Plus, check it out… as of May 16, the walls are up on the Blaine campus!

May 16

Friday, March 26, the earth was moved—a little. But, big things are happening. Ten ceremonial golden shovels officially broke ground on the much anticipated Blaine campus, Eagle Brook’s fourth church location (see photo slide show).

Left to Right: Clark Arneson (Blaine City Manager), Darcy Wood (Early Childhood Coordinator), Pete Smith (BWBR), Tom Ryan (Blaine mayor), Blair Madsen (US Bank), Brian Hegseth (EBC Board), Pastor Bob Merritt, Campus Pastor Matt Anderson, Gifts Pastor Lisa Welter, Sheehy representative

The event started off with some prayer before the official ceremony. People spent time walking on the land and praising God for His provision, praying for the ministry that will happen to reach those in the surrounding area, asking for protection during the build and finances to continue to come in, as well as for good relationships to develop with other churches in the Blaine area. Mostly, the prayer team asked for God to keep our church’s heart keenly close to His.

Nearly 60 people attended the groundbreaking. Core Blaine campus volunteers, Not Without You supporters, some EBC church staff and board members joined up with representatives from the City of Blaine, BWBR architects, SHEEHY construction and US Bank to get the project underway.

The new Blaine Campus Pastor Matt Anderson and Senior Pastor Bob Merritt shared a few thoughts. “When the Spring Lake Park campus opened in December 2007, we never would have dreamt that our fourth campus would be birthed from SLP less than three years later and less than five miles away,” Matt said. “If we continue to be faithful to share the message of hope found in Jesus Christ with our hearts in line with His, I believe we will see God do amazing things here in Blaine. What a privilege it is for all of us to be used by God for such a time as this.”

SLP Worship Pastor Josh Dekker led the group in a few worship songs as they dedicated this project and campus to the Lord. With the shovels in the ground, construction could begin.

SHEEHY Construction rolled in shortly thereafter and is already hard at work on the project. Both SHEEHY and BWBR Architects have worked on previous EBC projects, including the Lino Lakes campus. We’ll see the shell of the building up by the end of April, and so far the schedule is on track for an early fall grand opening.

Remember, those interested in attending the Blaine campus as their church home can get a head start. The Blaine campus is already meeting on Sunday nights at 4:05 and 6:05 pm in the Spring Lake Park location for the same great weekend worship experience. Nearly 300 people are currently attending, and more volunteers are needed to help open the new Blaine facility in the fall all trained in and full of momentum. All this is being made possible through funds contributed to the Not Without You campaign, so THANK YOU!

We do know this, once we do have that green light–likely within the next week or two–it’s all going to happen REALLY FAST and the ceremonial groundbreaking will be underway in a wink. Then, they’ll toss aside those hand-shovel props quickly as the big machinery moves in and begins construction. We are praying and planning even now for that “holy-moment” pause right before this whole thing gets going full-force.

Campus number four brings us into new territory for a lot of reasons: how we structure our staff for changing realities, engage volunteers, reach a new area for Christ, and further play out the complex simplicities of the multi-site strategy. It’s a new baby. It’s going to be a lot of work and money, but we are so excited to watch it grow. We know God has a great future and destiny for it!

A few weeks ago, the Blaine campus got started by meeting at the Spring Lake Park campus on Sunday evenings at 4 & 6 pm as they anticipate moving into their permanent home in the fall. More than 300 people, most of whom have stepped forward to say, “Blaine is going to be my campus and I want to help get it going,” are attending on Sunday nights to experience weekend services. Many people have already found a place to get trained, volunteer, and invest as part of that campus community. Not only is that helping to take a little attendance pressure off of the bursting Spring Lake Park campus, but when Blaine opens its doors officially, it will do so with a vibrant group of people and leadership to help it soar.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the renderings for the Blaine campus facility. It’s going to be located at 3603 95th Ave. NE, Blaine, MN  55449. Or, simply, the northeastern corner of I35W and 95th. Yahoo map.
 

I’m not a great “reflector” kind of person. I’m always in awe of people who actually take the time to ponder things, because I don’t do a lot of pondering myself. In fact, I think I was (and probably still am, to a large extent), ADHD, back when it was referred to as ”squirrely” by my parents on good days, and worse on bad days. But, I know it’s good to ponder from time to time, and so a pondering I will go….

The Not Without You campaign was a highlight for our church, and according to people who worked with us on it, was also a launching pad for other churches across the nation who had assumed that God was out of the church business right now. Our results proved that people still hold deeply to the mission that we have held to – and are willing to sacrifice to make it a reality. I am so proud of our church.

Since December, so much has taken place that have been either funded by or inspired by the NWY movement. It funded the largest portion of our costs to pack more than 2.3 million meals for starving kids in Haiti and other parts of the world. It funded the World Vision Step Into Africa experience, which was the jump start to our church sponsoring every child that was in need in the Mugeba province of Mozambique. Think of it—every child in this huge area of Africa has a sponsor, and has a chance at life, both physically and spiritually, because of us. Wow. Then, to cap it all off, something like 300 people have applied to go on short-term missions trips to places like Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Mexico this summer.

My wife and I had the great privilege to spend our 20^th anniversary in Hawaii a few years ago, and we had the chance to watch some amazing surfing during a particularly windy day off the coast. I could have watched all day, as people rode the waves. But even better, I could have rented a board and tried it myself. I didn’t do it, and I enjoyed watching people ride the wave, but I can’t help thinking what I missed by not getting in the water. A wave is building at Eagle Brook—will you ride it, or just watch from the sidelines?

If things continue to progress as planned, we should be moving dirt in Blaine by the end of March with a goal of holding services in September or October. All the background work is being finished up, and we’re pretty excited to get started! As exciting as that is, it’s even more exciting to know that the Blaine campus has already launched on Sunday nights at Spring Lake Park under the campus leadership of Matt Anderson. Matt has been our Groups pastor for a few years, and he will make an excellent campus pastor at Blaine. Come check out the Blaine service (anyone is welcome to attend) at 4:05 and 6:05 pm on Sundays. We’ve already got more than 300 Eagle Brookers coming and it’s only been running for a few weeks!

Woodbury is making slow, but forward, progress. Partly because our focus has had to be on Blaine, and partly because the city and planning process is always a bit slower than one would like. We’ve been learning patience on this one. The land is pretty well nailed down, and the building design, parking, landscaping, etc., are all in the last stages of completion so that we can submit to the city and get the process rolling. This should happen in March and April as far as we can tell right now.

From a financial standpoint, we have been surprised that the level of engagement has not been what we had projected, but thankful for everyone who has taken steps to get started on their pledge. I’m not sure why more people haven’t started, but it might become necessary to adjust our timelines to reflect reality. We’ll see—if you made a pledge and haven’t given toward it yet, it would help us to plan if you would start at some level now. Statistically, the vast majority of people who make a pledge and don’t give toward it within three months will never start. That said, so many have, and God has done amazing things through this little campaign in just a short period of time!

I guess that’s all the musing I will do for now, but it wasn’t too bad…I should do it more!

Maybe your questions include:

> How can I get motivated to pay on my pledge?
> How much money was pledged?
> How much is in the Not Without You fund so far?
> Why is the Blaine campus now a construction and not a renovation project?
> What’s up with Woodbury these days?

Click here to get answers to these quese questions and more in the January 2010 update. We’ll be putting these out in the mail and on the site quarterly to keep you informed.