A New Development with Our Building

You've heard of cliches like, 'hindsight is 20-20'.  I'm sure you have a few examples of how the truth of that phrase has been lived out in your life.  It's true for all of us.  When we look back at events and decisions and conversations and actions, we often think, 'If I knew then what I know now, I would have done that differently.' 

When it comes to our building, I am really pleased with where we are and with the product that we have.  Of course, there are several things that I wish we had done differently.  For example, it would be beneficial if a couple of the doorways to certain rooms were in slightly different places.  And I didn't understand that most of the offices wouldn't have windows - I would have done something about that if I had caught it soon enough.  And all of the windows are fixed - you cannot open them. I didn't realize that.

I'm not at all disappointed in our building.  In fact, it's pretty awesome!  There were so many things that we did right.  The building team worked extremely hard to ask the right questions when we were in the design phase of the building.  Meeting after meeting, we considered every detail we could think of and asked every question we could imagine.  Our building, in my opinion, is as good as it can possibly be.  You can second guess anything from the perspective of hindsight.  But given what we knew then, we made the best decisions possible.

Building a custom building means that you have nothing to compare, no model to walk into and examine.  Whether you are builing a house or an office building, a warehouse or a church, there are always going to be some things that you look at and say, 'I'd have changed that if I had realized....'  That's just part of the process and it's to be expected.

What we did not expect, however, was that we would have a disagreement with our builder.  It's something that we have been trying to work out with him for more than a year.  It amounts to a dispute in our contract with him to the tune of about $250,000.  We have asked, begged, written emails and letters and have had multiple meetings with him.  I personally met with him privately (just him and me) last week twice and begged him to negotiate with us.  I made him 2 incredibly generous offers, but he was unwilling to budge in any way.  He had pulled his people off of the job and nothing was being done.  I was completely willing to let the building sit and delay our use of it as long as he was willing to negotiate.  But when he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he would not, I knew we were going nowhere.   So, with the Steering Team's support, after a huge amount of prayer and no small amount of agony, I fired him. 

Let me assure you of a couple of things you will want to know:

1. We made this decision as a last resort.  Again, we've been asking him to resolve this for more than a year.  And, since February, we have been intensely and actively trying to negotiate a solution.  I personally made him offers that were way above and beyond what we were obligated to do.  Jesus said, "...If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." (Matthew 5:39b-41, NIV)  I want you to rest assured that I made him an offer that gave him our right cheek, would have let him take the cloak, and went the extra mile.    But Jesus' teachings in Matthew 25 help us take Matthew 5 on balance.  We are stewards of money and resources that are not ours - they belong to God. And we will be held accountable for those resources.  Further, fresh in my mind is the teaching I learned about enablers and that 'love must be tough.'  I just couldn't give him a quarter of a million dollars that he was not entitled to have.  For me, that would be poor stewardship, and we would be held accountable for it.
2. We have treated the builder with fairness and respect.  I refuse to judge his character or his spirituality.  We've had a disagreement that has ultimately brought us to an impasse.  Our differences are apparently irreconcilable and, therefore, we are parting ways.  The builder is not a bad man or unChristian.  We just have a fundamental disagreement that makes it so we cannot continue to work together.
3. We are working now with every subcontractor that the builder hired to try and ensure that they are all paid in full the money he owes them.
4. We believe we have the funds to make all of the subcontractors whole and finish the building.  If we don't, we are very close.  (this includes borrowed and donated monies)
5. We are going to finish the building ourselves.  Most (possibly all) of the builder's subcontractors have agreed to work directly with us to complete what is left to be done.  
6. We will act with absolute integrity.  If we owe the builder any money, you have my word that we will pay him.  However, at the moment it appears that this is not the case.  If this sounds fuzzy to you, it's because we have to assess how much money is owed to subcontractors in order to determine who owes who.  We're doing that right now.
7. Several people on our staff are working enormous hours to get this done.  They are incredibly committed and dedicated to the task and to our church. Particularly, Dennis and Chauncey have put in more than their share of emotional energy and time.  And now, they will be the primarly managers of the project to get it finished.  Everyone on staff will have to shift some responsibilities to fill in the gaps while Dennis and Chauncey become project managers.
8. The Steering Team has been involved in every step of this process.  
9. Most importantly, we have nothing to hide.  Anything you want to know and any information you want to see is at your disposal.  Dennis, Chauncey and I have all agreed to make ourselves available to anyone who wants to meet and talk.  You can call or email us and we'll schedule some time, or you can email us your question and we'll answer it.  There are many details I have not included in this post, only because it would take hours to write and would be more than most people want to know.  But we will tell you anything you want.  

Hindsight is 20-20.  If I could go back and know in late 2007 what I know now, I/we could have prevented all of this.  I'm sure the builder is thinking the same thing. But we don't have the benefit of hindsight when we're in the moment.  We have to prayerfully go with the best information we have.  We did that then and we're doing that now.

Thanks for your understanding and support.  We are shooting to move in to our building the Sunday after Labor Day. September 13 is going to be a GREAT day!