Welcome participants. Introduce yourself. Introduce Steve Siegel from James D. Klote & Associates, the consulting firm helping Our Saviours with these information meetings. Open with prayer Thank you for attending this very important meeting regarding the future of Our Saviours Lutheran Church. The format of the meeting today will consist of a sharing a short history of Our Saviours, particularly our building history. Following that, ______________________ will share with you the details on a proposed campaign to eliminate our current debt. This will take approximately 20 minutes. Following that we will welcome your questions, concerns and comments and would also like you to fill out a short questionnaire before you leave today. Our goal is both to inform and to listen.

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I’d like to begin with a quick reminder of our mission statement. “Knowing Jesus and Making Jesus Known” This is the broad description of what all of our ministries and buildings are about here at Our Saviours

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To be a bit more specific, these are the three values, or priorities that we are moving toward here at Our Saviours. You may have seen these phrases in many of our publications. • Growing Discipleship • Growing Generosity • Growing Impact

• Now, before we get too far into our future plans, we think that it’s always

important to look back our history, to review how we started and how we got to where we are today.

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Our Saviours, like many new churches, started rather humbly when a group of people met in 1956 to explore the possibility of starting a new Lutheran church in Naperville. This idea quickly took shape and by 1957 services were already being held in the Koten Chapel on the campus of Evangelical Theological Seminary. By later that year funding was secured, a site was purchased and construction began on our first building

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The dedication took place in October of 1958 on this site here on Washington Street

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You might be interested to know that services often took place outdoors, on the construction site itself (weather permitting) as the building was being completed.

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By 1959 Our Saviours was worshipping regularly in its brand new building and had a membership of 450. God was truly blessing this mission start! By the way, if you’re having trouble identifying the location in the picture, this was the original worship space that is now, largely, the choir room.

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By 1965 membership had grown to 1,300 and plans were developed to build a new sanctuary. The cornerstone was laid in 1967 as shown in this picture, and by 1968 a new 5,800 square foot sanctuary and administrative wing was dedicated.

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With new space and an expanded sanctuary, Our Saviours continued to grow. By 1978, ten years after the sanctuary was dedicated, membership grew by another 500 to reach 1,900 members.

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By the mid 80’s continued growth prompted Our Saviours to expand the space for Christian education. A new, 3 floor Christian education wing was added in 1985 for use by over 400 children.

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At the same time, the existing facilities were renovated to provide a music room, a nursery and offices for the staff.

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By 1990, with membership over 3,000, Our Saviours dedicated a building addition consisting of expanding the sanctuary to include the existing narthex, a new entrance, a fellowship hall, kitchen, a new church office and four staff offices

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In 1996, Our Saviours next step in expansion was to acquire the building of Bethany Lutheran Church two blocks south of the main campus. The space was used as a family center and day care. A year later, in 1997, Our Saviours opened Celebration! Early Childhood Center offering daycare and preschool opportunities.

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After a few years it was clear that this structure was outdated and did not serve the needs of the ministries particularly well. Plans were made to demolish this building and replace it with a new facility called Celebration Community Life Center.

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This brand new building was dedicated in October of 2005 and currently houses our Children’s Center preschool, the 10 am worship service and many other community ministries.

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Two years later and just 5 years ago, Our Saviours celebrated its 50th year of ministry to the Naperville community. I think from this short history lesson we can see how much has been accomplished by Our Saviours in such a short period of time. And now, in 2013, Our Saviours is again poised for some changes to take place. Senior Minister Pastor Tom Grevlos recently announced that he is following God’s call to minister to a different church in Austin, Texas and will by leaving by the end of February. There will be a time of transition and change as Our Saviours seeks God’s wisdom in calling another senior minister. But this doesn’t mean that the church will stop doing its ministry, or stop moving forward. Quite the contrary.

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Take a look up on the screen at what Pastor Tom himself wrote in the 50th Anniversary booklet, The Spirit of the living God that called and gathered this community of faith 50 years

ago is the same Spirit that calls Our Saviours in mission for the next 50 years! The players, the managers, the leaders, the visions, the programs; they all are constantly

changing. But, the mission to come to know Jesus and share the love of Jesus with the world is unchanging.

What stands before us now is an opportunity to finish some things that we started years before. It is an opportunity to put our own house in good order in anticipation of another dynamic period of future ministry. And here to tell you more about this opportunity is _________________________________

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Transition slide Over the next fifteen minutes we’d like to share with you some information about our current financial situation as it relates to our indebtedness and a proposal on what to do about it. At the present time, Our Saviours has debt in the amount of $6.5 million financed through Thrivent Financial.

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The goal of the next proposed campaign is to completely eliminate this $6.5 million in debt in order to free up resources for future ministry opportunities. Let’s start at the beginning and talk briefly about where that $6.5 million in debt came from and what it does to our church finances….

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There were a number of different capital projects since 2004 at both the north and south campus, but the biggest one was the demolition of the old Bethany church building in 2004 and the construction of the modern building we now know as “Celebration! Community Life Center. This building currently houses the Children’s Center Pre-School and provides space for multiple ministry initiatives including ….

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The 10 AM worship service. This non-traditional service does a wonderful job of reaching out to individuals and families in the Naperville area. The Celebration center also hosts Our Saviours Youth activities …

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… as well as gym usage for team sports and recreation as well as receptions, meals and other rentals.

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Many adult learning classes and seminars take place here. The career transitions ministry is also based at Celebration! as well as many other community groups and activities

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The children’s center preschool, in particular, has been very successful. The current enrollment is just about at capacity, 251 students are enrolled with a capacity of just 256. Tuition and fees to the preschool not only cover operating expenses in their entirety but it also provides significant contribution back to Our Saviours for the cost of building operation.

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The preschool has an excellent reputation in Naperville and serves many families who are not yet connected to Our Saviours. It has been a very successful outreach to the community.

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It should be noted that the Children’s center also pledged to the myChurch capital campaign in the amount of $45,000. That is $45,000 above and beyond the money that is paid back to the church for building operations each year. In addition, the worshipping community of 150 to 200 every Sunday on the Celebration! campus represents a non-traditional outreach to those seeking Christ in the Naperville area.

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The initial investment at Celebration! has also spurred other development on that campus. The prayer garden was added in 2005 and the lower level was built out in 2010 and allows space for youth activities, meetings, Christian education and more.

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Other ministries and activities at Celebration include: 1) P.A.D.S. – the weekend homeless shelter 2) Feed My Starving Children 3) Celebration Clinic offering free medical care 4) And the MEGA garage sale that raises over $30,000 a year for Our Saviours. I think that most would agree that a tremendous amount of ministry takes place at Celebration! And that it plays an integral part in helping us fulfill the mission and vision of Our Saviours Lutheran Church.

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Let’s talk more specifically now about the costs for all of these various projects that Our Saviours has accomplished since 2004. My intent is not to lose you in lots of numbers, but provide enough detail so that you have a good understanding of what has happened here at Our Saviours in terms of capital improvements. It’s probably easiest to speak in terms of sources of revenue and uses for that revenue. We had two main sources of revenue for these projects The first was the original debt which, at its high point, was $8.4 million dollars. The second was income from capital campaigns amounting to $7.9 million to date.

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This $8.4 million loan paid: $6.1 million for the construction company costs for building Celebration! $1.1 million for remodeling on the Main campus in 2004 and 2005 $1.2 million in rollover debt from prior to Celebration! Total: $8.4 million

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The other revenue stream has been capital campaigns. Our Saviours has conducted three capital campaigns. New Frontiers was in 2003 Go! Was in 2007 myChurch was in 2010 and is finishing up in May of this year. To date, we have collected over $7.9 million dollars in these three capital campaigns

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The $7.9 million collected so far from the capital campaigns has paid for: 1. Mortgage payments on the $8.4 million debt principal - $1.9 million Interest & other loan costs - $3.5 million 2. And other capital expenditures at both the Celebration! Campus and the north campus of Our Saviours $2.5 million

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I won’t go through an exhaustive list of every line item on those other capital projects that amounted to about $2.5 million, but here are some of the biggest ones that were paid for from capital campaign proceeds:

1. We purchased a home on Robin Hill Drive to help square off our property for

$368,000. This home is currently rented out until we decide to make use of the space for parking improvements

2. There were charges for Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment (known as FF&E) at Celebration! for almost $450,000

3. We added an elevator and built out the lower level of the Celebration! Community Life Center in 2010 to add classrooms, meeting space, storage and more. The total cost there was $370,000

4. Part of the “Go!” campaign also included a $125,000 commitment to mission projects

5. There were charges for needed capital repairs and improvements on both campuses during this time such as parking lot resurfacing and sealing, roof repair, signage, etc… These projects required almost $450,000

6. Start up costs for the Children’s Center amounted to $228,000 7. OSLC is also required to keep several months of mortgage payments on deposit at

Thrivent and also keeps cash on hand here in our own bank account. That’s about $379,000

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In short, the bulk of campaign proceeds, about 2/3rds , has gone to servicing the original $8.4 million dollar debt We have made progress. Your campaign contributions from these previous campaigns have allowed us to pay down that debt from $8.4 million to $6.5 million. In other words, we’ve paid off $1.9 million on the debt. The current balance is $6.5 million

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We were also able to save some money recently on the mortgage payments by refinancing the loan in 2011 through Thrivent financial. We secured a 25 year note at a lower interest rate which reduced the monthly payments by almost $10,000 a month. Nonetheless our current mortgage payment is approximately $47,000 a month. $17,000 goes to principal – which includes an extra $5,000 a month in order to accelerate the pay down on the principal. The remaining $30,000 goes to interest…every month. That’s $360,000 in interest every single year. On that current payment schedule it will be about 2036 before the debt is paid in full. During that time, OSLC will have paid almost $4.7 million more in interest charges. That’s twice as much as was pledged in total for the last campaign. The fact is, we’ve managed to do a lot since 2004 – including some pretty major repairs and improvements to the main campus besides building Celebration! But it’s time that we finish what we started. The mortgage payments are starting to cut into our ability to conduct ministry effectively and it is certainly hampering our ability to develop any new initiatives. $47,000 a month is a pretty hefty bill.

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Here’s the proposed plan. This summer at the Council Retreat, it was agreed that taking care of our debt was one of our top concerns. So, the Leadership of Our Saviours is proposing a debt elimination campaign. Not debt reduction, but debt elimination. A targeted campaign with one single focus – eliminating the debt entirely. This campaign will be different from previous campaigns in three major ways: 1. There will be only one focus – debt elimination. No other initiatives, no add-ons, no extra projects. Only debt. 2. Contributions will be ear-marked to principal payments 3. The implementation of this campaign will consist of a different method recommended by our consultant from James D. Klote & Associates that involves personal visitation of every member of Our Saviours.

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We believe that in this plan the total need will be $7 million. $6.5 million to pay off the entire principal of the debt $500,000 earmarked to interest charges as the principal is being paid off over the next 3 to 5 years. Since we doubt that most will fulfill their pledge upfront, we will still have some interest charges over the next few years as the debt is paid. As the $500,000 is exhausted the remaining interest charges (if any) would be rolled into the operational budget

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How would a campaign like this benefit Our Saviours? We believe there would be three main benefits. 1. Eliminating the debt is good stewardship. Paying the debt will free up almost

$47,000 a month in funds currently going to debt service. Think of what could be accomplished in ministry at OSLC if debt service were eliminated !

2. Eliminating the debt will allow OSLC to concentrate on future expanded ministry initiatives rather than continuing to spend money and energy simply on raising money to pay the mortgage

3. Eliminating the debt will allow OSLC to finish what it started at Celebration! before moving on to new and even greater initiatives

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So…. Is a campaign of this nature possible? If we couldn’t do it before, can we really do it now? We believe that it is both possible and reasonable. First, previous campaigns funded more than just the debt. Funds were needed for other projects and diluted efforts to pay off the principal. Second, we know that similarly constructed campaigns using our consultant have been successful in raising 3 to 4 times annual giving for debt service campaigns. Our Saviours annual giving to the operational budget is currently $1.8 million so $7 million would represent about 4 times our current annual giving – within the scope of what other congregations like us have been able to accomplish. Finally, we believe that we don’t have much choice in the matter. There has been fatigue among some of our donors at continuing campaigns that don’t seem to make significant headway on paying off our debt. Short of conducting multiple campaigns for the next 20 years in order to pay the mortgage, we believe that targeting this one campaign to debt elimination only, making debt campaigns unnecessary in the future, will invigorate our donors and contribute to greater commitment than in the past. In the long run, paying off the debt and freeing up $47,000 a month will allow Our Saviours to accomplish much more than it does now.

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With that I welcome your questions, comments and thoughts. We’re also asking you to fill out a brief, but important questionnaire before you leave today.

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