I hope you know by now that First Baptist Church has authorized a new capital campaign to include people and to raise funds for our building expansion. I also hope you want to know why we are having this campaign. The whys of any decision are extremely important.

I hope my reasoning for the why of this forward campaign will help you to get involved in making this building expansion possible.

When we set up the FORWARD! campaign, we did so for two reasons.

First, we wanted to include all of those people who have joined our fellowship over the last several years.

Churches thrive when they have broad participation and the whole congregation pulls together to accomplish what they believe God wants them to do. If we depend on a small group of people, we miss the powerful benefit of everyone working to accomplish the goals.

I particularly want our children and teenagers to participate in the campaign.

The first “real worship center” of First Baptist church was built in 1948. That was 68 years ago. The building is still in use in downtown Covington. I continue to meet people who say “I remember when that building was built.” They were children and teenagers at the time.

I want our children and teenagers to have the same experience of pride and participation in this new worship center. Our FORWARD! capital campaign will help make this possible.

Second, we have established the new campaign to complete this phase of the project. This campaign will allow us to accomplish the goals we have for our church at this time.

Without this campaign, there would be certain parts of the building that can’t be completely finished. For example, this campaign will allow us to have a beautiful monument sign at the front of the property. It will also allow us to dress up the plaza at the front of the building.

If the campaign is a huge success, we will even have enough funds to lay the foundation to complete the area for preschoolers and children and our important special needs space.

Thank you for your interest in the ministry and the future of First Baptist Church. Soon I will write about the timetable and the opportunities for the campaign.