I had a very encouraging and informative meeting on Friday with two members of New Life who have been in legal and real estate profession for many years. They approached me to share and discuss about our possible plan to relocate the church to a more strategic and central location.
They started out by saying that they trust me as their pastor. They don’t want to trust me just in small matters because trusting me in small matters that they feel comfortable about doing is not trusting at all. Rather, they felt they are truly trusting in me when they are presented with something big that they feel uneasy about doing but still follow my leadership. They shared that if I sense that God is the one who is prompting me to lead New Life to a more strategic location for the future of our church, then they will fully support me. It is this kind of respectful and trusting heart and spirit that motivates me to serve New Life wholeheartedly and sacrificially.
Having said this, they wanted to talk to me about their thoughts on Tanner Land and how we may go about dealing with the seller in a way that would be more advantageous to New Life. In short, this is what they shared with me.
- It’s a buyer’s market now. However, it seems like New Life is being rushed by the seller. We should take more control of this buying process.
- We should take more time to thoroughly review the contract requesting and editing all that we need to make it more advantageous to us. It typically takes a longer time to review, edit and get what we want than the amount of time that the seller is giving us.
- The asking price for the land seems to be higher than the current market price. We should definitely renegotiate the price.
Therefore, this is the proposal that the leadership team is presenting to New Life family.
“Let’s pray and discern if it is God who is inviting us to relocate to a more strategic location for His kingdom work in our city. If we believe that relocation of our church is God’s plan and we as a church make the decision to move forward, then we will look at Tanner Land as our first option. In looking at this option, we will take more time to do all that is necessary which will include reviewing and editing the contract, and renegotiating the price to make the purchase more advantageous to New Life. In the course of doing it, if we lose the land because there is another buyer who decides to buy it, then that’s fine with us. We will move on and start looking for another tract of land in the region that we have decided to relocate the church to meet and serve our God-given purpose.”
I would like to thank all of you who came forward and asked me several questions on Wednesday during our Family Meeting. I know that you love New Life and you were showing your genuine concern for the church through the questions you asked. I also would like to apologize to you because I sense that you asked what you asked because you felt as though there wasn’t enough information provided for you to make a conscious decision before God.
During our next Family Meeting, we will provide you with more necessary information that will help you understand how we will finance the purchase of the land if we make the decision to relocate our church. We will also share with you briefly but clearly how we will finance the cost of the construction of the new facility which most likely will not happen for another 4-5 years even if we make the decision during our next Family Meeting to relocate.
Doing anything at New Life at the expense of breaking the unity and oneness of Christ’s body is not worth it. God will not be pleased with it either because our God is the God of love and unity. Our bylaws say that it takes the vote of a majority of the voting members present at a meeting to pass a motion. This means the decision at hand can be made by 50.1%. To me, it is not right or worth doing anything with barely more than 50% of members’ support. Therefore, I suggest to LT and all New Life family members that we make the impending decision with at least 75% voting result.
There were 60 members this past Wednesday who already voted regarding Tanner Land purchase. I would like to respectfully ask you to vote again since we now have more information about the relocation and land purchasing process. However, if you would like to maintain the same position, then please respond to Eric Huang, our Administration Team leader, when he contacts you with this matter. He will count your vote accordingly.
Our next Family Meeting will be on Saturday, October 24 at 7 PM in the sanctuary. Please bring and wear your mask, get your temperature checked at the entrance door and participate in the meeting with an open heart that seeks to hear God’s voice.
Your pastor,
Pastor Eric
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