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Soul City, we are doing our small part to help contain the spread of COVID-19. At this time we have postponed all large group gatherings. This sadly includes our Advance Commitment Night. We will be in touch with the new date and time!
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God has made it clear that it's time for Soul City to make room for more people to find and follow Jesus.
Download the Ready for More Devotional
We want you to take your next step toward transformation and generosity with prayer and faith
as your starting point.
Next
Steps
As you go to God in prayer, use this three-step, faith-forming process:
ASK
Quiet your heart and mind, and ask God: How are you leading me to be ready for more? The first step in your journey toward transformation is to ASK for it.
Quiet your heart and mind, and ask God: How are you leading me to be ready for more? The first step in your journey toward transformation is to ASK for it.
BELIEVE
Trust God to guide you in your transformation journey. He can do more than you have ever hoped or imagined. BELIEVE He will provide you with what He’s invited you to give.
Trust God to guide you in your transformation journey. He can do more than you have ever hoped or imagined. BELIEVE He will provide you with what He’s invited you to give.
COMMIT
Decide to bravely step into this faith-raising adventure. COMMIT to giving in a way that stretches and deepens your faith like never before.
Decide to bravely step into this faith-raising adventure. COMMIT to giving in a way that stretches and deepens your faith like never before.
I'm Ready!
Are you ready to take the next step?
Fill out the digital commitment card and start your faith raising journey as we declare together we're Ready for More!
I/We intend to give over and above our regular giving for the next two years in the following way:
$9 Million Dollar Goal
$15,000
$9 Million
We sense yet again that God is
calling us out into greater faith.
Our Vision
As we look back on the story of our church, one phrase comes to mind: “Only God!” God has provided for us above and beyond our wildest dreams. And as we look ahead at where God is leading us, we sense yet again that He is calling us out into greater faith. He is inviting us to make room for more people to find and follow Jesus.
Starting Soul City Church has changed our lives forever. We are not the same people we once were. We are beyond grateful to God for the privilege of being a part of this great faith adventure. And we believe that every follower of Jesus deserves the opportunity to experience the same.
We are inviting you to join with us, and with God, as we expand the vision and ministry potential of our church. We believe God has given us the vision to launch two new Soul City churches over the next two years—one to the west and one to the north. We sense He is inviting us to build a House of Hope at our West Loop church to provide a safe and sacred space for help, hope and healing for people inside and outside the walls of Soul City Church. And we believe God is inviting us to develop a Soul City Studio to create new resources to be shared with you and others around the world.
Our greatest desire for Ready for More is to see our church grow closer with God by praying bigger prayers than we’ve ever prayed before. Our hope is to see your faith grow like never before as you partner with God in this great faith adventure.
Love,
Jarrett & Jeanne Stevens
Founding & Lead Pastors
Soul City Church
Resources
Ready for More FAQ
Vision
Ready For More is a two-year faith-raising initiative for Soul City Church. Ready For More has two goals. Primary goal, 100% participation, each of us grow closer to God; secondary goal, raise $9 million to expand our ministry capacity. Through the Ready For More faith-raising initiative we will launch two new Soul City Churches-to the west and north-and we will build a physical House of Hope and Soul City Studio at our West Loop church. Ready For More will allow us to expand our reach, leading more people into a transforming relationship with Jesus.
The exact locations for the two new churches have not yet been identified. Over the past year, we conducted extensive research to learn more about the areas where the majority of our church live in order to identify the best locations to start the next expressions of Soul City. Through this study, we identified a significant concentration of Soul City people living to the west and the north of our West Loop church. The new church to the west will serve the areas of Oak Park, Forest Park, River Forest, Berwyn, Maywood, Elmwood Park, Austin and the surrounding villages and neighborhoods. The new church to the north will serve the areas of Lincoln Park, Lake View, Roscoe Village, Uptown, Ravenswood, Edgewater, Avondale, Irving Park, Albany Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. We believe the church is better seven days a week. This is easier when people live closer to their church.
he House of Hope is a physical extension of the heart of God into our community. The House of Hope will be built as a multistory expansion behind our existing West Loop location. We will provide a dedicated physical space for healing, hope and help for people through on-site crisis counseling, support groups, workforce development, and other offerings to meet the direct needs of our community. Additionally, we will partner with local and global organizations to connect people with resources and services to lead them into holistic transformation. The House of Hope will serve as a safe and sacred place for those within our church and those beyond our walls.
The studio space will allow us to expand the release of our resources here in the Chicagoland area and with churches around the world. We will be able to create, capture and share all of the content coming out of our church, including podcasts, books, worship music and Sunday gatherings. It will also enable us to greatly increase the quality of our Sunday livestream, improve our audio production and enable us to capture and share what God is doing at Soul City Church now and for many years to come!
The vision of Soul City Church has always been to be one church in multiple locations. We exist to be a place people can come for hope and healing, and to have the resources to reach people beyond our four walls with the transforming love of Jesus. After significant research and lots of prayer we are compelled to continue the biblical model in the New Testament of starting new churches, extending our ministry into the community and releasing resources throughout the city, country and world.
Soul City’s leadership prayerfully and strategically considered this faith-raising campaign to support the launching of two new locations, the House of Hope and our Soul City Studio. Fundraising experts from within and outside our church helped guide the process with Soul City leadership. We believe the vision of Ready for More will stretch and renew our faith and grow all of us to become more kingdom minded followers of Jesus.
Your Role
This powerful prayer process can be summed up in three letters – A, B, C.
Ask God, how He is leading you to more. Believe that God will lead, guide and provide you with more; more of Him and more resources to fulfil the commitment. And Commit to Him and our Church to give above and beyond over these next two years.
Ready for More is a 2 year faith-raising campaign from April 2020 to April 2022. You can go online to complete a commitment card and start giving today, Ready for More. If you are attending service on Sunday, you can pick up a commitment card at Soul City Church from the 1st or 2nd floor information racks.
KEY DATES
March 18 – Advance Commitment Night
March 29 – Commitment Sunday
April 26 – 1st Give Sunday
Ready for More is a two-year giving commitment over and above your regular giving.
You can start giving today. As a first time giver, we would love for you to utilize our giving calculator and refer to our gift chart online to help you in this process. We are SO excited that you are willing to trust God like this. We have no doubt that God will use this to grow your faith like never before!
This is an opportunity to stretch your faith. We invite you to pray, study the Bible and invite God to guide you in your giving.
Yes. We welcome gifts of appreciated assets and gifts-in-kind. If you would like to talk more about this please contact us at readyformore@soulcitychurch.com.
Soul City Church will send out quarterly campaign progress that will include Ready For More giving updates. We will also share campaign updates and developments during our Sunday gathering. If you miss a Sunday gathering in-person or aren’t able to attend, you can always catch the live stream or replay it through our website.
DETAILS
The westside location is projected to launch late 2020. The northside location is projected to launch in 2021. The West Loop addition will break ground in late 2020/early 2021.
No, we don’t currently have properties selected for our two new churches. We have built a dynamic real estate team, made up of real estate professionals who are a part of Soul City Church and outside experts to identify potential locations. Our plan is to lease or purchase a space that would give us the ability to do ministry seven days a week, but we are always open to God surprising us with something beyond our best plans. If you have suggestions on potential locations please email us at readyformore@soulcitychurch.com.
Yes, each location will include live worship, led by a local Soul City Worship team and live teaching by Pastors Jarrett, Jeanne and our teaching team, including the two new local pastors. In some instances, video simulcasts will be utilized for guest speakers or special weekend gatherings, such as the Anniversary, VOICES, etc. Each church will follow the same teaching plan each week, but it will be delivered by different members of our teaching team. This allows the teaching to be unique to the location.
Our lead pastors and the executive team of Soul City Church are in the process of prayerfully considering who will be the local pastors of our two new churches. They are not identified as of yet. Our preference as always is to raise up a called and gifted leader from within, but that won’t limit who we consider. The formal search and interview process for the westside pastor is currently underway. If you or someone you know is interested in applying click here for the job description.
Over the next few years, Soul City will become one church in multiple locations. Each church will have the responsibility of contextually living out Soul City’s mission and vision through worship, teaching, small groups and ministries such as Soul City Kids, Love Works and Alpha. These are the parts of our Church that are core to our mission and have fueled our growth over the last nine years. Simultaneously, we desire for each church to eventually develop ministries designed to reflect their local context.
Soul City will operate with a centralized leadership model that consists of the founding lead pastors, executive team, and local pastors from both the westside and northside churches that will oversee the vision and strategy of the church. A portion of the staff will represent “shared services” and support all three churches in areas such as operations, accounting and human resources. Soul City will continue to be governed by one common elder board with representation from each of the three churches.
Soul City’s mission, vision, values, transformational teaching, worship, and look and feel will be consistent throughout the three churches. that our newest churches will be new at their mission while our West Loop church will be almost 10 years old. There will be differences as each of these churches continue to grow and develop. The common Elder Board, centralized leadership and oversight from our founding lead pastors and executive team will also ensure that as these new churches are launched and growing, that they are 100% “Soul City” while also being uniquely contextualized to their local communities.
FINANCIALS
Soul City Church’s current annual budget is $3.4M which is a 26% increase over 2018’s $2.7M budget. Based on July through December giving in Fiscal Year 2020, Soul City is performing at 110% of the budget and has a positive net income. We are amazed at the outpouring of God’s generosity through the faithful giving of our church. Below is a snapshot of Soul City’s financial position six months into FY2020.
| SOUL CITY FINANCIAL POSITION | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cash/ Current Assets | $1,223,329 | |
| Fixed Assets | $18,454,476 | |
| Total Assets | $19,677,806 | |
| Current Liabilities | $198,717 | |
| Long Term Liabilities | $7,755,641 | |
| Total Liabilities | $7,954,358 | |
| Total Equity | $11,723,448 | |
| Total Liabilities and Equity | $19,677,806 | |
The $9 million raised through Ready for More will allow us to greatly expand our mission to lead more people into a transforming relationship with Jesus. We will launch two new Soul City Churches over the next two years—one to the west and one to the north. It will also allow us to build a physical House of Hope and Soul City Studio at our West Loop church.
We currently forecast, $6 million will be invested in launching the two new Soul City Churches. These resources will be used to secure and renovate space for each new church building, hire local staff , and provide ministry expenses for the initial launch phase, after which both churches will become financially self-sustaining.
We will invest $3 million in building a physical House of Hope and Soul City Studio at our West Loop church. These resources will primarily be used to add a multi-story expansion on the back of the West Loop church as well as equip these new spaces with the necessary facilities and technology to grow these ministries. In addition, we will use a portion of funds to establish a new shared services team to centralize key functions like accounting, operations and human resources for all three churches. Lastly, a small portion of funds will be used to cover Ready for More campaign expenses.
* All numbers are approximate based on specific location needs.
Yes, Soul City has a current debt balance of $7.7 million. This debt total is 39% of total asset value, which is a comfortable debt ratio. We are enrolled in monthly electronic payments and are current with all our loan payments. In the 2021 Fiscal Year budget development process, we plan to identify additional funds to accelerate paying down this debt ahead of schedule. In addition, Soul City leadership with the Board of Elders will review usage of financial gifts exceeding the $9 million Ready For More financial goal towards loan principal payments.
Soul City’s previous capital campaign, For The Love, had a goal to raise $7 million to contribute to the purchase of the warehouse, land, and buildout costs of the West Loop Transformation Center. Soul City raised above and beyond the $7 million goal and ended the campaign having raised $8.2 million. The completion of the Transformation Center exceeded funds raised. Soul City leadership approved a $7.9 million loan to cover all additional resources and ensure completion of the project.
No, we will not incur new long-term debt to finance the two new churches nor the construction of the House of Hope and Soul City Studio. We’ve also budgeted in a reserve for unforeseen expenses. If funds are immediately needed to secure, renovate space or break ground, a short-term bridge/construction loan (gap loan) option may be discussed with our financial institution and reviewed by our Board of Elders.
WHERE DO I GO IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
We welcome any additional questions you may have. Simply email us at readyformore@soulcitychurch.com
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