To purchase or not to purchase
Posted on July 13th, 2006 by catalyst into the Uncategorized categoryThere has been some debate as to whether City Bible actually purchased the Ice Rink or whether they are merely renting it. Here is an article from The Columbian that discusses the purchase:
Money Quote:
"Our excitement is in blending the uses together," said Bruce Wood, who with partner Tom Kemper purchased the building on behalf of the church for $4.8 million. The new owners, operating as Vancouver Ice Arena, LLC, plan to invest an additional $3.2 million into renovating the facility, Wood said.
For what it's worth, I still think City Bible bought the property. They may not have purchased it themselves, but I bet if you get down to the nitty gritty of the contract, they're on the hook for the property if in the end it fails.
That said, in the interest of accuracy, I cleaned up the language in the post below to reflect the fact that CBC is only leasing the property.
Here's hoping this all works out for them. For my money, this may not be the best time to be buying property.
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July 13th, 2006 at 7:21 am
There is scant information in the articles provided about the type of services to be held at the arena - though one mentioned it was a “satellite” campus. Apparently this will be a place where services are broadcast / simulcast, so the people are basically showing up to watch a big TV?
If that’s the case, how are basic human contact services conducted? The laying on of hands, baptisms, etc.?
If broad-casting messages is all they want, it would have been much less expensive to ask members in an area to go the ‘cell church’ route, to use their homes for gatherings of a dozen members or so. They could have installed a widescreen TV and cable/dsl in 4,000 homes, at $2,000 each, for what it’s costing them for a facility to seat 800 peeps.
Or, just park a Real Audio/Windows Media version of the services on a server, and let people watch them on demand through the net. I just don’t get the notion of it having to be ’simultaneous’, with everyone gathered in a common location to view the service. The novelty of it all will fade quickly I think, and then what will they do with an under-utilized building? Maybe turn it into a movie theatre?
Somehow, I don’t think this is as much about being a servant to the Father as it is about acquisition and empire building.
Lastly, if they are just showing up to watch TV, who controls the remote?
July 13th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
What they mean in “satellite service” is that everything is live — the songs and the offering, etc. — except the sermon. Each location has a band and an MC, also children’s classes. They also have people on hand to greet and pray. Baptisms are still done at the Butte, and simulcasted to the other places.
(The announcements are on a cutesy video, but all the
performancesservices have that.)PF will grace each property with his presence on a rotating basis, and it is broadcast to the other campuses live.
I’m kinda thinkin’ that perhaps we can call this CBC Lite. (Satellite… haha. groan.)
I remember hearing a guy from Singapore at CBC several years ago. He does his church this way, and I’m sure that’s where PF got the idea.
July 17th, 2006 at 1:30 am
It makes good business sense. CBC has no liability in the loan or the building, and the partners can make a profit, something the church can’t do. Plus the LLC provides a firewall between the church and other organizations.
The name of the LLC pretty much says it all. If they had actually bought the building expressly for the church, they could have named it CBC Vancouver, or CBC North, or Frank’s Love Shack. Instead, they named it something innocuous so other groups will rent or lease from them.
A few years in the future, if property values go up, Bruce can sell the building for $$$ and CBC still keeps its lease. Or if property values stay steady, Bruce can sell the property to the church under market value and claim the remainder as a donation. CBC gets the building at half price, Bruce gets a huge tax deduction.
Just like God intended.
July 17th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Corporations are a gift from God!
Thank you Jesus for showing us how to serve you.