St. John's Renovations...

St John’s has been talking about upgrading the entrance area, Lower Hall,
and Sunday school classrooms for more than a year. These changes are intended to make our complex a safe and pleasant home for our congregations, and a centre for effective mission. The vision includes a significantly upgraded kitchen, a coffee shop, a larger library, a resource centre with computer facilities, and counselling rooms. In addition, the hall facade and entrance will become more welcoming, and aesthetically pleasing.
At our last Leadership Meeting, after long discussion, we agreed that we should proceed with these plans, aiming to begin building in January 2010. Whilst I am sure that we welcome improvements to our building, its facilities, and to our mission, many of you will be asking, “But how can we afford this, in the light of our current financial struggles?” A very valid question, which I will briefly try to answer, below:
St John’s has two basic “funds” of money –
(1) one for a our general running expenses, and
(2) one for buildings,
and building money cannot be used for anything but buildings!
In other words, we have money that we cannot use to alleviate our current financial struggles, but we can invest it in doing things to the complex, that might help us bring in more people, and perhaps also more money, to help our general fund. And that is what we intend doing. Below are the figures (rounded up), for Building Fund, and the Development programme:
Money in “Building Fund”: R1,866 million (from the sale of the Dan Pienaar Street manse, and the sale of the Clyde Street property)
Cost of proposed building project: R1,95 million (all-inclusive)
Shortfall: R90 000 (to be made up through a combination of targeted fund-raising, or taking an internal short term bridging loan.)
If you have any questions about these matters, please do not hesitate to talk either
to myself, or any of the Society Stewards, or to Winston Simpson, our Treasurer
Rod