Prince of Peace UMC Building Project
A Brief History

For those of you that are new to Prince of Peace and/or may not know the entire story of the building
project, here you go. In 1998, POP’s Administrative Council formed a long range task force to a
establish a 5-yr plan for church growth and expansion. This was delayed until mid-1999, due to
change in church leadership. In 2002, the committee presented a Building Study Report to the
church. The entire plan is available from the church secretary or from myself.

These are the goals and current needs (as of 2002) that were identified. Let’s see how we have done:

1) Current Needs - (as of 2002)

.....a) Parking Lot Expansion to meet our growing community (Completed)

.....b) Water and Sewer hook ups (Completed)

.....c) Additional Space for worship, ministries and fellowship (?)

.....d) Ministry Storage Facility (?)

2) Family Life Center (Fellowship Hall)- By 2005, the church will have a fully functional Family
Life Center. (See Attachment B)

3) Worship Center (New Sanctuary) - By 2010, we propose to have a worship center capable of
handling 500 people per service.

4) Outreach Mission Support Center -By 2015, we propose to have a fully functional Outreach
Mission Support Center. (See Attachment B)

This task was much more difficult then first anticipated because the planning process took much
longer than anticipated and we were not able to consider building until the approval of our Special
Use Permit (SUP) in March of 2006. Our property has a large area of protected wetlands on it and
we had to satisfy Prince William County that we could mitigate the damage to the wetlands. In
March 2006, after many years of trying, we received approval from Prince William County Board
of Supervisors for our SUP.

Prior to the approval of the SUP, Prince of Peace called a charge conference in which the new
building project was voted on and received overwhelming approval from the congregation. We went
forward with the process of designing the new structure under the direction of FFPC Chairperson
at that time, Jim Morris. In October 2006, the church, after another charge conference, selected
Whitener and Jackson as our general contractors. After a period of time, Jim Morris left our church
in April 2007.

Feeling called to take on this project, I was subsequently named the chairperson of the FFPC. For
the next several months, our committee spoke before church services in an attempt to get the word
out that the project was continuing and inform them of our plan. We soon learned there were a significant number of hard feelings, specifically related to the Capital Campaign. People objected
to being told how much they should give instead of being encouraged to give what they can, not only
financially, but in prayer and sweat of brow. After a few months, a meeting was called at the church,
“a gripe session” as it were, to allow people to tell us the concerns they had about the project and to
provide any ideas. Approximately 30 people attended this session in which people voiced their
opinions and subsequently their support for our project and our new “plan of attack”.

At that time, we redirected our Capital Campaign to encourage people to give what they could and
letting them know that their gift no matter what, was a blessing to the project. Hindsight is 20/20
and we think this made people feel better about the project. Too many people saw the 2.7 million
dollar price tag and thought “how can my contribution help” became a misconception we wanted
to try and overcome. I think we did a fairly good job specifically reminding people we do not have
to come up with entire 2.7 million, we were merely planting seeds to bring new congregants who will
share in the burden. Pastor Clever did a great job of reminding congregants that only three of the
original families that were present when the current building was built were still around when the
mortgage was paid off.

Subsequently, we invited the entire congregation to a dinner. Almost 100 people attended and
listened to the plan to go forward with the building project. Reminding them that many hands
lighten the load. At that time we also asked people to reaffirm their pledges, make a pledge if they
had not or make a new pledge if they had finished with their first one. The goals voiced by the
committee to be reached prior to seeking financing at that time included over $1,000,000 in pledges,
in excess of $250,000 in the bank and a significant increase in congregation participation. I am
proud to say, Prince of Peace reached these goals, like we usually do. We see a need or set a goal,
we continue to persevere until we reach it.

The committee continued to move forward with plan revisions to ensure that the plans would be
ready to build when we were able to obtain financing. In November 2007, the plans were approved
by the county and we began the process of obtaining loan proposals. In December 2007 or January
2008, Whitener and Jackson provided us with an estimated price of 2.7 million dollars to complete
the building project.

On April 13, 2008, we had a charge conference during which the committee presented all the loan
proposals we received and recommended two for follow up. The first motion made was that the
church move forward with the proposed construction project and there was no opposition. The
second motion made was to allow the church to obtain a mortgage not to exceed 2.7 million dollars,
without opposition. The third motion was that we obtain a mortgage from one of the two proposed
lending institutions which passed without opposition. Also in April 2008, we met with UMC district
representatives. They gave their blessing to move forward with the project and to obtain the
mortgage up to 2.7 million dollars.

We were unsuccessful in obtaining financing mainly due to two factors; 1) The sudden down turn
in the economy and banks tightened their purse strings; 2) The fact that we were not generating
enough in weekly giving to support the project, also a casualty of the economy. The largest amount
that we could obtain was 1.8 million dollars.


When it became apparent that we would not be able to find financing for the proposed building
project, we knew that we had to do something. For too long the church had been told that
something was going to happen and continue to give faithfully. To that point we had expended a
significant amount of money and had very little tangible to show for it. So the decision was made
to complete the parking lot expansion.

We received a loan proposal from BB&T Bank which was subsequently approved by the church.
In December 2008, we closed our loan with BB&T and construction began in March 2009 and
completed in August 2009.

Where we are now to come next month!!!!!!!!!!!!