Nearly two years ago, in 2008, we launched the third and final capital campaign that would enable us to complete our modest campus. By our original reckoning, we should have been able to secure gifts and pledges for the entire $4 million and have completed it by August 2009. We created heartfelt, professional videos, publications, and messages that outlined how this third project would not only bless our people but also enable us to bless our San Gabriel Valley neighbors. Following this script, our previous two campaigns had enabled us to build and pay off the projects on time. But the third time definitely wasn’t so charmed. The bank failures in the Fall of 2009 and the ongoing recession have certainly impacted our final effort.
However, lately I’ve also learned that our campaign sounded like just one more over-hyped sales pitch among the countless thrown at our young adult members daily. Even those on my staff told me, “You just need to be more honest about this project. It’s a relief to hear finally that you’re conflicted at times whether this project is so critical to our church’s mission. Tell us how the design has been simplified, how $1 million has been taken out of the project. Tell us how critical repairs and improvements need to be made in the sanctuary and then remind us of how, if this truly in our church, each of us needs to contribute to the benefit of all. Oh, and while you’re at the microphone, tell us how our church plans to deal with the abortion clinic across the street and the home for people with mental disabilities right next door.”
If you have a significant number of active young adults in your congregation, you need to respect that many of them are just not into putting up buildings, especially ones that costs millions of dollars and whose primary purpose clearly is to benefit the church, not the world. Try as we might to convince them that they’re misreading everything, most won’t change their perception of the project. If they even give at all, it will be half-heartedly. Let them convince you and your committee that trying to sell them on a building project is only going to alienate them. Ask them to weigh in on the campaign’s theme(s), message, and imagery. And don’t forget to do some serious soul-searching about spending this kind of money as a monument to the One who says he does not dwell in buildings.
