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Friday, March 21, 2014

A Letter to the Gettysburg Congregation

            This letter is being sent to the membership of the Gettysburg United Methodist Church. 

As you know, our church voted several months ago to sell the Christian education building and build an addition to the church.  This addition will have an indoor ramp to the sanctuary, a fellowship hall on the ground floor, a new kitchen, offices for the pastor and the parish secretary, and handicapped-accessible restrooms.  The plan we voted on at that time was to raise the money we needed for the project before we started building.

Since that time, we have been engaged in fundraising.  The total amount of money we need for this project is $740,000.  Of that total, $140,000 will come from the sale of the building, leaving $600,000 we need to raise.  At this point, we have raised approximately $360,000.  That’s an impressive total to raise in that amount of time, but it still leaves us approximately $240,000 short of the total amount needed.

So, the question is, what do we do now?  Do we continue to follow the original plan, and continue to raise money, knowing that building costs will almost certainly go up if we wait?  Or, do we change our original plan?

The church fundraising committee and the church building committee have both recommended that we change our original plan.  What they propose is that the church commit to begin building this spring.  The money raised so far would be used to pay for the initial phase of the project.  While this initial phase is being built, money would continue to be raised to pay for the rest of the project. 

If all goes well, by the time more money is needed, that money will have been raised.  However, these committees recognize that there is no guarantee that this will happen.  So, the plan would also allow for the church to borrow the remainder of the money if necessary.  No one knows, of course, how much money will need to be borrowed at this time.  We do know that it will be less than $240,000.  How much less will depend on how much money is raised between now and then.

If money is borrowed, the church would continue to raise funds to pay the money back.  People would be asked to make annual pledges (or semi-annually, or monthly, or whatever time period people want to do) to pay back the money.  There would continue to be fundraisers as well.

These committees recognize that this plan is a significant change from the original plan that was voted on.  Therefore, the church is going to do the following:

            1)  There will be a congregational meeting held Sunday, March 30 at 2:00.  We encourage everyone to come to the meeting.  You may ask questions, you may give comments, and you may make suggestions.  If you cannot be at the meeting, please talk to someone on the fundraising committee or the building committee, or both and ask those questions and make those comments and suggestions before the meeting.  We want everyone to have the opportunity to be heard.

            2)  There will be a special Charge Conference held Sunday, April 6, after church.  Our District Superintendent, Randy Cross, will be in attendance.  At that time we will hold a vote on the revised plan proposed by the fundraising committee and the building committee.

            Please note that in order to vote, you must be a member of the Gettysburg United Methodist Church and you must be present at the Charge Conference.  This is not the local church's rule, it is a rule of the worldwide United Methodist Church and is set forth in our Book of Discipline.  We do not have the power to change this rule.

Please pray about this and think about it carefully.  If you have questions, or if you have opinions, please come to the March 30 meeting.  Also, we encourage you to talk to members of the fundraising committee, to members of the building committee, or to Pastor Jeff at any time. The names of the members of those committees are listed below.

We do not want anyone to feel that they did not get a chance to be heard.  We want everyone to feel they had a chance both to be fully informed and to voice their opinion.  That way, once a decision is made, we can move forward together to continue to serve God in this community and beyond.

The Gettysburg UMC Fundraising Committee          The Gettysburg UMC Building Committee

Mark Schmidt                                                             Kevin Logan
Shar Eliason                                                                Jeannee Anderson
Bill Fischer                                                                  Kevin Geditz
Kevin Kilian                                                                Randy Kemink
Norm Kostboth                                                           Ronnie Larson
Gail Larson                                                                 Vaughn Larson
Tim Luken                                                                   Bill Wuttke
Jan Quiett


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