May 2024
Original asbestos testing, building permit application.

June
Move out of south half of building, preparation for demolition.

July
Cut and make-safe, deconstruction. Applied for permit for foundation work. Full demolition completed.

August
Permit for foundation work obtained. St. Louis County requests additional asbestos testing. Worked out perceived issues with Mehlville Fire Department. Pause to work out County permit issues.

September
Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) drawings submitted. Additional asbestos testing was required, and approval obtained. Land disturbance permit issued. Building permit issued by County!

October
Foundation work has begun! Work on new bathrooms near MPR continues. Underground mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) rough-ins.

November
Sprinkler system installed in north half.  Flat iron work begins, structural steel and exterior framing.

January 2025
Exterior siding / EIFIS, roofing. Interior framing, storefront and window installation.

February
Removal of bathrooms and closet wall in MPR. MEP rough-in continues. Insulation.

March
Install drywall and door frames.

April
Prime and paint, ceiling work, flooring, door installation. MEP finishes. Fire suppression installs.

May
Casework installation. Interior detailing continues. 

July
Final cleaning, full-use occupancy, building turnover.

The NEXT Capital Campaign began with a symbolic laying of stones on the altar, representing UNITY (Ephesians 4:3), LOOK UP (2 Corinthians 12:9), FAITH (Hebrews 11:6), PERSISTENCY (Ephesians 6:18), CONSISTENCY (Psalms 116:5), TRUST (Philippians 4:6), SURRENDER (1 Peter 5:7), HOPE (Romans 12:12), OBEDIENCE (John 14:15), ARMOR OF GOD (2 Corinthians 10:4), RELIANCE (Proverbs 3:5) , and HUMILITY (Philippians 2:5). On Thursday, October 24, we gathered at the site of our new Sanctuary for a simple time of prayer, scripture reading, and the placing of the Stones of Rembrance. As concrete is poured for our new building, those symbolic stones will be laid in our foundation and will be part of our building.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18—“Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

Wellspring is excited to announce our ground breaking event. This is the exciting and much anticipated beginning to our building construction project. Mark your calendars and plan to attend our special worship, ground breaking ceremony immediately following the worship service, followed by lunch in the Multipurpose Room.

Menu for the ground-breaking lunch includes: pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, tossed salad, chips and drinks. Please bring a dessert to share.

9:30am classes for Children and Adults will be inside, as usual.

FROM PASTOR MIKE PRIEST

In the Next Chapter for Wellspring, God has called us to a renovation of our facility that will enhance our mission of Inviting our communities to belong and flourish in Christ. He has provided abundantly each step up to this point, and we are trusting in His provision for the rest of this project.

As we move forward in faith, please pray for the unity of our congregation and that we continue to grow as a Family on Mission. Pray that we will live out the charge of the Apostle Paul when he said, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” —Ephesians 4:1-3

Mike Priest, Lead Pastor
Wellspring Family Church

NEXT Campaign Giving Report
Commitments to the NEXT campaign pledged in December 2023 exceeded our goal of 2.5 times our annual budget. Thank you for your generosity, which was evident in the tremendous start to our NEXT Campaign in December with ‘First Fruits’ giving! We are still accepting pledges!

See graph below.

Our Congregational Vote
We are grateful for the unity shown at our February 25th annual business meeting. The congregation authorized the completion of the NEXT Target Project at a cost of $4.25M. Praise God for our unity and a 92-0 vote!

Project Updates

Wellspring’s Build Team has been working closely with the architects to make many decisions so they can finalize the construction drawings. Our Build Team is also developing a Guaranteed Maximum Price with Diestelkamp Contracting, a step that will reduce risk on potential cost overruns. 

Upcoming steps include submitting construction plans to St. Louis County for permitting with the goal of beginning demolition and groundbreaking this summer for a 10-month construction project. Many more updates to come as we potentially start hitting some of our project milestones this spring!

God is Blessing Wellspring Family Church
We see God guiding us at each step as He generously provided:

• a tremendously supportive response to the capital campaign, with pledges exceeding our campaign goal for the Target Project;
• unity with a unanimous vote to complete the Target Project; and
• a general contractor and several subcontractors who are very familiar with our building, and with their knowledge and support, have helped us significantly reduce the cost of the project.

On Sunday, December 10, 2023, Pastor Mike Priest shared that the pledging period for the capital campaign is closing. The next step is to finalize the scope of the building project based on the pledge amount, secure a loan, secure pricing for building materials and lock in a scheduling commitment with the contractors.

To date, 67% of the Wellspring family has returned their Commitment Cards with their pledge amounts. And although we are pleased and very grateful for the sacrificial giving and generosity this represents, the $1,311,000.00 in pledges is still short of our Target Goal.

With $1.6 million in commitments, in addition to our current assets and conservative borrowing, we can reach our Target Goal of $3.4 million. Our Dream Goal of $4.2 million includes many additional features, such as updates to our Lindbergh Blvd. facing façade and updates to our back field.

The Capital Campaign Team would love to hear from everyone and be supported in prayer. Click here for a digital Campaign Commitment Card.

At our February Congregational Meeting we will approve the final scope, plans, and the loan agreement to begin the project.

On Sunday, December 10, 2023, Pastor Mike Priest shared that the pledging period for the capital campaign is closing. The next step is to finalize the scope of the building project based on the pledge amount, secure a loan, secure pricing for building materials and lock in a scheduling commitment with the contractors.

To date, 67% of the Wellspring family has returned their Commitment Cards with their pledge amounts. And although we are pleased and very grateful for the sacrificial giving and generosity this represents, the $1,311,000.00 in pledges is still short of our Target Goal.

With $1.6 million in commitments, in addition to our current assets and conservative borrowing, we can reach our Target Goal of $3.4 million. Our Dream Goal of $4.2 million includes many additional features, such as updates to our Lindbergh Blvd. facing façade and updates to our back field.

The Capital Campaign Team would love to hear from everyone and be supported in prayer. Click here for a digital Campaign Commitment Card.

At our February Congregational Meeting we will approve the final scope, plans, and the loan agreement to begin the project.

To kick off our capital campaign: NEXT, we had a special all-church event to celebrated God’s faithfulness, His goodness, and His out-pouring of blessings. The highlight of the service was the giving back of talents that were given to us—it was an outpouring of those things that God entrusted to us. Lunch followed the church service and was a time of fellowship, thankfulness and celebration. 

We enter a time of prayer as we ask God to reveal to us our pledge amounts. Commitment Cards are due back to Wellspring by December 3.

Join us for our sermon series ENTRUSTED, at 10:45am.

Our Adult Discipleship Class will focus on another aspect and scripture from the Sunday sermon series: ENTRUSTED. We will meet at 9:30am in the Multipurpose Room.

Join us for our sermon series NEXT: The Next Chapter for Wellspring, at 10:45am.

Our Adult Discipleship Class at 9:30am in the Multipurpose Room will parallel the sermons. Each week, we’ll focus on the same topic and scripture from the prior Sunday’s sermon.

Pastor Mike Priest provided updates during the worship service on August 6. Wellspring is pleased to reveal an overview of the vision-driven facility updates and a preliminary plan.

Wellspring is pleased to announce the theme name and logo for the Capital Campaign. 

A lot has happened behind the scenes since we voted on a Capital Campaign at our June 4, Congregational Meeting. And we want to share some progress with you.

Last week we introduced to you our Capital Campaign Team, and they all have been busy recruiting their teams and making plans. We have a theme now, and we are please, to unveil it this Sunday,

We are excited to announce the capital campaign theme is NEXT.

Our sub theme is The next chapter for Wellspring.

As we wrote out the story of how we got to this point, it was a series of God revealing, through prayer and seeking, His plan for us.

First the merger discussions; then the vote to create one new church; the first service on Jan 5, 2020; the Covid shutdown; the formation of the Vision / Mission / Strategy / Direction / and Measures; then the deliberate alignment of our ministries, our budgeting, our staffing, our priorities to fit this new Vision; and finally, this next step, aligning our facilities to meet and fulfill our Vision.

It’s a story of God’s revealing… and of Wellspring moving forward, step by step, on faith and obedience. It was a series of next, next, next. So it feels natural that our theme is NEXT.

At our January 23, 2023 charrette, we fine-tuned our priorities and focused on three areas.

• A Next Generation Destination
• An Inviting Atmosphere
• A Center for Community

The NEXT logo has three arrows… we want them to be reminders of our three focus areas. This is why we are doing this capital campaign. And they stand for

•  The Next Generation
•  The Next Guest
•  The Next Gathering

You will begin to see this logo on materials as this campaign unfolds. Soon, you will see a monthly prayer reminder coming to your phones. We will begin this campaign in prayer and seeking the Lord.

You will also see a monthly newsletter, coming to your home mail box with updates and more information and stories of God’s faithfulness.

– – – –

In so many ways, this is so much more than a period of increased giving for a capital campaign. We want this to be a time of eager expectation.

1 Corinthians 2:9 says

But, as it is written, “… no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him…” 

Let’s make this a time of great anticipation of what God will reveal to us next … of what God will do with us next as individuals, and collectively as a church family on mission.

At our Sunday, June 18, 2023 worship service, we commissioned our capital campaign team. Please pray for their wisdom and guidance as they begin this process of seeking the Lord in His plans for Wellspring.

From left to right: Pastor Mike Priest; Pastor Jeff Block, Education and Stewardship; Erin Wodicker, Campaign Chair; Rick Nolle, Architect and Contractor Liaison; John Ritland, Advance Commitment Leader; Paul Scherfling, Communications Leader; Mark Segrist, Project Manager and Elder Liaison; Megan Solecki, Special Events Leader; and Renae Winfrey, Prayer Team Leader.

Sunday, June 4, 2023 Congregational Vote

At our Sunday, June 4, 2023 Congregational Meeting, Wellspring voted on and approved hiring a consultant to lead Wellspring in a capital campaign to fund our vision-driven facilities improvement plan. Watch for upcoming information!