Welcome readers!

We would like to take a moment to welcome you (or welcome you back) to the Journey Imagine Campaign blog. We are glad that you have taken a moment to stop by.

This has been a exciting couple of weeks for Journey. We have gotten the loan approval and are just finalizing the paperwork. In the midst of all that excitement, the construction crews have arrived on the land and started taking down trees, building access roads, and putting stakes and markers all over the place. After such a long journey (sorry for the pun), it is SO exciting to see all the activity.  Most of all, it is exciting to see God moving so powerfully and directly in His time.  Just one day after we prayed for God to show us the way with the loan process, He answered with a great offer from Aquesta Bank.

To add to all the excitement, we have several things planned out for the next couple of weeks to mark the second anniversary of the Imagine Campaign. Will and Brian have been busy preparing an awesome two week series for us to explore God’s richness toward us and how we can use that to expand His kingdom. We are also planning a Worship On The Land (Friday Nov. 14 6:00-7:30pm) to kick off 24 Hours of Prayer on the land. We’ll have a bonfire (weather permitting) and live music during the worship time.

We are also relaunching our communications methods.  Look for updates on the Imagine Campaign and the building process here (including a live webcam of the construction).  We will of course include information on www.thejourneyonline.com, in our weekly email updates, the Facebook fan and group pages, and are looking at other ways to keep you informed as to what is happening in these exciting days.

Stay tuned for further developments….

Groundbreaking Set for August 3, 2008 at 12noon

We are finally breaking ground on our new home!  We will have a short ceremony on the land after the Sunday morning services.  All family and friends of Journey Church are invited!

Hooray for Huntersville!

As of today at 8:30am, Huntersville has granted us permission to submit plans to Mecklenburg County for review.  This will enable us to obtain building permits!  This is a day we have been looking forward to for a long time!  Now it looks very promising for our ground-breaking on August 3rd

Imagine Campaign passes $1 million mark

I spoke with our architect yesterday and we are meeting next Friday with the interior design people to work on furnishings, paint colors, etc.  If you are interested in helping with interior design, please email me to let me know will@charlottenorth.org. Matt met today with Audio-Video-Lighting contractors to get a plan and quote from them.  He will meet with another contractor next week before decided who to choose.  Our architect said that he will be done with CDs (construction documents) by the end of May and will be submitting to Mecklenburg county for building permits at that time.  There is still a chance that we can submit for grading permits a couple of weeks before that (mid-May), but we are waiting on the county to finish their review.  The Imagine campaign passed the $1 million mark last week.  It is so amazing that our church is able to commit/give over 6 times our yearly budget toward building our new home!  It is humbling and exciting to be a part of these moments in the life of CNF!

CNF Commercial Site Plan Update

After a major miscommunication with Mecklenburg County Engineering last week, the commercial site plan review took big steps this week to get back on track.  Our engineer (Power Engineering) made all necessary changes to the Stormwater/Watershed concept plan, and is ready to resubmit the plan this week along with the appropriate fees.  The County’s review should take about 30 days.

CMS interested in property next to ours

Spoke to Mike Raible at CMS and they are looking at purchasing the 70 acres adjacent to our property. 

CNF gets subdivision approval from Huntersville!

On Tuesday night, January 22nd, the Huntersville Town Board voted unanimously to approve the subdivision plan submitted by CNF.  Now we are waiting for the Commercial Building Review to be approved.  It should take about 2 to 3 months.  Ken Batts (from the CNF building team) attended the meeting, and he said, “In between all the fireworks of Discovery Kids Place, a Huntersville School study committee, and transportation ordinances, the town voted in favor of CNF proceeding with the subdivision sketch plan as approved by the Staff and Planning Board.”
We just recently found out that CMS is in the process of purchase the 70 acres adjacent to our land.  It was going to be a residential neighborhood developed by First Colony, but now it looks like we might have a middle school and a high school as our next-door neighbor!  Thomas Larson (from the CNF building team) has started conversations with CMS about how we can partner with them as we develop our property.  The staff has been working with the architect to tweak the final building design.  We had to cut some square footage and other options to keep the project within budget.  Our site costs are significantly more than we were expecting – about $200,000 more.   It is amazing how much it cost to build a building like this!  Even though we have had to make some cuts, we are very excited about how the plans are coming together.  Hopefully we will have some updated drawings to show you soon!  Jason Pauling (from the CNF building team) has been working with our engineers to work through site plan revisions.  We have a great building team.  CNF is privileged to have these guys serving on our behalf!  More updates soon!

Commercial Site Plan

As of January 3, 2008, the commercial site plan has finally been submitted to the Town of Huntersville. This has been a long and complicated process and I thank God that he helped us get through this. I am excited and remain optimistic that the building team will be able to work diligently with the engineers, architects and contractors over the next few months to obtain an approved site plan, bring design development plans within budget, and submit for a building permit. Our dream to have our own building took a major step this day and I look forward to being able to finish hopefully by the end of 2008, and walk into our new home ready to praise, worship and serve the Lord. That is a major New Year’s Resolution.

Welcome to the new Imagine blog!

Thanks for visiting this imagine blog.  This is where we will update you on information about the progress of building a home for Charlotte North Fellowship!  The Imagine Campaign at CNF started in November of 2006.  So far, over 100 families have committed a total of $2.6 million to build our first permanent home.  In April of 2007, we were able to pay off the land completely only 8 months after purchasing it.  We have enlisted the architect firm of Craig, Gaulden, Davis from Greenville, SC, and we chose Edifice, Inc. as the general contractor.  The plans are currently under review with the town of Huntersville, and we hope to break ground sometime during the spring of 2008!