In the last church calendar year, 258 people were baptized, including English speaking adults and youth. Sunday worship attendance is currently around 1,600 and increasing. The number of people taking the introductory Bible class I lead also keeps increasing, with 80 people in the most recent class. All these point to the continuous numerical growth of our church.
Our church formed a Long Term Planning Committee consisting of members from both the Korean and English speaking congregations, with brother Yoo Jai Hong as chairman. After careful study they presented a long term forecast for our church and made suggestions concerning worship areas, parking spaces, and classrooms. Based on their recommendations, the board of deacons passed the following resolutions:
1. We will abandon all relocation plans and do our best to utilize our current location to the fullest.
2. We will immediately begin plans to expand the sanctuary. According to brother Park Tai Woo, who built it, with proper modification the sanctuary can seat 700 people. Even if we take into account the fact that weekly worship attendance does not increase after the room capacity reaches 70%, the two worship services in the morning will be able to accommodate 1,200 adults; more if the third evening service is included.
3. We will purchase the land just north of our lot. The current owner is unable to sell it at the present time because it is designated as farm land. But legal processes are in motion to change the zoning requirements.
4. The newly purchased land will be given to NLF for them to build their own sanctuary and fellowship hall. Additionally, they may build an annex building for infants or toddlers. The benefit in buying the land for the Korean speaking congregation is the addition of much more parking space.
5. We may build an education building on our current lot for youth and children. The youth group will have to give up the rooms they are currently using to the children and move to the trailer soon. They are already sharing classrooms but can’t go on like this for much longer. We need more rooms!
6. If our church gets too large for our current location even after we purchase the adjacent land, we may eventually move to a One Church / Two Campuses system. The Second Baptist Church of Houston does this with two worship centers, one in Houston and the other in Katy. We may want to build a second worship center in South Houston.
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