Some people ask me throughout the community "Why would Rejoice Church do another campus just 3 miles away?" An easy response could be, Why not? or "To reach more people" or "Do you have any friends or family who do not know Christ?" and that sometimes tells them why...but today I would like to explain it in another way by comparing it to other types of organizations.
Let's say that you worked in the hospital industry and you were involved in strategy planning or building new hospitals in growing areas in the Oklahoma. Suddenly while you were doing your study one of the fastest growing areas in Oklahoma showed you that there were over 100,000 people in the "green country area" who had to drive over 25 minutes to get solid healthcare, or for doctor's visits. If you were willing to expand you could meet that need. Would you do it? Well, recently two major hospitals in Owasso already did just that. Let's say that even after building that hospital you discovered that your rooms are full, doctors are booked, and that even you emergenices rooms were maxed out (Owasso's are not yet thankfully! I know this by experience now.). Then suddenly another building became available in which you could provide the same patient care and services that you provide currently but you could expand for 25% of the cost to expand on your current campus. Would you do it?
Or for example...
Let's say that you worked in the education field and you knew that a community was providing solid education, but the hallways were way too crowded, the classrooms were full, the teacher/student ratio was too high and there were still thousands of students that needed a solid education. Would you provide it? At the same time, people argued that there are already good schools in the area, but you knew that the demand was still there, families were still looking, and children still needed to be education. At the same time, what if another building became available and it would cost the taxpapers a minimal fee compared to the other option, and you knew that you could still provide great education. Then suddenly, when the word got out you had conversations with 20 or more teachers who wanted to be a part of a new project, who wanted to teach in another environment, yet still wanted to be under the direction of the overall school system! Would you provide it?
Or for example...
What if you owned your own business. Let's say you had a certain product that was growing at a strong rate, and the demand was continuing to grow even as your business grew. As you surveyed your business, even though times were tough, you realized that the supply needed to be expanded since the demand was still there. Recently you did a financial survey and the times were tough, but everytime you tried to expand on your current business property there were "walls" that blocked your expansion. Maybe the city wouldn't allow it, maybe the cost was too significant, maybe the key leaders weren't mentally understanding...then suddenly over about a 15 month period, another business building opened up, and it provided the square footage that you needed for a fourth of the cost. After praying about it for a long time, some of your own staff said they would be willing to take on the extra work if it meant that the product would impact more people. Even thought you told them it would be tough, they still offered to put in the extra time and to work differently in order to make it happen. Would you risk it? What if your business even had a group of volunteers and those volunteers who work so diligently and for free then came to you in large groups and said they were willing to work the assembly line in order for the product and the business to impact more people! Would you risk it?
Many of these same scenarios have happened at Rejoice Church. In many of our ministry areas we have hit a growth lid due to spaces and people. In much of our planning we hit "walls" that we could not control. As we looked at other options the cost was way more than we wanted to spend while remaining good stewards. Even our best plans were not quite good enough. Then God gave Rejoice Ministries and opportunity to expand with about 30% cost of the other options...Then the Rejoice Church congregation about 400 of them said no matter what we must move forward. Key volunteers have now said they will rise to the occasion like never before. Rejoice Church staff have been willing to work in new ways and involve new people. As of Oct 1st over 50 families have now committed to helping with the launch...and Rejoice Church continues to say, we will provide it, we will risk it, and we will do it! January 4th, 2009 is just around the corner.
If we can go across the world, surely we can go across the street!
Casey Cariker
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