The New Boy’s Dorm has an estimated budget of 2.5 million. The New Tabernacle has an estimated budget of 9-12 million.

The funds going toward each project will be raised prior to construction. Loans will not be taken out.

These project expenses will not be a part of our operating budget.

We are approaching these projects on a cash basis from funds raised by our campaign efforts.

All plans with engineers will include draining issues prior to building and execution.

Loans will not be taken out for this project.

Our Master Plan Team, comprised of professional engineers, architects, builders, board members, department directors, and dorm supervisors, met numerous times over a period of a year to devise a design, including features of our new boy’s dorm. We are looking to double the capacity of our existing boy’s dorm.

The new tabernacle will be convention center style with an open floor plan. It will have a grand foyer, new restrooms, and a green room behind the platform area. Everything within the auditorium will be rearrangeable (chairs, risers, platform, etc.). Details like sound system, lighting, media, will be finalized closer to the building date.

All plans with engineers will include draining issues prior to building and execution.

Loans will not be taken out for this project.

Loans will not be taken out for this project.

The existing boy’s dorm will remain in use while the new boy’s dorm is under construction.

At the completion of construction of the new boy’s dorm, the existing boy’s dorm will be removed. The Master Plan Team is leaning on opening up that space for new private church dorms.

The new tabernacle fits well within the scope of all buildings as it is centrally located. The upper asphalt parking area will be placed between the DCC & existing tabernacle.

The new tabernacle will be positioned over an entire existing parking lot, so we will need new parking.

Plans are in the works for several possibilities:

-Fill in front ditch with culverts (running beside museum) and cover with additional parking. Architectural renderings show there can be many new parking spaces by accomplishing this.

-Use upper ball field near maintenance compound and use transports to move people to and from the parking area

-Further develop the field on the far side of the DCC

The construction beginning dates are directly related to the income of funds. No project will be started until the funds for that project are raised.

It is projected that the new boy’s dorm could begin within one year of the beginning of the campaign (2024).

Because the beginning of the new tabernacle will require greater resources, it could take 3 to 5 years before beginning construction.

Our campaign team has put together a plan that allows all of our UPCI churches in the district to financially get involved in support new construction.

The amount a church pledges is up to the pastor of that church.

If 90% of our churches were to get involved by contributing an average of $10,000 per year for the next 3 years, we would raise 100% of the funds needed for the new boy’s dorm and nearly 70% of the funds needed for a new tabernacle. Of course we understand that there are churches able to contribute different sums; this is just a figured average.

We are moving into a 3 year campaign at this time.

We are presently working on a visual graph, showing the amount each church might contribute, according to their size; this is still a challenge because there are many different financial conditions across churches.

Here is an example:

If each church encouraged each member to give $100 per year to the Mission Louisiana campaign, and the average size church was 100 people, our state would give nearly 3 million dollars a year.

We know that some members in the churches could give more.

By building a New Boy’s Dorm:

SPIRITUAL: We double our capacity for our public dorm, which is now 150. We open up the opportunity for about 130 more children to attend Kids Camp and 260 more youth to attend Jr and Sr Camps. The SPIRITUAL return on our investment is higher than any other interest rate.

PHYSICAL: During Kids Camp, Jr Camp and Sr Camp, we would make way for 390 more to register, which is a 14% increase in registration revenue.

Another positive related to a new boy’s dorm is that it will be constructed so that churches could use it for youth retreats, leadership retreats, etc., allowing men and women to be in the same dorm due to lockable doors (similar to doors between hotel suits) running the length of the dorm.

At this time, no church desires to use the boy’s dorm because its poor condition.

By building a New Tabernacle

We presently have a need for a new cafeteria. Our Kids and Youth camps have far outgrown our existing tabernacle. Only a fraction of our campers can eat at the same time. The kitchen is too small and lacks updated amenities.

We presently have need for a new concession stand. The cooking conditions, extremely limited space, and outdated equipment are all major concerns. It was sufficient when it had hundreds to serve, but now that we have thousands, it can no longer accommodate growth.

We have currently run out of room for workers’ dorm space, both in the kitchen and concession stand.

We currently have extremely limited meeting space to hold seminars and conferences, and breakout sessions. A district our size has a great need for much larger and more meeting areas for training, seminars, breakout sessions, etc.

Our Museum is in poor condition. The building housing our artifacts is, in itself, the oldest existing UPCI church building in the state. We need a new Museum to protect our Apostolic History.

Listed above are no less than 5 new buildings needed on our campgrounds.

By building a new tabernacle it would allow us to:

Use our existing tabernacle for a 900 seat cafeteria, indoor concession stand with indoor vending machines, downstairs meeting rooms (enclosed under existing balcony), and upstairs workers’ dorms.

We could then turn our existing cafeteria into a museum.

Church-related giving is decided by each pastor.

It is our belief that our campgrounds is the epicenter where missionaries and ministers and ministries are born. It’s where our churches gather to get fresh vision from God having to do with the mission. It is because our state is so strong spiritually and has been so mission minded that we are able to give such large offerings, larger than many other states which have much stronger and richer economies.

The point is, our campgrounds and district should come first. It must remain our priority, which continues to be where more people receive the Holy Ghost than any other place on earth….and continues to be where we come to grow together in unity to go back to our churches with a fresh burden to raise up new ministers, grow our churches and give to the furtherance of the mission. If we are strong, our giving will be strong…and our campgrounds plays a vital part in this.

On the other hand, if we allow our campgrounds to continue to grow old and very old buildings keep on their steady decline, we will not be able to put enough patches on them to keep them functioning. Then people will not want to send their children to stay in facilities that are decrepit. And it will affect the moral and ultimately the unity of our district as attendance drops.

A new tabernacle saves us from building no less than 5 other buildings which could result in double the cost.

I have been attending our Camp Meeting since I was a child. Since we have gone to Tuesday through Friday, it is usually our custom to build in attendance from night one to the last night. Tuesday night there could be 200-300 seats available with most of the downs stairs full. Wednesday through Friday, even though there may be 100-200 seats available, those seats are in the far back of the building….many times where a family of more than two or three cannot sit together except in the far upper corner of the balcony.

The point is, a building is at capacity before every seat is full.

Church growth statistics say that a building that is 70% full is too full to entice more people to attend. This has been our issue at Camp Meeting over the years. Too many people stay away due to not being able to find sufficient seating (where they want to sit as well as how many seats they need).

We have been over 70% capacity for many years. A new tabernacle would alleviate these issues with many good places to sit for the whole family.

Church-related giving is decided by each pastor.

It is our belief that our campgrounds is the epicenter where missionaries and ministers and ministries are born. It’s where our churches gather to get fresh vision from God having to do with the mission. It is because our state is so strong spiritually and has been so mission minded that we are able to give such large offerings, larger than many other states which have much stronger and richer economies.

The point is, our campgrounds and district should come first. It must remain our priority, which continues to be where more people receive the Holy Ghost than any other place on earth….and continues to be where we come to grow together in unity to go back to our churches with a fresh burden to raise up new ministers, grow our churches and give to the furtherance of the mission. If we are strong, our giving will be strong…and our campgrounds plays a vital part in this.

On the other hand, if we allow our campgrounds to continue to grow old and very old buildings keep on their steady decline, we will not be able to put enough patches on them to keep them functioning. Then people will not want to send their children to stay in facilities that are decrepit. And it will affect the moral and ultimately the unity of our district as attendance drops.

Not equal giving but equal sacrifice.

We are presently working on a visual graph, showing the amount each church might contribute, according to their size; this is still a challenge because there are many different financial conditions across churches.

Here is an example:

If each church encouraged each member to give $100 per year to the Mission Louisiana campaign, and the average size church was 100 people, our state would give nearly 3 million dollars a year.

We know that some members in the churches could give more.

See above response.

All our churches have access to our campgrounds and all whom I have talked to, even those from the far corners of our state have attended our Camp Meetings and sent their kids and youth to our summer camps. I think the disconnected are few and far between and they choose not to be connected. We will still reach out to them as we have always done in everything we do from the section level to the district level.