From Your Board of Directors – Updates about the search for our next church home and an Interim Transitional Support Minister
The search for our Interim Minister is complete! Unity Church of Overland Park has extended an offer to Rev. David Mosher to be our Interim Minister and Transitional Support Specialist. He has accepted, and we are currently putting the finishing touches on the final contract. Many of us met Rev. Mosher and his wife, Rev. Edna Mosher, when he was our guest speaker in May, and when we hosted a Meet and Greet with both of them and our congregation. Out of that, we received very positive feedback from the congregation, the Staff and the Board. We spoke with key people from the Unity Church in Springfield, IL, and they each had incredibly positive feedback regarding Rev. Mosher. They specifically felt that his leadership skills and ability to help them grow and strengthen through their significant transitions has been outstanding and immeasurably helpful. Rev. Mosher will begin part time, 2 full weeks per month, on July 1st. When his contractual obligations to the Unity Church in Springfield, IL are complete, likely by September, he will begin full time work with UCOP. Please help us welcome Rev. Mosher on July 1st!
The search for the new location for our church continues. There is so much to say about this search! First is that we have extended our lease with Grace Christian Church an additional month. Our move out date will be by July 31st. We ( the New Building Committee, comprised of Board, all Staff, and several congregants) have been actively looking for space to lease or rent which meet our needs. The primary space we have been looking at is the church on 75th and Belinder. We had originally looked at it as a potential purchase, but after our last Membership Meeting, the feedback was overwhelmingly in favor of leasing a space on a more long-term but temporary basis. That led us to re-visit this church space as a possible win-win for our community. The negotiations have been very slow, and the building needs a lot of work. We are not certain that this building will work for us, but the discussion continues, and no final decisions have been made at this point.
Working with Colliers Real Estate, Allen Carl has done most of the day to day searching and exploring possible rent or lease options. Here is what we are looking for: a space which can hold about 250 – 300 people for Sunday service each week; which can accommodate staff offices; which has space available for our YFM needs; which will allow the band to keep their instruments (piano, key board, guitars, drums, and sound equipment) on site throughout the week; and which will allow for hospitality/community gathering needs. The spaces we have explored in strip malls/retail spaces have either been wildly expensive, or don’t have any parking, or don’t have more than 1-2 restrooms, or don’t have any YFM space. The search continues, in earnest.
There are very temporary spaces, such as school auditorium rentals, or community centers, or community colleges. These are likely to be an option for a much more short term solution, for 1-3 months. However, these spaces do not have adequate YFM space, and would put a huge burden on the band in terms of hauling equipment and musical instruments back and forth each Sunday. They also do not provide any office space for our staff.
We have looked very closely at the Johnson County Heritage building on Metcalf at about 87th street as a possible very temporary space for our Sunday morning services. It has very real potential, and we are strongly considering this as an option should we need to move into a more short term temporary space.
Many people in our congregation have put forward suggestions for us to follow up on. We may not have directly communicated to you as each lead was followed. Our apologies if this is the case. The pace has been a bit break-neck, and extremely busy. But, please know that as many suggestions as possible have been followed up on, and have not been ignored. We sincerely appreciate your tips and feedback and we invite you to continue sending them our way. To email the entire board, address your email to theboard@ucop.org.
We urge our community to do two things.
- First, is to continue to hold our new building affirmation in your mind and prayer practice daily. As you become filled with doubts, anxiety, fears or worries, please return to your Unity tools, and turn all thoughts back to God, and the trust that all is unfolding exactly as it needs to. Despite outer circumstances, our Highest Good as a congregation is absolutely being supported by Spirit.
- Second, is that if you notice within yourselves that your sense of grief or loss over this building and the unknowns about the move are keeping you from letting go – please do all you can to notice that, and to do the hard internal work of letting go of this beautiful building, trusting that our sense of community and our spiritual growth are not anchored to a physical space.
And, last, we want to share some basic financial numbers with you which reflect the recent sale of the building, and subsequent completion of our mortgage, and placement of 1.6 million dollars in a savings account at this time.
Here is the specific closing detail & final proceeds.
2 Months rent $ . 24,000.00
Cell Tower Lease $ 1,239.00
Cnty Tax $ 1,289.00
Title Policy $ 4,013.00
Closing Fee $ 1,000.00
Commission $ 160,500.00
Mortgage Payoff $1,414,866.00
Total $1,606,907.00
Sale $3,210,000.00
Net Proceeds $1,603,093.00
In love and light,
Your Board of Directors
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