Churchwide Letter from the PCC Steering Team

July 21, 2009

Dear PCC Friend,

For the past few months, we have been steadily working through the challenges and opportunities with our building project. Along the way, each of us has regularly been asked questions by vested PCC’ers and by others in our community, wanting to know, ‘What’s going on?’ To this point, we’ve mostly answered those questions as they came, on a one-on-one basis. We feel that the time has come for us to take a much broader approach to communication with the church. This letter contains the latest information as we know it, an invitation to some forums where you can ask questions and get more detailed information, and a few suggestions about how you can help.

First, here are some basic points that you should know (1) :

1. We have assumed responsibility for completion of the Building. Due to unresolved conflict with the former builder, we have terminated our contract with that company and our Staff is now managing completion of the project. The building is approximately 75% complete. We have people working on it right now. Most (possibly all) of the former builder's subcontractors have agreed to work directly with us to complete the project for the same costs.

2. We can pay our bills. We have all of the money accounted for to build the building. However, we don’t have enough money to build it twice. What we mean by that is some of the money we paid the builder is money they were supposed to pay the subcontractors and did not. We are working to resolve these issues through the conflict resolution process described below.

3. We are working as hard and as fast as we can to have the conflict resolved. In our building contract, we pre-determined a dispute resolution process. This process begins with Mediation, where an independent mediator attempts to facilitate mutual agreement between PCC and the builder. If Mediation does not resolve the conflict, the next step is Arbitration, where an independent arbitrator considers both sides of the dispute and makes a decision that is binding to both parties. We had our first mediation meeting on Thursday, July 16.

4. We will finish the building as quickly as possible. It took us some time to get our own building permit. That was issued last week and we began to mobilize crews back onto the building site. Once all the subcontractors are back to work and we’re going full speed ahead, there will be only about 90 days of work left to be done. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be finished in 90 days. We have to resolve the dispute with the former builder in order for the bank to release the final money needed to complete the project.

5. We have treated the builder and every subcontractor with fairness and respect. We've had a disagreement that has ultimately brought us to an impasse. Our differences were irreconcilable and we have parted ways. This is neither unbiblical nor unchristian (2). We just have a fundamental disagreement that makes it so we cannot continue to work together.

6. As PCC’s Steering Team, we have been involved in every step of this process. Every critical decision has been ultimately made together by this team, in unity, and with great prayer and consideration. Our job is to protect the church and our mission. We have done our best to accomplish that goal.

7. 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 Brian have agreed to make themselves available to anyone who wants to meet and talk about this. You can call the office or email them to ask your question or to schedule some time. They will tell you anything you want to know.

Many have asked, ‘What can I do to help?’ First, on Tuesday, August 18, 7-8:30pm at the Village Building in Powhatan, we will have a church-wide meeting. We encourage every person who attends PCC to be at this meeting. We will give you the most up-to-date information, answer any questions that have not been addressed, and provide more details about what’s going on than we can articulate in a letter.

Secondly, you can follow Brian’s blog by going to powhatancommunitychurch.blogspot.com. Once there, you can keyword search ‘building’ and see every post made about this project. Our Staff has committed to posting a comprehensive update about the building on the 1st of every month, at a minimum. We want to share our excitement about the completion of the building!

You can also be a positive voice for PCC in our community. When you talk to folks, invite them to church. If you hear something negative, assure people that your church has treated everyone fairly, acted with integrity, and is working hard to resolve this situation. Tell them about the good things that have happened at PCC!

You can give. We need our people to continue to give to the Reach Campaign. These donations have always been a key part of how we would pay for a facility of our own. If you are not involved with the Reach Campaign, you can call or email Lori and she will send you the information you need. Lori dot Wheeler at powhatancc dot org

Finally, we ask that you pray. Keep our church and our building lifted to God in prayer. Ask Him to help a resolution come quickly and for all decisions to be God honoring. Ask Him to protect our church and to continue to use us in bold ways in our community.

Thank you for your ongoing support for our church. God has done and continues to do incredible things here, and we are looking forward to the great things that are still in store for us. We will see you on August 18th.

Faithfully yours,

The Powhatan Community Church Steering Team

(1) Greater detail about this was communicated to the church via a blog post Brian did on May 25, 2009.

(2) See the story of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15:30-41. “They had such a sharp disagreement, they parted company.” Acts 15:39. God then used both Paul and Barnabas to multiply his mission efforts. God brought good out of that conflict, and He’ll do that at PCC, too.