narrowing our options as much as we can in order to allow Studio Architecture to move forward with construction documents in just a few weeks. As I announced previously, we hope to be able to put the building project out to bid in the late fall. A few weeks after that, the bids should be in hand allowing us to make a decision about which option to move forward with and when.

Check back for updates every two or three weeks. We will be adding information and I will be continuing to post new campaign blogs.

Blessings!