General FAQ

1. What is Sojourn’s Vision?

Our Vision is to see the Gospel transform everything – us as individuals, our church, this city and the world.

2. What is a Vision Campaign?

The Campaign will be an opportunity to discuss and process the vision together. It will culminate in an opportunity for all of us to commit to action with our finances, time, talents, and service. What we do in the next few months and years will equip Sojourn as never before to achieve what God has called us to do.  Our Vision Campaign has three purposes:  First, we will re-visit and remember our purpose, the reason Sojourn exists. Second, we will discern the next specific stage of our journey toward our vision. Third, we will deepen our practical, personal commitment to the vision.

3. What is the Goal of the Vision Campaign?

By 2020, we desire to see that vision expressed in our church as a body of several thousand people, gathering in various locations across Louisville and Southern Indiana, and planting churches all over the world that draw many more un-churched people into a relationship with God.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” – Revelation 21:5

4. How Long Will the Campaign Last?

This specific campaign will continue through 2020. We see this campaign as Phase I of Sojourn’s future vision for gospel transformation and need your commitment to see it come to fruition in a mighty way.

5. Is it a Capital Campaign or a Vision Campaign?

It’s a Vision Campaign but of course it will require an infusion of capital. Our primary goal is for the vision to be multiplied in the hearts and minds of the people. We do have concrete short term goals, but we believe that the funding should come from hearts that are convinced of the value and worth of the vision.

In the scriptures, you often see God’s people enter periods of renewal by remembering who they are, remembering who God has called them to be, and renewing their commitment to that core identity. That renewal is often accompanied by concrete commitments – vows, offerings, and service. It’s this sort of core renewal that we’re seeking in the Vision Campaign.

6. How Much Money do we Hope to Raise, and Where Will it Go?

To do everything we believe God has put before us right now will cost $6 million to renovate existing sites and obtain future ones. The vision will also require funds for leadership development, church planting and ministry enhancements within Sojourn. We are confident that — as our people embrace the vision — resources will be available to fund the full $6 million.

7. How is The Money Going to be Allocated From This $6 Million?

The first $3.8 million raised will be used to purchase and renovate the St. Vincent’s building in Shelby Park as well as renovate the East Campus and launch a new work in New Albany.  The additional $2.2 million will bring our communities, leaders, and ministry initiatives to a place of firm footing.

New Communities:

• Purchase and renovate St. Vincent’s
• Complete renovations on the 930 Art Center
• Renovate the East Campus
• Launch our New Albany Campus
• Seed future campus and church launches

New Leaders:

• Identifying, training and assessing leaders – THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACES
• Significantly increasing the number of ministry interns
• Increasing the influence of our Church Planting Center, the Masters of Divinity Program and Pastor’s School

New Ministry:

• 40 new churches launched around the region and across the globe
• Adoption ministry with financial as well as procedural assistance
• marketplace ministries emerge that change the landscape of Louisville’s business world
• 1,000 kids in our student ministry

8. It has Been Said that the Campaign will Help Sojourn Even if we Don’t Raise a Cent.  How?

The elders believe that the best way to face the challenges we have as a church is to equip the body with a clear picture of our vision. We’re convinced that regardless of the funds we raise, we’ll be stronger than ever because our body will own the vision of gospel transformation. If they cling to that vision, the church will be stronger and the city will be transformed. The amount of funds we raise will dictate how much of the vision we will be able to achieve now.

9. What Does it Mean to Make a Pledge in Support of the Vision?

We are asking everyone to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider what God would have you do financially to support the Sojourn vision over the next five years. The amount is not a replacement of what you already give, but should be over-and-above what you are currently giving.

10. I Attend the East Campus. Why Should I Give to a Building for the Midtown Campus, for instance?
Several reasons:

A.    Even though we gather in different locations, we are one church with one vision, one body of elders and a common mission..
As we strengthen any aspect of the church’s body, we strengthen the whole.
“…There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (2 Corinthians 12:25-26)

B.    The Midtown Campus provides centralized resources for the whole church.

Ministries such as music, preaching, counseling, and Sojourn Kids have developed out of the Midtown campus, and the resources developed there shape these ministries at the other campuses. An investment in the Midtown Campus is an investment in all present and future campuses. In other words, The Midtown Campus is also Your Campus.

C.  The sacrificial giving of those attending in Midtown gave birth to the East Campus. Sacrificial giving of those in Midown and East helped launch J-Town, and so on – We are asking everyone to be a part of helping to establish future sites.

11. Will We Hire African-American Leadership Before we Move into the St. Vincent’s Building?

We certainly desire to reflect the diversity of the neighborhood around us in those who lead and pastor us as a church. For the better part of two years, several of the pastors have been intentionally praying and seeking to extend that diversity. If this is a passion of yours, we invite you to join us in praying intentionally and specifically for the diversity of our staff and elders.

12. Will We Diversify Our (Already Very Diverse) Worship Style to be More Inclusive to the Culture We’re Stepping Into?

The desire of the leadership of Sojourn Music is to always accurately give voice to the praise of the people who gather at Sojourn. As we continue expanding, the unique cultures of those areas will be considered and we will seek to speak the language – both in words and music – of that neighborhood. Like so many things, this will rise and fall on leadership, and we ask that you join us in praying for wisdom and leadership for such transition.

13. What Are We Doing With the 930 Arts Center?

We are in a season of prayer and planning to see how we can best make use of the 930 as Sojourn expands here at Midtown. Our initial plan is to use the building to expand the work of the 930 Arts Center, SEED, and our student ministries.

14. What If We’ve Already Made a Commitment to the Vision Campaign?

The initial Vision Campaign was in 2005. We only have 240 families committed to the campaign now, so we believe that it’s the right time to challenge all of our members and attendees to commit to the Vision.

If you have already made a commitment to the Vision, we are asking you to prayerfully consider an additional gift (you may be in a financial position to be able to do so); or we are also asking that you consider making a commitment to extend your previous gift into the future.  Gifts made to Vision I were for a period of five years and there are a few people who have a little over a year remaining on that commitment. We would ask those individuals to consider committing to continue their pledge at, or above, the same amount for the remainder of the next five year commitment (i.e. if you have a year left on your current pledge for $100/month, please continue that and extend it for four more years as a commitment to this campaign … which would total $4,800 for this campaign).

15. Why Are We Moving Forward With This Ambitious Vision Campaign Now, Given the Economic Climate?

Although the economic challenges today are significant, we believe that God is calling us to move forward for these main reasons:

-       First, our worship spaces are overcrowded and we’re not able to make additional room available with our present facilities or add additional services without burning out our staff.

-       Second, we don’t want to get so large in one location that we lose our entrepreneurial spirit, congregational ownership, and gospel-centered passion. Multiplying into several campuses is a way to overcome this problem and push toward innovation and organic growth.

-       Third, regardless of the economy, people continue to give to advance God’s Kingdom.

By moving forward now we avoid becoming a church just for ourselves and continue to bring the gospel to people who need it in relevant and life changing ways.

16. Why New Albany?

We have 12 Community Groups now in Southern Indiana and approximately 150 Sojourners live across the river. With this growing presence and many leaders that have moved or emerged from Southern Indiana, this step seems simple enough and the next logical location for a campus of Sojourn. New Albany is a vibrant community desperately in need of the gospel.  It is also a context very similar to the Highlands and Germantown – two communities in Louisville from which Sojourn emerged and planted roots in and have been critical to the development of our identity as a church.

17. What will Pastor Daniel’s Role be Over the Next 10 Years?

Daniel will serve as the lead pastor over all of Sojourn’s campuses leading us through gospel-centered preaching and a vision to love and serve Louisville. His first love is preaching and he will continue to preach as many Sundays a year and at as many services per Sunday as he does now, rotating among the campuses. Obviously, as the total number of services increase the current services will be sharing him more. He will also repurpose a significant amount of time he currently spends coaching and mentoring the next generation of pastors needed to fulfill our goals.

18. Will Sojourn Use Video Venue or Live Teaching?

Sojourn will always be open to using a variety of means to communicate the gospel. After all, the apostles shepherded their people via written correspondence on a regular basis. They were using the technology of their day, and we have freedom to use the technology of our own day.  Wouldn’t you like to have a video of Paul preaching to the Corinthians to go along with his letters?

The bigger issue is whether or not satellite churches have sufficient oversight from the church’s elders.  As we’ve argued in our multi-site position paper, there is biblical precedent for one body of church leaders, leading fairly large groups of people, even over broad geography. Compare, for instance, the seventy elders of Israel that ruled as one body over the nation (Num. 11:16-17). Some scholars believe that in the New Testament, there were multiple churches in larger cities and regions (cf. Acts 9:31; Galatians 1:2), and that these churches all reported to the same group of elders. There is at least some indication that the pattern was to appoint elders for towns rather than for churches (Titus 1:5).

With video venue campuses, the preacher is not able to have a close relationship with the each member, and this somewhat hampers his ability to apply his text. But this same problem is shared by all large churches.  No matter what model we adopt, Sojourn’s leadership will adopt a “divide and conquer” strategy as we grow.  Some leaders will give more energy to preaching while others will give more energy to community care, counseling, family ministry, etc.  And we will need plenty of leaders.  This is why Sojourn has been at great pains to develop clear structures for leadership development (such as our Pastor’s School and staff development strategies).  If we launch video venue campuses, we must do so with sufficient pastoral oversight.

Resources:
http://www.thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/99723.qna/category/pt/page/questions/site/iiim

19. Didn’t We Just Raise Money for the 930 Arts Center in 2006 … Where Are We With The Vision I & II Loans?

We presently have two loans totaling $735,000 with maturation in the next 1.5 – 2 years respectively.  These loan amounts were fully pledged by Vision I/II commitments and we are confident these loans will be met by those who have committed pledges to fulfill them.  Though some people are behind on their commitments to-date, we are constantly assessing revenue and will make adjustments as needed into the future.

20. What About Parking at the Midtown Campus?

With our value to remain in the urban center of Louisville, parking will always be a concern.  There are several options before us to help alleviate that constraint: we have the adjacent parking and parking in the Maloney Center (directly across the street) for Sunday services. In addition, there will be parking at our current facility that is 2 blocks away.  We are also starting conversations with Chase Bank and the Save-A-Lot down the street for shared usage.  Fortunately, there is also quite a bit of street parking around Shelby Park. We are also talking with the city government about parking. It is not likely to be a major issue for us as we move forward with renovations.

21. Is St. Vincent’s a Money Pit?

Before an offer was even made on the property, the building was appraised and we had trusted contractors specializing in HVAC, roofing, painting, and general contracting give us an appraisal of its structural integrity as well as estimates on the condition of major building systems and projected expenses for renovations.  Though it will definitely require some much needed repairs, this building is a great bargain for our church at the price we have negotiated. We have already conducted an alta survey and begun the tedious process of design and permitting for our pending renovations.

22. When Would Construction Start?

We would hopefully begin renovations in June/July 2011 …we don’t want to waste any time in making room for more people to be a part of the ministries of Sojourn!

23. Are New Members Who Join Later Going to be Asked to Contribute to the Campaign?

Our vision is an ongoing and adaptive initiative in which every member (and future member) will be asked to participate.

24. How Long is My Commitment to the Vision Campaign?

Bank loans require a time-specific pledge in order to obtain them, but our vision of gospel-transformation will truly only be completed with the return of Christ!  For that reason, we hope everyone sees their commitment to this vision of gospel expansion as an on-going, above-and-beyond, sacrificial gift.  This commitment is merely the next step towards a vision of change for ourselves, this church, the city of Louisville and the world through the ministries of Sojourn.

25. How Do I Make a Commitment?

We have a PLEDGE option available online here at vision.sojournchurch.com. If you have questions or concerns about making a commitment, please talk with a pastor.

26. When Do I Begin Fulfilling My Commitment?

It can begin immediately.

27. Can I Just Shift My Regular Giving Over to the Campaign?

Giving to the campaign needs to be over and above what you normally give on an annual basis. Our weekly tithes fund our operating budget and missions, so to shift that money to the campaign would hurt the ministries of the church and be counter-productive. Instead, if you are only able to give to the general budget, please continue to give. If you are presently not contributing financially to the church, please commit to sacrificially support the church through regular, sacrificial giving.

28. Does Sojourn Have Controls For Ensuring My Contributions are Handled Safely?

At every step of incoming and outgoing monies, we have staff who oversee the process. We do not count money unless another is present. Our staff oversee faithful member volunteers through the counting process. We have different people that fill the following roles: receiving offerings, counting money, checking money after the services, counting and recording the money, depositing money, verifying deposit receipts, signing checks and reconciling account statements. This allows us to be completely above reproach and leaves no room for potential accusation or fraud.

We also have a Finance Team of members and non-staff elders that review the budget and expenses regularly.  This team holds the church accountable, and helps determine the budget for the next year (including staff compensation).

We also have performed (and will continue to perform) regular internal assessments of our financial systems by an outside accounting firm as another check on our fiscal responsibility.

29. How Much Should I Give?

People often ask, “If you divide it out among everyone equally, how much do we each need to give?” Though a formulaic approach helps us see the goal is attainable, this way of thinking can actually hinder us from experiencing God’s blessings (through stepping out in faith) because it leaves God out of the equation.

The life-giving part of this journey is realizing you are partnering with God, the one who provides it all and ultimately owns it all (read Deuteronomy 8:17-18). God gives us the freedom to choose to use what He gives us, not only for our own good, but also to partner in His purposes for the good of others.

If you’re truly willing, God will put in your heart a way to respond. Make it a spiritual decision and watch how God works to provide all you need so you can do what he asks (read Malachi 3:8-12).

30. Can I Give Stocks or Other Assets?

Yes! There are additional tax benefits to giving appreciated assets.

31. Creative Ways to Give

Note: Any discussion of tax treatment is not intended and should not be considered as tax advice. Please consult IRS regulations and/or your personal tax professional for advice on your tax position. The IRS website (www.irs.gov) contains publications that may be helpful in determining your contribution, particularly Publications 526 and 561.

For those God is leading to give to Sojourn’s Vision, here are some creative ideas to increase your impact above and beyond your regular giving. These are merely suggestions of creative ways to participate and maximize your support. Pray through the list and respond to God’s leading if some of these ideas apply to you.

• Divert Funds: Free up funds currently going to other areas of spending. Some examples: entertainment, dining out, cable TV, cell phones, high-speed internet, dues, subscriptions, gifts, and/or allowances.
• Delay Purchases: Delay purchases of major items such as cars, furniture, remodeling, computer/electronic equipment, clothing, and/or trips.  In addition, consider giving out of savings set aside for purchasing or replacing items, or other savings goals.
• Transfer Appreciated Assets: Stocks, Bonds, or Real Estate … you may be in a position to transfer highly appreciated assets (don’t sell them first) and forego capital gains tax and still enjoy the full market value of the asset as a tax deduction.

For more, contact finance@sojournchurch.com.

• Personal Property: Sell (or have them appraised for sale), items such as jewelry, artwork, cars, trucks, trailers, boats or RVs and donate the proceeds directly to Sojourn. Please contact jestes@sojournchurch.com for more information.
• Note: If you are making more than $5000 in vehicle donations within the year, the vehicles must be formally appraised. IRS Publications 521 and 526 sets forth the manner in which you are to determine the donated value of your property.
• Unplanned Income: Dedicate future raises, bonuses, tax refunds and other increased income you anticipate.
• Freedom from Debt: As debt obligations are fulfilled, give the freed-up revenue.
• Income Producing Assets: Give interest income, payments from rental properties or monies from other income producing assets.
• Corporate Gifts: Can you use your business as a source for in-kind giving such as building materials, equipment, building trade services, etc.? This can be fully deductible as a business expense.
• Additional Work Income: Take a part-time job or come out of retirement and dedicate the earnings.
• Cash Flow: Give smaller amounts at higher frequencies. Weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly giving has a cumulative benefit … it allows large gifts to be reached in smaller steps.