Dear BPCWA worshipper, We held an update on our church extension project on 26 June. I am summarising what was presented during that communication session for the benefit of worshippers who may have missed the presentation as well as for the purpose of the church’s historical write up.

Development Approval. In June 2021, the development approval was submitted to Melville Council. As part of their approval review, several reports and updates to drawings were required. These concerns included traffic, acoustic, consultation with the neighbours, changes to make the extension more in line with residential zoning, and the façade appropriate to a largely residential neighbourhood. To address their concerns, the number and size of the windows along Canning Highway, trees were added to soften the look in front of the car park, and the number of car park lots were revised. Thank God that we eventually received the Development Approval from the Council in February 2022. The current church extension drawings have since been put up on the notice boards in church for all to view.

Preparation for Construction Tender. Since then, we have been preparing for construction tender. The architect has been working through the final detailed construction drawings required for tender which the building committee has been reviewing concurrently. At the same time, we are engaging vendors and drawing up specifications to the architect for the lighting, storage, air-conditioning, and Audio-Visual setup. This needs to be a detailed process so that we endeavour as much as possible not to miss out anything in the construction tender. Some difficulties we have encountered included having AV vendors contacted turn down our requests for quotes as they were unable to cope with additional jobs. The current instability of the construction industry is also another cause for concern as a number of vendors have folded up in recent months.  To mitigate this risk, when the time comes, we will review the existing financial stability of the builders and assess their past track records when deciding on the most feasible builder. As a result, we may not just choose the cheapest builder based on the tenders received. We hope to have this preparation phase completed so that we can begin to put up the tender. Thereafter, we will have to evaluate the tenders before deciding on the next steps.

Financial Update. With constructions costs increasing more than a third due to COVID-19 and other world events, we have been advised by the architect that these increases will also affect our original budget set. However, while we increase the targeted budget accordingly, this is still ultimately only an estimate, as we will only know the actual costs after the tenders have been submitted. With increased costs being a certainty, though the actual amount is yet uncertain, we have set a new target for our building fund collections to reflect an estimated increase. This means that our gap to the new estimated budget is now much higher. With the construction now much nearer as compared to when we started, we urge worshippers to continue to support God’s work through various channels. Ongoing tithes, offerings, and contributions to the Building Fund have to continue. If God has provided for you, do give lump sum gifts to help offset the cost increases. Should funds collected be insufficient once the tenders have come in, we may have to decide to scale back certain less urgent sections of the upgrade to a later time when they are more critically needed. We will do this as a last resort because it will be the least inconvenient and most cost-effective to do the work in one go. If even despite doing this the tender cost is still too high for us to even consider proceeding, we will have no choice but to consider postponing the extension until sufficient funds are available. This is an undesirable situation because costs will only continue to rise and the gap will increase more and more.

A question was raised during one of the communication sessions regarding the capacity of the new worship hall. This was anticipated to be 300, based upon our own calculations from the government’s capacity guidelines during the COVID-19 restriction period. However, while this is interim and subject to change based on prevailing guidelines at that point of time after completion, we also took the opportunity to confirm the anticipated capacity with Council’s engineer during a recent annual public health inspection when he visited the church. With a larger capacity hall that will use more air conditioning or heater and lighting, we may need to review and recommend the usage of this hall if the gatherings are smaller. Should there be a need for this decision, I hope that worshippers will understand that, just as they may also choose to use smaller rooms in their homes to reduce the utility bills.

As much as the committee has been focussing on the technical aspects of the project, costs are obviously a significant concern as well. Besides the actual building costs, there is the purchase of the equipment, fittings, and furnishings that need to be considered as well. When God has placed in your hands what He intends to use for the progress of His kingdom’s work and we refuse to return it to Him but use it for ourselves, we will be unjust stewards of the talents He has placed in our trust. But more importantly, let us also have the right attitude as we return to Him.

2 Cor 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give;
not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor