Finally moving forward (again)

Anyone who has taken on a construction or renovation project knows that projects often take longer than expected.

In the case of Zion Lutheran Church in Detroit Lakes, Minn., their expansion project stalled out—with no end in sight.

“The project had been on hold for years, unsure if they should move forward or not,” explained Kai Larson, LCEF district vice president for the LCMS Minnesota North District.

The church, situated right in the heart of Detroit Lakes, is about an hour east of Fargo, N.D. and is the “perfect multigenerational mix of young and old [who] do a wonderful job of caring for each other,” said Sally Askelson, Zion member.

The congregation also had a perfect habit of outgrowing their space, time and again.

“In the 1950s, Zion invested in their ministry,” explained Rev. Guy Roberts, former senior pastor at Zion. “They built a large building and almost immediately outgrew the sanctuary and Sunday school facilities. Roughly 10 years later, they expanded, doubling the size of the building and filling it up.”

Over the next five decades, Roberts said, “Zion’s ministry reached into the community and completely maxed out their sanctuary and facilities multiple times. The church’s growth was stymied by the facility, which I believe is a bad reason not to reach more people.”

History repeating
When the same scenario happened again during Roberts’ pastorate, the church knew it was time to face this issue once and for all.

“In 2018-2019, our average weekly attendance was well over the standard 80% full rule,” Roberts shared. “Our average age had dropped dramatically, from 69 to 38. Sunday school attendance had more than doubled, and the facility was once again maxed out. In 2018, the congregation adopted a five-year strategic plan focused on ministry expansion and hoped to address this issue.”

Askelson, too, could see the necessity of getting past this habit of growth restrictions, which caused attendance to fluctuate, leading to instability.

Over the years, Zion would reach capacity, and then, because they didn’t have the room to absorb the growth, attendance would start to slowly drop again. It was a seesaw.

A false start
Zion chose to begin a captal campaign and hire consultants to guide the process, so they brought in LCEF to help them explore costs and make plans. Then COVID-19 forced a pause, and the church decided to run its own capital campaign.

The campaign succeeded, raising more than double what they had initially projected. But the trouble was, it still wasn’t enough for them to pursue their building plans at a comfortable level of debt.

“We had stalled out as to where to go,” Roberts said.

Taking a new approach
Perhaps in the Lord’s good timing, a new opportunity was presented.

Roberts received a phone call from Larson, “asking if there would be any interest in meeting with him and Tom Campbell from LCEF Real Estate Solutions,” recalled Roberts.

“The timing was impeccable as we were over budget on a church build,” Askelson explained. “LCEF came and told us to look for reasons to build—not reasons not to build. We started from scratch and listened to [their] ideas.”

Together, Zion and LCEF explored a few new options for moving forward and considered all of the ministry opportunities that the church might like to pursue and that they could comfortably afford.

“Our leadership met with LCEF multiple times, and they brought in their architect and came up with an attainable plan that met all the needs that had been identified at the beginning of the process,” Roberts said.

The future, coming into focus
With a plan—and a timetable—the church was finally able to take the following steps, which included a strategy to complete their project in phases.

Three areas of ministry were brought into focus: expansion of staff, expansion of facility and expansion of service and outreach ministries. By tackling their projects sooner rather than later, they could handle the construction costs.

They are glad to be making progress again and breaking the cycle of regularly outgrowing their space.

“LCEF was very responsive, creative and helpful in bringing Zion to a place where they can decide what the future of facility expansion means for them,” Roberts said. “I firmly believe that if Zion ends up expanding their facility, it will be because of the guidance and creative solutions provided by the Lord through LCEF.”