Last time I left you with two questions: “Are we currently serving as the hands and feet of God?” and “Could we repurpose part of our campus to have a larger impact on our community and the Kingdom of God?” I hope that you have thought about this.
Today I have a new question: “How might we leverage our property to Glorify God through impacting the largest needs in the City of Covina?”
Our church leadership has been discussing this idea for over a year and a half. A year ago last March, the Board of Governance began discussions regarding the most effective use of our property. I’m sure all of you knew this since you read the Board of Governance Minutes to help put you to sleep at night. If you have insomnia, you can access the minutes on the church website. Our first discussions were about bringing in new revenue from property rentals. To date, we have increased income from the Preschool and the parsonage rentals. We have also started to bring in rental money from our parking lots.
Last February we had a specialist from the Cal Pac Conference come present to us about some churches who are building amazing housing and community services on church property. One church is providing transitional housing and services to Foster Youth. These young adults have “aged out” of the foster system and many of them end up living on the streets. The church recognized a need for a place for them to live while they get their feet on the ground. We visited another project in Santa Ana last May. The Santa Ana “Legacy Square” is an impressive senior housing project which includes apartments, offices for senior services, and even a playground for grandchildren. Spectacular!
Our path changed direction a bit after meeting with the leadership in Santa Ana. Rather than focusing on revenue, we began focusing on outreach and service. Some of us met with the City of Covina and asked them for the top needs in our City. We can’t serve our community if we don’t understand its needs. The City said the number one need in Covina is affordable senior housing, second is community meeting spaces, and the third is homeless services. We were moved.
The board decided it was time to include more people in this task. In August, we formed an Ad Hoc Committee to develop a Repurposing Vision Statement. The committee will be ongoing and includes members of the BOG and the congregation at large. We would also like to add someone from the community, the preschool, Conference, and from the City of Covina. If you’d like to serve on the Committee, talk to the Pastor or to me.
Repurposing is a big decision. We haven’t signed any contracts. We haven’t met with any developers. We don’t know if this is God’s Will, but without a vision we cannot take action. The Ad Hoc Committee’s vision statement was unanimously adopted by our BOG. I believe in the vision and I want to leave you with that Vision Statement today: Our vision is to Glorify God, Preach the Gospel, and Minister to our Community by repurposing a portion of our property as Senior/Low Income Housing, Community Meeting Spaces, and a new Preschool.
You are invited for our town hall meeting October 30th after worship service.
Covina United Methodist Church 