I have to get something off my chest before I write anything: you are more important to me than a building. A building is just a tool for gospel ministry, but you are the treasure of gospel ministry. Like other pastors have said, people are trophies of God’s grace, and that means that if we fall short in our fundraising, I might be a little heartbroken but I will still have what I most deeply want: a community of joy-infused Jesus followers to pastor and share life with.

Now that I said what I needed to say, here are three personal reasons I’m excited about the building. These are NOT theological or practical reasons (I’ve already written about those reasons), so please don’t read them that way (“Cole just wants to make his life easier!” is want I want to avoid, though I think the last 6 years speaks for themselves).

Instead, I just want to honestly open my heart to you with these three reasons.

My neighbors want us there: My neighbor on the North (between the church and the Deike house) told me that, after seeing our neighborhood flooded with young energetic families when we had our worship night, she’s rooting for our church to get the building. My neighbors on the West are Christians, and they actually are praying for our church to get the building! How cool is that?

When Ezekiel is given his vision of the temple, he sees living water flooding out of the temple into all of creation. No wonder my neighbor used the phrase “neighborhood flooded with young energetic families”!

More time with people, less time ambling about: I love the grind of church planting, so if it sounds like I’m asking you to pity me, you go ahead and put me in my place. But an average day of pastoring a mobile church in Des Moines means that I zip around from coffee shop to coffee shop, from West Des Moines to downtown Des Moines, scrambling and piecing together some semblance of a schedule. Again, I’m not looking to make you cry a Cole-shaped tear and I’m not playing a tiny violin, but the fact of the matter is that in a lifetime of limited time, I end up spending a lot of precious time on the road.

I remember the first year of church planting. Our discipleship budget was small and my salary wasn’t exactly booming either, which presented a problem for finding a place to work. And so I remember regularly sneaking into the back of Smokey Row Coffee and finding a spot in the back corner where I could work without buying a coffee. This was imperative to foster a scrappy gospel mentality in me that I am grateful for.

But in this season of pastoral ministry, it would also be amazing to have a place that would help me pastor more and drive around less. The ability to have a place to do leadership coaching or membership classes or special gatherings without having to find a place, communicate with the owner, pay the rental price, and set the place up would be a huge win. I think I could do a better job developing leaders, and that means the world to me!

Because I believe in the sovereignty of God: I don’t want to write about this with too heavy of a hand, because if God permits this to fall through, he knows what is best. But for the last couple years, there have been so many times that I have walked around our block and said a quick prayer asking God to give us this building. The fact that God placed us right next to this building is, statistically speaking in Des Moines, a one-in-a-million chance.

Again, I’m careful to make too much of this and I write this with caution. Because it’s likely that the Deike family could outgrow our current home and someday move away from this neighborhood. Or that we can’t raise the necessary funds. Or whatever.

All I’m saying is that I just personally can’t shake the feeling. It feels like the Lord’s Hand has opened up. And that makes me feel like a giddy kid on Christmas morning!

Anyways, just sharing my heart with you.

Love you guys,

Cole