Project Update 2006

Our Mission Possible journey began a little more than a year ago as we began praying and planning for Asbury's future.  Eventually the plans were formulated and the congregation voted to raise $ 14 million dollars to expand ministry and reduce our long term debt.  The components of the plan included the purchase and remodel of the Tulsa Ice Arena into a Student Ministry space and Worship Auditorium; expansion of the Children's area; addition of two porticos and a covered walkway to the chapel and a remodel of the current student space into Adult space.  This plan also called for a mission component of $ 500,000 and debt reduction of $ 3 million. 

Last November, the congregation voted to approve the above plan.  The plan included a commitment that we wouldn't incur any more long term debt and that our construction budget would not exceed $ 10.4 million dollars.  To date, 1232 Asbury families have committed approximately $ 12 million to the Mission Possible Campaign.   This was a huge success even though it fell somewhat short of our top-end goal of $ 14 million.   This pledge  shortfall as well as a very aggressive increase in construction costs over the last 12 months in the Tulsa area will require the church to make some important decisions about the ultimate fulfillment of the plan embraced by the church.  In the near term, the Building Committee and Administrative Council will determine our course of action.  Any changes to the approved construction budget would be brought to the congregation for a vote.  To date, we have received $ 3,014,640 of designated Mission Possible gifts which is a great blessing.  While we have incurred expenses, these early gifts have provided the cash flow necessary and we currently have a zero balance  on our line of credit designed for construction financing.

We would like to thank all of you who pledged to this very important campaign.  If you have not yet made a pledge, we still need your help.  As mentioned, we will be making very important decisions in the very near future that impact the project.  Please contact our Finance office if you have any questions.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Your Mission: Possible Follow-up Team,
Frank & Cathy Gentry
Basil & Gay James
Tom and Jen Sharpe
Jeff and Cathy Wilkie

More

The building committee has selected the project team for our expansion.   We are so excited and pleased to work with our new architects, Tri Arch.  This is a relatively new firm whose partners Rockie Anderson, Scott Vrooman and Taylor King were part of Sparks Spiritual Division and worked on phase one of our campus.  They bring their previous experience with Asbury, great energy and creativity, and their faith to our project.  The other member of our team is Flintco, our Construction Manager.  Flintco did a great job on our original project and we are excited to be working with them again. 

Some very exciting and hard work has already gone into our expansion project. Our ministry teams and project director have been meeting weekly with our architects and construction manager.  Our building committee has met throughout the summer and we are now almost at the end of our Design Development phase which provides the details to begin preparing the construction drawings.  On the following page you will see the preliminary drawings of the interior of the Student area (levels one and two) and worship auditorium as well as the expanded children's area (levels one and two).  These drawings are not finalized and are subject to change.  We will be providing drawings of the porticos, covered walkway, remodel of the student area,  and exterior elevations at a later time.

We will be finalizing the Design Development drawings in the next few weeks and will receive a more detailed budget to the design.  We plan to have the construction drawings done some time in November with bid packages to sub contractors going out in early December.  We hope to have the contracts awarded by Christmas and construction to begin in January of 2007.  Construction on all components will be done at the same time as this is the most cost-effective approach.  We hope to be finished by the end of 2007.

Please note that the layout/ drawings are subject to change and plans are not yet finalized.  Also, the construction timeline is an estimate and we will be providing updates as the project progresses.