Each Sunday, we come together as a church family to worship God. At 6:20 am, one of our faithful members drives their personal vehicle to pick up the church trailer. The equipment for the auditorium, Sound City Kids, Connect, and more is stored in the trailer during the week and hauled to Lynnwood High School for our time together.
Although Sound City owns the trailer, we don’t own a vehicle. The trailer is very heavy, beyond the towing capacity of most normal trucks or SUVs. Thankfully, we have had Covenant Members serve us by using their personal vehicles to transport the trailer each Sunday.
Why Purchase a Vehicle?
Earlier this year, the elders and Financial Accountability Team made the decision to purchase a vehicle for towing the church trailer. There are four primary reasons:
Liability. It is not particularly wise for a church to have members take the liability of pulling the trailer upon themselves and their personal vehicles.
Wear and tear. The vehicle would belong to the church, thus the members would not need to use their own vehicles, avoiding the wear and tear of towing.
Availability. Having our own vehicle means that we don’t have to scramble when our members with trucks are out of town.
Team growth. There are members of Sound City who are skilled at driving and pulling a trailer but don’t own a vehicle large enough to pull our heavy trailer. Owning a vehicle would allow more volunteers to participate in towing on Sunday mornings, and spread the responsibility to more members.
What Should We Buy?
In recent weeks, the leadership team had a thought: Wouldn’t it be nice if we purchased a van instead of a truck, so we can use it for more than weekly trailer transport?
Right now, our student ministry rents a van 2-3 times per year for various camps, retreats, and other events. There are other times throughout the year where having a multi-purpose church vehicle would come in handy (the beach BBQ and baptisms, for example). Besides, Pastor Jamin put it best when he said, “you’re not a real church until you own a van.”
There is one problem. Most vans don’t have a frame/chassis that is heavy-duty enough to pull our very heavy trailer. (Pastor Jamin has personally put dozens of hours of research into this project.) There is one vehicle, however, that would uniquely meet our needs: a Nissan NV3500 12-passenger van.
This van would be perfect for us, but they are more expensive than a truck—more expensive than what we budgeted for. As a church, we have budgeted $30,000 toward the purchase of a new vehicle. Since these vans are newer, they are more expensive. Add to that the fact that most of them don’t come equipped with towing equipment—we would need to have that installed as an add-on.
This brings the total cost of a vehicle closer to $50,000.
Here is what we are asking. We want to take the month of November to raise the extra $20,000 for this vehicle. In our five years as a church, we have never done a “capital campaign” like this for ourselves. Every fundraiser we have done has been for mission opportunities with other organizations: the bottle drive for the Pregnancy Resource Center, the malaria kits for Heed Uganda, or the giving trees for Vision House and the Lynnwood DCYF, to name a few.
We are asking you to give above-and-beyond your regular tithe or contribution toward the purchase of this van. Please pray, and ask God what he wants you to contribute.
How to Contribute
The easiest way to give is online. Go to scbc.do/give and select “Church Van Fund” from the drop down menu.
If you want to give via check, please put “Church Van Fund” in the memo.
If you want to give cash, please put it into a “Give” envelope (available at the Connect Desk) and write “Church Van Fund” on the envelope.
We would ask you to prayerfully consider the needs of our church and faithfully give as the Lord leads you to. Thank you for your generosity and faithfulness!