Beloved St. John’s community,
As you know, the Venerable Rena Turnham has been working with St. John’s over the last 18 months to help us explore St. John’s current identity, purpose and mission, how the Holy Spirit is guiding us into the future, and how our resources can be allocated to best support this mission. I am delighted to report that the shortfall in our operating budget caused largely by the pandemic will be nearly closed for the 2025 fiscal year, assuming our current pledge drive concludes as abundantly as it has been going thus far. Thanks be to God and to all of your generous pledges! And, as part of our Sustainable Mission work, we ordered a “Building Reserve Study” or “BRS” to get more concrete information about the costs of caring well for our beloved building into the future.
The Building Reserve Study has been completed and indicates that we will need to significantly increase our investment in the building to ensure its long term capacity to serve our mission. So we wanted to share it with all of you and talk about our next steps in evaluating, adapting and integrating it into our Sustainable Mission project.
What is the Building Reserve Study?
- It is a comprehensive, 111-page evaluation of the costs related to our building and all its components, external and internal, like masonry, elevators, HVAC, stained glass windows, commercial kitchen, etc.
- The study uses average industry lifespans and replacement costs for each building component to estimate the average amount of money we would need to save each year to care for every part of the building.
What does the Building Reserve Study Say?
- The BRS recommends that we do a capital campaign within the next few years of about $2,000,000; however, there are several significant repairs, including the masonry and organ, that we can do for significantly less than what the BRS estimates, which would reduce this number.
- In addition to the capital campaign mentioned above, the BRS suggests that we begin to save $130,000 per year on an ongoing basis to cover the cost of all building components. St. John’s currently saves $12,500 per year for this purpose. Although we believe this BRS annual cost estimate is higher than what is actually necessary, it still represents an exponential increase in what we’ve been spending.
- The BRS presents a detailed evaluation of every single building component, along with projected lifespan, current condition, estimated replacement costs, and relative priority of need for repair.
- The BRS estimates that over the next 30 years, our building could require up to $8 million dollars in repair and maintenance costs.
What does the Building Reserve Study not address / what are its limits?
- The BRS does not estimate the costs of any property improvements or alterations; it assumes we will keep the building exactly as is in perpetuity.
- The BRS does not evaluate alternative, lower cost options for many repairs, such as using manufactured stone for the exterior or opting for an electronic organ instead of replacing the pipe organ.
- The BRS assumes only one capital campaign at the outset, followed by annual savings, rather than multiple capital campaigns over set long-term intervals.
That’s a lot of money. What are our options?
- Well, it turns out most churches and other nonprofits need to do capital campaigns every 8-10 years, both for building maintenance and other big projects. Having said that, our building is beautiful, old, and has unique features (masonry, a pipe organ, and stained glass windows, for example) that require extra care.
- First, we need to finalize the work about our mission and its future. What is most important to us right now? What is God calling us to be and do, especially at this important time in the life of our world?
- Second, your vestry, buildings & grounds committee and finance team will all be working to interpret and adapt the BRS to determine more realistic estimates of projected building costs given our priorities and the potential for lower cost options. In particular, we will work on determining what the shorter-term (e.g. 1-10 years) expenses will be and whether we need to conduct a capital campaign to cover those costs.
- Third, we want to explore how important this location and this building are to the St. John’s community. We have been here a long time; it is a great location for many reasons. And, it’s not the only place we could be. We are working on a plan to deeply listen to all of you and to God about the significance of this building and location to all of you and to our mission.
- Fourth, your sustainable mission team is working on discerning the potential opportunities and cost of alternatives to staying in this building. While our default position is that we will stay here, we need to know what the other options are—how they would help further our mission, and what they would cost in money, time and energy, both initially and on an ongoing basis.
Over the next six months, you can expect to hear much more about all of these steps. You can also use the following link to review a more detailed Building Reserve Study Summary. For now, I invite you to see this time not as one of scarcity, but abundant possibilities, and to trust in the goodness of our God and the timeless significance of joining God’s mission to heal the world through love. If you have specific questions, please direct them to our Rector Lisa; our Senior & Junior Wardens, Doug Mensing and Heidi Weaver; or our Sustainable Mission Minister, Rena Turnham.
In Christ’s love,
Lisa
