Infinitely More Update – June 2024
Our Project is Complete!
What Next Now That Construction is Complete?
With construction on our Infinitely More expansion and renovation project complete, our focus now shifts to the following:
A final accounting and project summary report to the Government of Alberta. This report is a condition of our Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP) grant. The government understandably wants to know:
That the project was completed substantially as proposed in our application.
That the funds were used as proposed in our application.
That the community benefits to which we committed are still on track.
Ongoing pledge fulfilment and mortgage buy down. Early payment of pledges and additional future contributions will ensure we reduce the burden of our mortgage as quickly as
possible.
o If you have outstanding pledges, please fulfill them as soon as you can.
o If you have yet to make a pledge or financial contribution to this project, you still can
by contacting the church office.
Updating the Long Range Planning team with additional members and a fresh mandate to focus on how Oak Park’s Mission and Vision can best be fulfilled in the years to come with these new facilities. More to come on this initiative in the months ahead.
God’s been faithful to us in enabling our wonderfully updated facilities, now the onus passes to us to be faithful to Him in ensuring we use this space as effectively as possible to minister to the spiritual and other needs of His people in our church and the neighboring communities.
Financial Considerations
The funding for the project is threefold:
-
The CFEP grant
-
Donations from the congregation and supporters (Infinitely More Pledges)
-
A 20-year mortgage for the balance from the Church of Christ Development Corporation (CCDC)
CFEP and CCDC funding has been received by Oak Park, and those funds are drawn down as construction invoices are received. The sooner pledged donations are received, the quicker the mortgage can be reduced.
To give to the campaign, please designate “Infinitely More” on your envelope giving, e-transfers, and Breeze Giving.
If you have any questions about the project, please ask Lane or me at any time.
Doug Walker, Chairman
Long Range Planning & Construction Committee
A Message from our Pastor
There is something about our imagination; there is something about our ability to dream what is not already a reality. It gives us goosebumps on our arms and makes the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end. Our imaginations have this incredible, unbelievable ability to inspire and sustain us even through difficult and discouraging times.
That is part of what makes Ephesians 3:20-21 so astounding to me. If God can do “infinitely more than our greatest request, our most unbelievable dream, and exceed our wildest imagination!” then we’d better buckle up for the ride. I have dreams for our church family, and I know you do too.
I dream that when people ask their neighbours about this place, they will be told it is a place of peace, power, healing, help, and love.
God has put a challenge before us with this campaign, asking us to step out together in faith. He is calling us to stretch our giving, rejecting the narrative of scarcity; to link arms together as one body, rejecting the disunity around us; to lean-in and “never doubt God’s mighty power to work in us” (3:20), rejecting the idea that somehow this is all up to us.
This is my personal invitation to you: come join my family and I as we watch God do infinitely more than we can even dream.
- Lane Scruggs
Prayer
God, you are a God who sends. And you have invited us, your church, to “Go” with you on this journey.
You have called your people at Oak Park to go to our community and to our city. You have called us to prepare a place of radical hospitality to show the world a different way, the way of Jesus.
May you imprint these thoughts on our minds over the coming days: Generously, Sacrificially, and Joyfully!
On our own we can do so little, but with you at work among us, we can do infinitely more than we could ever imagine.
- Amen