One Life Blog

As chairman of the Building Committee I want you to join us in celebrating the beginning of construction. This is a great celebration and I invited some friends to help us celebrate. It has been over 7 years since the elders appointed the Building Committee, and frankly, we thought we would be out of a job by now! We can blame the delays on the county, funding, etc., but the reality is that we are on God’s schedule.

In order to design the building and meet the needs of the congregation, we surveyed all the ministry leaders and conducted two sets of ministry leader interviews. The committee visited churches and schools in order to see how new construction was being used to meet the changing needs.

Our committee selected the firm Helbing/Lipp – Engineering and architects. Helbing Lipp is one of the top architect firms inNorthern Virginia. We also selected Jack Bays Inc. as our general contractor. Jack Bays Inc. is one of the leading contractors in the Northern Virginia area.

After the Jack Bays Inc. bid was accepted, they went to their subcontractors and said, “Let’s review all the bids to make sure everything is covered.” They examined the bids line-by-line. They reduced their bid by about $1,000,000. Lynn Bays said to me, “Ralph, that never happens. It always goes up.” I said, “This is God’s timing.”

• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

The “One Life” journey for me has been very revealing about the gulf between “heart” and “head.”  Intellectually, I have always believed the Bible’s teaching that “God owns everything,” and I am fully convinced that Jesus meant what He said in Matthew 6 that we shouldn’t worry about things like what we’re going to eat, or what we’re going to wear, because God knows we need these things.  He’s promised that if we seek God’s kingdom first, all these things will be added to us.  I believe that.  I really do.

As I’ve thought through “One Life,” however, I’ve seen in myself that I really haven’t lived like I believe it.  I have always held back in some way.  And I’m not just talking about finances.  I’m talking about all aspects of my life – that “whole person” stewardship that Dr. Jones has been talking about.  It seems like I’ve always tried to keep  something in reserve “just in case.”  This journey has made me think, “Just in case what?”   Well, if I’m being honest, the only possible answer to that question is, “Just in case God doesn’t come through as He’s promised.”  In other words, the root problem is a lack of faith. 

Wow!  Before the “One Life” journey began, I thought I had this stewardship thing all figured out.  Now I have been confronted with a lack of faith and trust that I never knew was there.  There’s been a disconnect between head and heart, and, as the Apostle James tells me, my faith without works is dead.  The truth is that if I think I believe it but don’t act on it, then I probably don’t really believe it, at least not completely.  I really do need to live “all out” for God.  Because of who He is, I don’t need a backup plan.  Thanks be to God for showing me that. 

For me, this “One Life” journey isn’t about strategic initiatives and raising money.  It’s about the gulf between “head” and “heart,” and about an opportunity to put my faith in action.  Hopefully, the gulf is a little smaller now than it was before. 

Chris Gleason
Immanuel Elder

• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

When we coined the phrase “Building Up—Reaching Out” for our building program several years ago, I really liked the idea. Not the acronym (BURO), though it has grown on me over the years, but the words that are reflected in the acronym. Building Up, not just our building (adding a second floor), but also building up our people. And Reaching Out—to one another and to our community.

Well, we’ve nearly reached the end of BURO and its time to say good bye. After all, it was meant to be a five-year commitment and we began in June of 2003. The chicken salad suppers ran through the summer months and helped us to introduce BURO to our congregation.  

In that program we included the following:
1. Beginning a Young Adults Worship Service
2. The Church Plant
3. Building Expansion

Of those three initiatives, only the building expansion remains to be completed.  Our One Life campaign captures that unfinished business and adds to it several of the initiatives from our “2006-2011 5 Year Strategic Plan”.
From our Strategic Plan, Initiative 1, Community and Group Development, speaks directly to our need to be in the community to achieve a greater impact in our communities. In our One Life Campaign, this comes under Community Life.  

Initiative 2, Leadership Training, is addressed through our Global Leadership Endowment.

Under Initiative 4, Church Planting, the Strategic Plan highlights 3 bullet points:  research, recommend, and implement a satellite church; establish one or more new church plants or struggling church restarts; implement the process for one or more church plant/restarts. One Life develops this through our “One Church-Many Locations”  initiative. The details of what “Immanuel  in many locations” might look like are being researched and recommendations will be made to the elders.  

While it looks like we are ready to say “Good Bye” to BURO, I look forward to where One Life, NO LIMITs will be able to take us.

Ron Hilbig
Director of Communications,
Immanuel Bible Church     

• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Buzz it up
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later