“Lord, I need you”. It’s a simple prayer. It’s one I’ve found myself praying over and over during the last 6 months. The Lord has been so faithful to answer-

People have been saved (with baptisms coming!)
Lives have been recommitted to Jesus
Two churches have been planted through our collective

I’ve found myself uttering that prayer several times regarding our gathering space. We’ve looked at so many options:

Schools: No one allowed to lease for the foreseeable future, if ever. That’s a blow to the portable church in general. My prayer; “Lord, I need you”.
Commercial lease space: The expense is high, the build out cost is on the lessee, and at the end of the lease you don’t own anything. My prayer; “Lord, I need you”.
Build on our land: We bought our land early in January 2017. As a result of hurricane Harvey the city has upped many of the standards to build. Our estimates have the work to get the site ready to build upon in the $1,000,000. That wouldn’t give us enough to build the necessary facilities for our future. My prayer; “Lord, I need you”.

This restriction of our options directly led to the determination by our Elders to begin looking for potential buildings that we could buy and renovate. We looked all over our city and general area- here’s just a few of the places we investigated thoroughly.

The Master Plumber warehouse on 518- under contract the day we wanted to go see it.
Vacant medical facilities- too small, not enough parking.
Childcare facilities - too small, not enough parking.
State Farm building - not enough parking, no room for expansion, and too expensive to leave enough for renovation.
Church facility - very expensive, far outside of our area of accountability.
Urban facility - accessibility issues, far outside of our area of accountability.

My prayer after all of these was again, “Lord, I need you”. It felt so disparaging to come up against dead end after dead end. Then one morning, at just the right time, that Master Plumber warehouse opened back up after months of being off the market. It turned out the contracted buyers had to let it go because their specific type of business was not allowed to be there, a stipulation that was buried in the conditional uses of the building’s history. This was a bizarre turn of events, and so within 24 hours we began doing our homework.

We walked it.
We talked about it.
We offered 15% below asking price.
They took it.

CityView is now in the feasibility period on this property. We are getting estimates on renovating the building, we are having inspections performed. We are doing the diligence necessary to see if it’s a good deal for us, and we need you to be involved. Here’s what I’m asking…

Pray.

For this week, from 8/30-9/6, just pray. I’m just calling it the “Lord, We Need You” campaign. Drive by the property at 6301 Broadway and pray. Pray specifically for:

Wisdom.
Favor.
Affordability.
Gospel opportunity.
CityView’s future, and whether that future is here.
Ways you can participate.

Most of all, pray for God to get glory regardless. We are about Him. We exist for Him.

And we need Him.