"It's a New Day" FAQs
“It’s a New Day” is a special giving program designed to help us prayerfully consider what God wants to do through each of us to accomplish His will for Shepherd Church. Church members will be asked to give sacrificially, over and above their regular tithes and offerings, for an 18-month period of time to help meet specific needs in the church today.
While this sounds much like a Capital Stewardship Campaign (CSC) it differs in one very important way. Most CSC’s start by asking how much can be raised based on the demographics and giving history of a congregation—sort of a “human” start point. “It’s a New Day” hasn’t begun in this place. This project began as the call of God for the renovation of our church facilities to help us fulfill Jesus’ call to be witnesses in our “…Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8). God has placed Shepherd Church in this city for such a time as this, but has also clearly called us to reach out to our surrounding county, state, country, and world. Demographics and giving-history matter, but they certainly pale in comparison to the clear call of God.
Why are we pursuing this giving program?
The vision of Shepherd Church is expanding and these renovations will help us reach out into and serve our community more effectively. Both the Family Life Center and the Central Complex need upgrades to serve the needs of our ministries and the remodel of the Sanctuary will make this room more useable for gatherings in addition to our Sunday worship services:
The theme is “It’s A New Day”. In the past two years, God has so renewed our passion for Him, that we have been using this phrase simply to describe the atmosphere of our church. It seemed to make sense to adopt this simple phrase as a name for this project.
How much money are we trying to raise for “It’s a New Day”?
Our project need is $400,000 dollars.
When will the giving start?
The pre-work has already begun. For a year now, the Shepherd Church Administrative Board has been praying for direction concerning our ministries. Last summer, our leadership team began work to outline the church’s most pressing needs and establish the project’s parameters. The actual giving will begin March 1st, 2009.
Pray. Ask God what He can do through you to accomplish His will for Shepherd Church. Get involved in some aspect of the project, whether it be through giving, assisting in construction projects, or other activities. It will take all of us working together to make “It’s a New Day” a success.
That is OK. Your participation and involvement is between you and the Lord. There will be no pressure from anyone involved in the fund raising process to make you participate. However, we encourage every person to determine his or her involvement in prayer.
When will the actual projects begin and in what order?
This project will be completed debt-free, so the projects will be completed in the order they are listed above and only as the actual money is in hand.