150,000? (Again)
I know you all know what we’re doing here in Vegas, but let me say that I totally believe that it’s something unique, important, and necessary. We’re starting a church in the center of Sin City! The kind of place Jesus would have gone, and told us to go, but that Christians have forsaken, which is made obvious by the fact that despite the hundreds of thousands of people who live around and work on the Strip, there are no churches. There are good churches in the suburbs, but nothing on or around the Strip. I honestly feel like this is something that needs to work.
We’ve been here for seven months now, studying the culture and meeting the people, and God has really started to form the vision for what the church will need to look like to reach people who work on and live around the Strip. Because of their crazy schedules (weekends and night shifts predominate) we plan to do a Sunday morning service AND alternate service times/days throughout the week. Like a Monday night at 7 p.m., and eventually maybe Tuesday morning at 12:15 a.m., Friday night at 9 p.m., Saturday afternoon at 3:00, Sunday night at 6:00, etc.. We also want to do Celebrate Recovery, and Life Skill seminars.
And all of that means … we need to lease a permanent space. We can’t be renting venues throughout the week, and it would also be cost prohibitive. The great news is that leasing spaces are going incredibly cheap here. In fact, we have found an amazing location, facing the main highway of Vegas & the Strip, just south of the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign that is the front door of the Strip.
This spot is killer! And we’ll be able to afford it. (Once we get rolling and add a couple of the alternative services it will actually be cheaper than renting venues throughout the week.) The issue is the start-up costs. We need to do some build out and purchase equipment to get us into the space, and that’s what we’re not prepared for.
So … I need to raise another $150,000. Yup, $150,000. And that’s a lot of money, but we’re confident it will be totally worth it as we see lives transformed and a beachhead established in the heart of Sin City.
So the risk? Well, we’re going to have to commit to this space before we have the money raised, and we’re going to have to start doing the build-out before we have the money raised. And the way we are paying for things right now is through my credit card, then our bookkeeper out in California reimburses me with a check from our church account. So if we can’t raise the money, and we run out of money in the account, and it’s on my credit card … [insert throwing up noises here].
Later today I’ll tell you a little more about this…