our campaign begins
welcome
Today we officially launch our most ambitious capital campaign in over four decades. For the Next Generation is an exciting, hopeful vision for the future of ministry and mission at First Presbyterian Church of Flint and we can’t wait to share it with you. We believe that the future of our church congregation will be found here, in downtown Flint, as we continue our witness to Jesus Christ. To realize this vision, we need to take a serious look at some of our most vital ministry spaces in our historic church building.
History
In 1979, a committee was established at the First Presbyterian Church of Flint to assess whether the church should relocate from downtown Flint to the suburbs. At the time, concerns about rising crime rates, a declining population in Flint, and budgetary concerns had generated significant interest in relocation.
After spending much time in prayer, study, and discussion with parishioners, however, the ‘746 Committee’ returned its final recommendation: We need to stay in downtown Flint. Instead of building a new building elsewhere, our congregation decided to invest the equivalent of $15 million dollars today to expand and improve our downtown facility.
The decision to stay in Flint was, for us, an act of faith; we had come to believe that we had been called to live out our faith by serving our downtown community. It was also a courageous investment in the fabric of downtown Flint at a time when many other businesses and churches were moving out and when nearly every economic indicator spelled doom.
Nevertheless, through the radical generosity of our church members and the wider community, we successfully expanded our facility from 1984-1986, almost doubling the space of our physical plant, and were debt-free within ten years.
What emerged from that historic capital expansion were several essential spaces for the life and ministry of our congregation: The lower level became a haven for middle and high school students, the second floor provided a fabulous rehearsal space for our choirs and music ministries, on the first floor, a church library was established to provide resources to the congregation, and an office complex provided space for the church staff to work.
In the 40 years since they were established, countless individuals have been profoundly shaped by these spaces as they served on the church staff, as choir members, or as students in the Pipe Youth Ministry.
These spaces have served our congregation well for a generation, but, over the past 40 years and with few changes made, they are unable to keep up with the way our church’s ministries are changing and expanding.
Our growing youth ministry has an exciting vision of establishing a dynamic, hospitable, safe, and inclusive space for middle and high school students with diverse interests and personalities to encounter the love of Christ, but the present condition of the lower level is inadequately laid out, unsafe, and unwelcoming.
Our music ministry is committed to welcoming more choristers while supporting an eclectic range of choral, vocal, and instrumental engagement with music, but our present space is inaccessible to those with mobility challenges and in need of major repair and reorganization.
Our community ministry here in Flint is already providing birth certificates, drivers’ licenses, and other identity reclamation needs for people climbing out of poverty, and every single week we welcome hundreds of phone calls, and dozens of appointments with our full-time social worker to get people on their way to their next chapter, but our social worker’s office is barely larger than a closet which does not provide enough room for our current practice, let alone for any expansion to our services.
Our outreach to those in recovery from drug addiction is significant: we provide space for four unique Narcotics Anonymous groups to meet weekly. However, the current basement room assigned to these groups is in shocking condition. The room lacks any windows, the concrete floor is in disarray, and the room smells terrible. It is not a space that offers any dignity to those looking to stay clean.
Our office staff is working more closely and collaboratively than we ever have in the past, and we love the opportunity to plan and dream and work to achieve our ministry visions together, but our present office space is laid out with different priorities and values of a past generation and is preventing us from working efficiently, mindfully, and collaboratively.
In short, the vision we have for our congregation’s commitment to being in downtown Flint is colliding with an aging facility space. To move forward, we are looking for a fresh and courageous investment to being a downtown congregation in Flint, a commitment to the next generation. The For the Next Generation campaign at First Presbyterian Church of Flint is targeting four vital facility areas to improve over the next two years (2025-2026):
Lower Level: Youth Ministry Area (Phase 1, 2025)
Main Level: Office Complex, Library (Phase 2, 2026)
Second Floor: Music and the Arts Department (Phase 2, 2026)
Project Costs
The For the Next Generation campaign is looking to raise a total of $6.5 million over the next five years.
The For the Next Generation campaign is looking to raise a total of $6.5 million over the next five years.
We recognize that such a figure represents an ambitious and generational investment into the life of our organization, but we are confident such an investment will be a catalyst for this church’s continued work and outreach in downtown Flint.
Our campaign’s funding goal is derived directly from the projected costs to renovate the spaces discussed in this application. We have asked our architects and general contractors to help us identify cost projections for the project, inclusive of all contingency fees so as to get as close as we can to the actual construction costs.
Project timeline
The For the Next Generation campaign is organized into four “phases.” One of these phases are primarily devoted to fundraising, two are construction phases, and one is a repayment phase.
PHASE 1: PUBLIC FUNDRAISING
September-October 2024
At our congregational meeting, we kicked off the public fundraising side of our campaign as we transitioned the project to its public phase where we will hope to secure all necessary project funds through personal five-year commitments. In addition to our current membership base, we have an ambitious list of potential ‘alumni’ of our church’s ministries who we plan to reach out to in hopes they will contribute as well. The public phase will continue until we have secured enough financial commitments to begin construction.
PHASE 2: CONSTRUCTION I
January-September 2025
Once necessary financial commitments are secured for this phase, we will begin the first construction phase which will focus on the lower level/youth ministry center. The project is estimated to take between 6-8 months to complete. Projected move-in to the new space will coincide with our fall kick-off in September 2025.
PHASE 3: CONSTRUCTION II
January-September 2026
Once any remaining financial commitments to fund the next phase have been secured, we will begin the second construction phase which will focus on the office complex, library, and music department. The project is estimated to take around 8 months to complete. Projected move-in to the new space will hopefully coincide with the fall kick-off in September 2026.
PHASE 4: LOAN REPAYMENT
September 2026-December 2030
The goal of our campaign is to be debt-free as soon as we possibly can. While there will be a need to utilize a low-interest construction loan to cover up front costs during the renovation, we will be working earnestly to pay the loan back in full as soon as possible.
