Vision - Capital Campaign & Expansion

For something to move Forward it assumes there was a past. Our capital campaign theme, "Forward in our Story" allows us to honor our more-than-50-year history of building His kingdom in Lake Country. Forward also assumes there is a future. Our mission propels us into the future. Moving along following God's lead, we invest in our future and the future of those who will come to Divine Redeemer Church & School. The most important part of the theme name is "All for His Glory". Our focus and priority are on giving God glory and following His will.

Weekly Updates

As announced last week, Divine Redeemer is in the silent buildup phase for a capital campaign for a new Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC). The theme of our campaign is "Forward in our Story, All for His Glory". This theme is fitting for the Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church and School community for two reasons. First, it allows us to honor our more-than-50-year history of building the Kingdom in Lake Country, while also calling to mind that our mission continues to propel us into the future. In conducting this campaign, we have the life-giving opportunity to write a new chapter in the story of Divine Redeemer.

Second, the theme keeps the scriptural basis of all that we do in our minds. We deliberately chose this theme because it calls to mind 1 Corinthians 10:31b: “Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” Paul exhorts Christians to seek the good of others, and thereby bring glory to God. While it is exciting to write a new chapter in Divine Redeemer’s story, that cannot be our only purpose. We cannot build a building just for the sake of a new building and a greater capacity for our ECDC, though these are good things. We must instead remember that we are doing these things to give God glory! A successful campaign will let us bring even more children and families into a relationship with Jesus, to remind even more of the people of Lake Country of God’s love for them.

Please continue to pray for the campaign and take time to reflect with God on how He might be calling you to contribute. Please also pray for all the church leaders and volunteers working to bring the campaign to a successful outcome. 

Thank you to all who voted on a logo this week over on our Facebook group. We had nearly 100 votes and option 1 (above) won.

As many are aware, Divine Redeemer is in the planning stages of our "Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory" Capital Campaign before the public kickoff on September 10th. To conduct a successful effort, we need a strong volunteer team to visit with church and school families.

We are thankful that several members of the Divine Redeemer community have agreed to help provide campaign leadership. The following members have said “yes” thus far to an invitation to serve as General Chairs, Honorary Chairs, or on the Campaign Cabinet:

General Chairs: Rob and Chelsea Chandler, Jeff and Karen Lippert

Honorary Chairs: Dick and Leslie Barkow, Christopher and Angela Batterman, Jeff and Christa Cardenas

Campaign Cabinet: David Bahr, Andrew Byrne, Tracy Holt, Mike Johnson, Dan Kuehner, Tracey Markut, Mike and Kathy Oldenburg, Andrew and Sarah Portale, Ken Saydel, Tim Timmerman

In their role, these leaders will play an integral part in implementing a successful campaign. One of their first responsibilities over the next month and a half, aside from helping us secure groundbreaking gifts, will be helping to recruit additional volunteers for making visits during the campaign’s public phase in the fall. If you are interested in helping during the public phase, please contact Ben Giles, our capital campaign manager, at bgiles@fellowshipdevelopment.com by July 21, 2023.

You can help make a difference for Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church and School and its future! Please consider lending your talent to this important cause!

Frequently Asked Questions

As part of the preparation phase of our Forward in our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign, we will provide a series of FAQs to keep you informed about our exciting plans.

What is the timeline of the capital campaign?

Over the course of the summer, we are focusing on recruiting and training campaign volunteers and securing lead gifts. When school returns in the fall, we will move into the public phase of the campaign which will include events and appeals to all church and school families! Finally, in late October, we will wrap up the public phase and transition to pledge redemption and finishing construction of our new ECDC building!

When will construction begin?

Our hope and prayer are to have the new ECDC building completed in time to welcome students for the 2024-25 school year. To accomplish this important goal, construction needs to begin by the end of this summer. Our Board of Directors has stipulated that construction can begin as soon as we receive 20% ($1.2 million) of the total projected costs ($6 million). As a result, the silent phase of the campaign is focused on raising $1.2 million so that we can begin construction as soon as possible.

I would be interested in giving a significant, Ground-Breaking gift to the campaign. How can I do that?

If you are interested in giving a gift of this kind, please email Ben Giles, our campaign manager, at bgiles@fellowshipdev.com so we can make sure a member of our campaign team contacts you this summer.

How can I ask questions or find more information about the capital campaign and project?

The Vision page on Divine Redeemer’s website (drlc.org/vision) has a wealth of resources which will be updated throughout the campaign. You can also send your questions and comments to vision@drlc.org.

We hope the campaign timeline in last week’s newsletter (and again below) is helpful to the congregation. A capital campaign is an out-of-the-ordinary process and a significant undertaking that rolls out over several months. The buildup continues in the silent phase, and we cannot wait to kick off the public effort in September!

In the meantime, please pray, pray, pray. Pray for the staff and volunteers working so diligently to make sure the campaign is a success, and we can open our new ECDC for the 2024-25 school year. Pray and begin discerning how God may be calling you to contribute. Pray especially for the mission of Divine Redeemer in Lake Country and that God will continue to bless us and help spread the Gospel.

“The excitement for our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign continues to grow! Please take a moment to view this short video from Pastor Seth and Principal Janet Bahr about how excited they are for what the future holds at Divine Redeemer!

Please also continue to pray, pray, pray. This campaign is, above all, for God’s glory. If we keep God at the center of it by moving through the process with prayer at every step, we will not only succeed, but God will work through the campaign in ways we cannot even imagine!”

Update - Appeal Letters coming in the next few months

Pastor Seth doesn't want the fact that you will be receiving an appeal letter to be a surprise, so he filmed a video message to tell you more about it. Appeal letters will be sent out in waves in the next few months starting this month. Enjoy the happy voices of the kids currently in the ECDC playing in the playground outside his office!

The Appeal Letter will come in the mail. It will be signed by Pastor Seth. The mailing will also come with other campaign items for reference.

As the first wave of appeal letters go out, it is a good time to reflect once again on our needs as a church and school. God is moving here, and it is such an inspiration that we have the opportunity to make sure we have facilities to accommodate God’s blessings for generations to come! Please watch this video below, and please continue to pray for Divine Redeemer, the campaign and all of the volunteers working to make it a great success!

Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church & School Full Campaign Video

Volunteers needed in September & October

We need volunteers! As we draw near to the new school year and the launch of the public phase of our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign, we need volunteers to help with personal visits during that public phase. The role is straightforward: each volunteer will meet with 8-10 families during the six-week public phase to answer any questions they may have and help secure a decision. These are not cold calls, and volunteers are not the ones asking for money. Instead, the volunteer’s role is to help the families they meet with decide how they will respond to the appeal they receive from Divine Redeemer.

The more volunteers we get, the more visits we can conduct! This is an excellent way to build up the future of Divine Redeemer Church and School! If interested, please email Ben Giles, our capital campaign manager, at bgiles@fellowshipdev.com as soon as possible.

Our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign continues! As of earlier this week, we have raised $2,624,319 in pledges and gifts. As we build up to the launch of our public phase, we praise and thank God for the provision He has already made for our vision, and we also look forward with excitement to how much additional progress we will make in the coming months!

As an additional campaign reminder, we need volunteers! As we draw near to the campaign’s public launch, we need volunteers to help with personal visits during that public phase. The role is straightforward: each volunteer will meet with 8-10 families during the six-week public phase to answer any questions they may have and help secure a decision. These are not cold calls, and volunteers are not the ones asking for money. Instead, the volunteer’s role is to help the families they meet with decide how they will respond to the appeal they receive from Divine Redeemer.

The more volunteers we get, the more visits we can conduct! This is an excellent way to build up the future of Divine Redeemer Church and School! If interested, please email Ben Giles, our capital campaign manager, at bgiles@fellowshipdev.com by Wednesday, August 16.

Our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign continues! As of earlier this week, we have raised $2,795,357 in pledges and gifts, an increase of $171,038 in just one week! As we build up to the launch of our public phase, we praise and thank God for the provision He has already made for our vision, and we also look forward with excitement to how much additional progress we will make in the coming months!

Don’t forget to mark your calendars: the public kickoff of our campaign is on Sunday, September 10th! This will be an occasion for great celebration on the part of our church and school community - we have the great blessings of being able to celebrate the Divine Redeemer's past, present and future through launching the public phase of our campaign! You won’t want to miss it!

IT’S TIME!!! After months of prayer, planning, and behind-the-scenes hard work, we’re launching the public phase of our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign in just two weeks on Sunday, September 10th starting at 10:30 AM! We’re so incredibly excited, and we hope you are too!

There are so many reasons to come to the kickoff! Not only do we have the chance to celebrate Divine Redeemer’s past and future, but the festivities include breaking ground on our new building! The ceremony will include shovels and an excavator to mark the start of construction of a facility that gives our ECDC desperately needed room to expand and gives more spaces for our ministries to flourish!

In addition to groundbreaking, the event will have an Oktoberfest celebration with live German music, pretzels, brats, root beer floats, bounce houses, and more. It’ll be a blast for the whole family!

Mark your calendars for September 10th from 10:30-2:30 (with Ground Breaking ceremony at noon), because you will not want to miss the celebration of the next chapter in the Divine Redeemer story as we continue to give God glory!

UPDATE

IT’S HERE!!!!! This weekend marks the public launch of Divine Redeemer’s Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory campaign – a critical effort to help fund a new building for our Early Childhood Development Center as well as renovations of the ECDC’s current spaces to give us more spaces for our ministry needs.

Earlier this week, everyone was mailed a packet of materials. A case booklet is enclosed, along with a letter from Pastor Seth requesting a pledge to the effort. Over the coming weeks, our team of volunteers will be reaching out to families to discuss the campaign, answer questions and seek your support. Due to our large database of church and school families, we may not be able to personally contact every family – but we do hope and pray that all families will choose to participate in this important effort, in any prayerfully discerned way.DON'T FORGET WE HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT THIS WEEKEND AT SERVICES AND THE GROUNDBREAKING!

WE MADE HIS-STORY

This past weekend was such a joy! God was glorified through it all! The Church Ministry year kicked off with a red-carpet welcome and beautiful worship. Kids connection and Confirmation started. The groundbreaking ceremony was so awesome and exciting and the Oktoberfest was a great way to have fellowship and celebrate. Even the local newspaper covered our historic event! Praising God that we are embarking upon having more SPACE to do more for our community including school, prayer, Bible study, sports and more! We made history, but more importantly we are moving forward "HIS" "STORY" through our church and school. In Church this Sunday, we will watch a recap video of the Oktoberfest & Ground-breaking!

UPDATE

It's hard to put into words how to summarize Sunday, September 10th. God was at work. Many families and individuals were blessed to spend time in prayer during the 24-hour vigil. There were nearly 700 worshipping at church. We had hundreds on the field for the ground-breaking ceremony and the Oktoberfest was a time of fellowship and fun! We are NOW officially in the PUBLIC PHASE of the capital campaign. What does that mean? Well, it means that we are asking everyone to prayerfully discern their pledge to the campaign. We are grateful for the success of the silent phase of the campaign and thankful to ALL who were able to provide literal GROUND-BREAKING gifts! But there is much more to raise for this phase.

Our database has over 1,500 individuals. Our silent phase included gifts from about 100. We want EVERYONE to be able to be a part of this work God is doing here! The size of the gift does not matter! All gifts glorify God! All gifts bring us closer to walking in faith by giving the blessings we have received back to God to further His kingdom here in Lake Country.

Pledge Sunday is October 22nd. We are hoping to have all pledges in by this time for the 3-year campaign. There are options to give a one-time gift or spread your gift out over 3 years. We announced the AMAZING news on Sunday that all money RECEIVED up to 1 MILLION dollars will be matched by an anonymous donor! Praise God!

In this section of our newsletter as well as outside of the church and gym, we will be updating the thermometer now WEEKLY until Pledge Sunday. You can always learn more about this project at drlc.org/vision.

RECENT FAQs

Now that the public phase of our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory campaign is underway, we wanted to take a moment to address some common questions circulating in the community.

How does the matching grant during the public phase work?

The donor’s goal in making this matching grant is to drive participation in the public phase, especially among people who might not otherwise participate, by providing the chance to double the impact of gifts. Keeping that in mind, they are applying the match to money received by Divine Redeemer on pledges made during the public phase (i.e., after kickoff on September 10th). That means that payments made on pledges from before kickoff are not eligible for a match. It also means that just making a pledge will not trigger the match – that only happens as a pledge is redeemed during the pledge period.

We keep hearing references to Pledge Sunday coming up on October 22nd. What is Pledge Sunday, and how will it work?

Pledge Sunday is meant to represent the culmination of the public phase. However, as we wind down the public phase leading up to Pledge Sunday, we want to ramp up the levels of participation. Pledge Sunday gives us the chance to honor the many families who have helped our church reach this point in the campaign, while offering everyone a final chance to invest in the future of Divine Redeemer. It will take the form of an in-service appeal during all services that Sunday, when we will take a few minutes to ask everyone to fill out a pledge card in the pews and turn them in For those who have already pledged, a separate card will be available that read, "I/we already pledged or I/we will continue to pray. This approach brings our commitments to the campaign and to Divine Redeemer’s future together as one community within the context of prayer, where we offer up that future to God.

What if I have already pledged before Pledge Sunday?

We strongly encourage all families to make their pledges before Pledge Sunday. However, any families that have not done so will have the chance to make their pledge as part of Pledge Sunday. If you have made a pledge, there is no need to worry – the cards we use that day will have an option for you to indicate that you have already pledged. Including this option allows everyone to submit a card and make Pledge Sunday truly an act of the whole community.

Corinthians 10:31b: “Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”

While it is exciting to write a new chapter in Divine Redeemer’s story, that cannot be our only purpose. We cannot build a building just for the sake of a new building and a greater capacity for our ECDC, though these are good things. We must instead remember that we are doing these things to give God glory! A successful campaign will let us bring even more children and families into a relationship with Jesus, to remind even more of the people of Lake Country of God’s love for them.

Please continue to pray for the campaign and take time to reflect with God on how He might be calling you to contribute. Please also pray for all the church leaders and volunteers working to bring the campaign to a successful outcome. 

If you have a connection with Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church and School, it has shaped your family and life through a connection with Jesus. Our church and school work together to bring people to Jesus and have grown together over the past half-century in Lake Country. Starting in 1972 in a bank basement, we moved due to the growing number of children learning about Jesus. The same growth pattern repeated in 1974 on Hill Street, leading to another move to a larger campus. Today, our school educates over 400 students annually. However, our Early Childhood Development Center is at full capacity, and we are using unconventional spaces like former kitchens and newly built classrooms to accommodate the growth.

Once again, we face a challenge: no more room to accommodate God’s blessings. No hallway, kitchen, or attic remains for classrooms, yet we receive numerous inquiries (over 45 since last summer) from parents seeking to connect their children to Jesus. Conflicting with Jesus’ call to let the little children come to Him, we have to turn those families away due to lack of space. They join a waitlist, which dwindles as they find care elsewhere, and few of those other centers focus on Jesus. Every child turned away is a missed opportunity, and these constraints affect our school and church family. Most of our baptisms (61%) and new members (60%) come from students and families connected with our school. Imagine how much more growth we could see by giving the ECDC its own space and repurposing its current spaces to foster spiritual growth, youth ministry, Bible study groups and community outreach.

Join our Forward in Our Story, All for His Glory Capital Campaign to address this critical need. Respondents to our Readiness Assessment overwhelmingly agreed that now is the time. Divine Redeemer has a history of adapting facilities to accommodate God’s blessings in Lake Country. We have the exciting opportunity to continue that history and magnify God’s glory!

Meeting this need requires great faith and radical generosity. The new spaces will enable impactful ministry efforts and leave a legacy for future generations. This is step one in addressing our community’s early childhood development needs. It is a blessing to know our community’s needs and fulfill them for the sake of the Gospel with Jesus!

Archived information from Readiness Assessment (Completed in January 2023)

Divine Redeemer will be undergoing a Readiness Assessment over the next few months. Starting in December, we will have prayer meetings to pray over God's direction for our church and school. In January, our church and school families are invited to attend one of FIVE different Forums to learn more about the potential expansion and have their feedback recorded. After attending a Forum, we would ask that everyone fill out the Ministry Readiness SURVEY link (online survey) that will help us gather the necessary information for making future decisions. This link will be available from January 11th - January 31, 2023.

Our Ministry Readiness Partner, LCEF, will then use the data from interviews, surveys and forums to provide Divine Redeemer with a final report around mid-March. If it is deemed we are, in fact, ready to move forward with ministry and the support is clear both in prayer from our people, we would then consider moving into a capital campaign. (Moving into a capital campaign would require a church voters meeting vote.)

Note: It is important to note that as you enter forum conversations and fill out surveys over the next few months, you understand that this is a Ministry Readiness assessment only. You are not committing to anything financially during this phase. Additionally, any plans or renderings are subject to modification based on feedback and prayer.

Readiness Assessment: Completed

YOUR part in the Readiness Assessment is completed. The results have been compiled by LCEF. Thanks to you, we received a combined total of over 744 pieces of feedback. That feedback (survey data, interview notes, forum feedback) have been compiled by LCEF who has provided Divine Redeemer their summary report of findings on March 27, 2023! The results are overwhelmingly positive! They have officially made the recommendation for Divine Redeemer to move forward.

We hosted a town hall on March 29th during the Soup Supper. We wanted to quickly turn around the results we received to our congregation. If you were unable to attend the presentation from that town hall as well as LCEF's presentation are located at the top of this webpage for your viewing.

VOTERS MEETING - April 16

We encourage everyone to read the two presentations at the top of this web page before the Voters Meeting. The VOTERS meeting will be on April 16th at 11:45am in the Church. All are welcome. Members only can vote who are over 18. First-time member voters must register at the very start of the meeting (come early). The exact motion that will be voted upon is as follows:

"Based on the results of the Readiness Assessment, the Board of Directors recommends to the voter’s assembly of Divine Redeemer Lutheran Church, that they approve the development and construction of an Early Childhood Development Center and the immediate initiation of a capital campaign."

THE READINESS ASSESSMENT RESULTS ARE IN!
Currently, we have received the results of the January Readiness Assessment from the company that compiled them, LCEF. We received those results on March 27th and turned around and offered a town hall to our congregation to share the results on the evening of March 29th. The results are also available on the top of this website page and include 1) The PowerPoint Presentation that was used at the DR town hall on 3/29 and 2) The LCEF Summary Presentation deck from 3/27. We encourage everyone to look through those two documents in depth.

WHAT'S NEXT

As you read through the two presentations regarding the summary of the Readiness Assessment results and next steps, we encourage you to submit any questions you may have by clicking on the "Submit a Question" icon above on this webpage or by reaching out to Pastor Seth. We will host another corporate prayer meeting on Sunday, April 2nd in the Media Center following the 9:15am service. Please join us for continued corporate prayer for God's will to be done at our congregation and school.

SAMPLE RENDERINGS - PHASE 1

There are sample renderings below of possible ECDC and campus expansion plans. Additionally, renderings will be coming soon for the rehab that could take place under the church (current ECDC location)! Here are some of our favorite things about the current ECDC sample renderings:

This potential expansion gives DR an opportunity to respond to the local families' requests for access to Christian Early Childhood Development ministry.
The large multi-purpose room will be able to service many regular Bible studies and meetings on campus.
This plan has a strategy to bring water and sewer on campus to complement potential, future growth phases.
Bringing in water for the first time in 50 years means that we can begin to expand our restroom capacity for any phase of potential growth.
The focal point for all entrants to the new building upon entering will be a large cross within the multi-purpose room! No one will be able to miss why we're here: Jesus, THE Divine Redeemer!

Next Steps:

Please continue to pray for DR's expansion process.
The Board of Directors will select a company to hire for the Capital Campaign and a campaign team will be formed this spring.
We will officially kick off the capital campaign this fall, but it is likely we will do a "soft launch" this spring/summer.
The capital campaign fund is live on our giving website.
We are going to create a "Construction Corner" on this Vision page which will house our most up-to-date construction updates from planning all the way to opening!