Beginning in 2013, a Capital Needs Discernment Team began preparing for a possible capital campaign. With the work of several parishioners, and the input of many more through surveys and meetings, that team hired the architectural firm Elevate Studio to do a complete building, code, engineering, and program analysis of our parish campus and ministries. Elevate also worked with our membership to create principles that would guide our work. That produced a Master Plan for St. John's Episcopal Church. The work of Elevate Studio was funded by $40,000 in generous giving by a group of parishioners known as the Vanguard Group—people committed to the capital campaign being done well.

Phase One of that Master Plan went through a Feasibility Study, led by Development Strategies, that concluded we needed to focus our congregation more clearly on a united vision and a honed first phase of work. The Vestry responded and secured the services of Lakewood Construction—the firm that led the expansion of our Nave in the 1990s—to design a new Phase One based upon parish feedback and the recommendations of the first Feasibility Study. A new Master Plan Revision Team was created to lead that work and the services of The Episcopal Church Foundation were engaged by the Vestry to assist us in revising our plan. Phase One was taken apart piece-by-piece, asking which parts needed to be led by Lakewood Construction, which parts could be done by local contractors or even by our own volunteers. That work produced a new proposal which went through a new Feasibility Study. The success of that Feasibility Study enabled the Vestry to make final edits to the plan and produce our new Capital Campaign: Stepping into the 21st Century. After four years of hard work, and with $210,00 committed in advance before the Campaign kicked off, we are confident that this plan represents the most strongly supported improvements needed to enable the ministry at St. John's to continue and thrive.

Don't worry! We know how important the new roof is and we have already raised enough through pledges to cover both the roof and also the pressing kitchen needs. So that will happen no matter what at this point! At the same time, already having 2/3 of the total amount in advance pledges by the day of our Campaign Kick-Off means that the Vestry and Campaign Leadership Team are confident that we will meet—if not exceed—our goal!

The work wills start as soon as we can, after the Campaign wraps up. Once we know the total amount pledged, along with the total amount given in advance, we will be able to arrange our bridge financing and sign contracts with our various vendors. Our goal is for the roof to be taken care of before winter and the other projects as soon as they can be done.