We changed our name and public identity to better extend the invitation of grace that God freely offers to all of us. In our culture, name changes signify an important and exciting new direction and declare something new to the world. We want to make our heart more transparent and better understood to our community.
There is goodness that God lovingly lavishes on every living human—common grace. There is also a grace that is extraordinary—a grace that is possible in Jesus. Receiving grace through Jesus Christ is not always obvious or understandable. We want our name to let people know that we will be the common ground, the shared space, the community resource where people can begin to find a spiritual home before they even know they need one.
We are still, and will always be a Presbyterian church. At the center of the reformed tradition, is a proclamation of God’s sovereignty and his unending expression of grace. Our name holds on to that legacy in a public way. Our theology and polity remains and will also hold as they have.
Yes. Even with a new name our church will continue to part of ECO: The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. ECO has a Constitution made up of Confessional Standards and a Polity. We turned 150 in 2022, and we are grateful for the faithful and ongoing legacy of our church’s Presbyterian heritage.
Financial gifts to the Love capital campaign will be applied only toward the main campus. The Annex project will be funded by alternative sources. not connected to this campaign or our congregation’s annual giving. We welcome investors and those interested in this as an investment opportunity.
We are currently working on new ways to develop additional parking options. We are grateful to be located half a block from two large city parking structures, and we know onsite parking is important.
The global pandemic influenced our initial timelines. In addition, projects of this size go through many processes and so timelines become fluid. We do update the timelines for each project and these can be found on this website. In spite of the pandemic, the preschool is completed and is up and running.
The Annex project will have a property manager for the affordable housing units, an event space manager and perhaps an overall building manager. We may be able to join the roles of overall manager and affordable property manager. The event space will work closely with local event planners, and will require (our thinking at this time) a professional event planner to book the space. The affordable housing manager is a role that has been provided by someone like Thistle Property Management in Boulder for many of the local affordable housing units.
There are a number of factors that are different between us and the public library when it comes to the homeless population:
1) We believe that creating nearby spaces with consistent services at the Annex will draw our homeless population somewhere else.
2) As we do now throughout the week, we almost always welcome the homeless population, but we don’t allow napping, loitering, camping or hanging out.
3) Unlike the library we are allowed to to define the use of our space and the length of stay for a guest in a way that a public library cannot.
We have always been a church that gathers people for worship, discipleship, fellowship and service. Our shared, combined ministries and spaces have a reasonable circle of influence. We want to double down on going even deeper in that place, which for us has always been in the heart of downtown Boulder.
Yet, at the same time, we want disciples of Jesus to intently and intentionally be nourished to be scattered to minister in their context. Our church will also double down on equipping people from all towns to live courageous lives for Jesus in their workplace, neighborhoods, sport leagues and volunteerism around Boulder county.
Come worship. Be nourished in community. Enact the gospel together, here in the place that we have—but then also live the gospel throughout the week in the place where God has planted you.
Debt will be required to complete this project. That debt will be serviced by the revenue streams of the preschool on the main campus, and the event space at the Annex. Any debt financing will be examined by our Trustees and recommended by our Session before it comes to our whole congregation for approval.
The financing structure for the main campus is built around the capital campaign. The $8 million campaign will provide much of the funds for the planned improvements. In addition we have launched a faith-based preschool partnership with Pathways Learning Academy where we would share in 60% of the excess revenues (profits) from the preschool. The pro forma for this operation forecasts more than enough revenue to support any debt incurred for the main campus project. The timing is such that we will have 3 enrollment cycles in hand before we commit to any debt for the main campus. Those 3 cycles should give us confidence in the pro forma forecast, and support our overall project budget, or not. We expect to borrow about $5–6 million to complete the project, but this number may change due to the pandemic and economic climate. We will keep you informed!
Pray for our church to be For Boulder With Love: to seek God with all of our collective heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Seek the Lord about how you can give to the For Boulder With Love capital campaign with both joy and sacrifice. Talk with your friends and family about it. You can fill out a Commitment Card at any time.
If you have any more questions about For Boulder With Love, EMAIL US and we will respond to you soon.
