Building Update

Greetings to all of you. I trust you are experiencing the presence of Jesus today!

It is time for an update on the JOC Building Project. As you know, around the first of the year, the project had stalled, mostly around an inability to find the money we needed to keep moving forward. We moved into a time of prayerful discernment and investigating a wide array of creative options to move the project forward. Those included co-ownership of the space, selling to another ministry and leasing back from them long-term, helping co-run the space. We also had a couple of opportunities at larger money in the form of government grants. We had around a half-dozen options to look at, each of which would have kept alive our vision of a hub of Jesus-centered ministries broadly serving those on the margins. Several were hopeful, but at this point none of them seem viable.

We trust Jesus in this process, though it has been hard. We still have a couple of groups we are talking to, but nothing seems imminent. I had thought when we began the process that we would really need the wealth of the broader Christian community, including wealthy Christians, to grasp our vision of a place to broadly serve the marginalized. Our prayer was that they would give to make it happen. While our small and moderate size donors have been generous, to this point we have simply not found the larger donors we need.

We have other barriers when it comes to the sizable amount of money we need ($1.5 million to just finish phase one, a number that has gone way up due to inflation and construction costs). Being a “Jesus” organization closes many doors. Government and foundation money have large barriers to us as well. So, everywhere we have turned we have found closed doors. Again, we trust Jesus is in that. We only have the property because Jesus opened the door so we trust that if doors are now closed, it is also from Him.

While we are still having conversations and would love a last-minute miracle, we have decided that we need to put the building up for sale, praying that God surfaces a buyer, preferably one who would have a similar dream to serve those on the margins. So, the building will be listed this week. Pray for the right buyer and soon, as the financial pressure of the building is at this point impacting our ability to do our core work of showing up, loving people and building relationships.

If we are able to sell the building at what we think is a realistic price, we would walk away with the bulk of the money we have raised for the project and would be positioned to use that money to further our work. We would look at leveraging into a smaller space that would be adequate for our core work. We also would consider using it to do some housing, either via a motel or apartment. There we would pursue our dream of creating an affordable, safe and beautiful housing project, all wrapped around Christian community. We trust that if Jesus closes a door, he will open a window or two.

The journey has been hard but a gift, calling us to prayer and reminding us that our core work is not a building but the beautiful work of loving our friends.

Please be in prayer and we will keep you posted.

Blessings,

Shawn