What’s The Goal?

Since its beginning - Living Water Church has envisioned obtaining a permanent home for its church body and ministries. We envision being able to serve as a launchpad for other ministries and church planters to spread the gospel. It is with great joy that we can say the time is here for that vision to come to fruition!

What’s The Need?

We envision a structure that can be paid off in less than ten years, leaving finances open for missions and community outreach. We envision a church that is actively sharing Christ, a sharpening stone for those that are seeking truth, pursuing truth, and imparting truth.

In order to achieve this, we have several needs:
1 - Closing costs and breaking the lease of our current facilities: $118,400.
2 - Increased staffing needs to steward our growth: $100,000.
3 - To pay down our mortgage as quickly as possible - an estimated $1.3 million dollars.
4 - Funds to complete desired renovations to our new church home as we seek to do ministry in the way we believe the Lord is calling us to: $100,000.

Fundraising TIMELINE

• 3/26/23 - 3/26/26

• $118,400. by 5/1/23

• $150,000. by 8/1/23

• $175,000. by 11/1/23

• $250,000. by 3/26/24

• $450,000. by 3/26/25

• $475,000. by 3/26/26

Total project estimated cost: $1,618,400.

Goal is to pay off our project in 10 years. Timeline reflects 1-3 years’ extra pledges.
Numbers increase with each goal marker, reflecting anticipated church member growth and contributions.

How To Meet It?

We are asking that you would consider partnering with us in our missionary journey to Poughkeepsie in one of three ways:

• If you are already a regular giver, make an increased commitment to give for 1, 2, or 3 years - towards the 1875 Fund

• If you are not a regular giver, that you would prayerfully consider becoming a regular giver to the ministry of LWC

• A special one-time gift

Read a letter from Pastor Anthony Patton below:

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

A building is often a place of comfort, warm in the winter, cool in the summer. Dry and calm, safe and secure. But what is a church? Is it a building? A set of rules? A religious organization? A church is not the building which it occupies nor the location upon which it stands. A church is the people of God, meeting and growing together in fellowship. With this in mind, we may well find ourselves questioning why we would pursue the arduous task of seeking, purchasing, repairing, moving to, and maintaining a building. If we, the people, are the church separate from the structure, why bother?

This fellowship of Living Water Church, which God has put together, is too large to be encapsulated by any individual’s home (hallelujah!) God has also ordained to build our fellowship and mission in New York and as such, we must battle the heat of summer and the cold of the winter. Could we meet in the park or a tent? Absolutely! But could we meet in a tent when it is 10 degrees outside? Again, yes, we could, but we must ask if that would be wise. Can we have a thriving children’s ministry in a tent? Can we invite in a family who is skeptical about a church fellowship? Can we engage and support the elderly in excessive heat or cold? I would say, no, not effectively. Can we have a consistent area of execution in which to launch our visionary missions and church plants that will also serve as a home base for effective spiritual and leadership growth? Again, not effectively without a structure that can house our growing congregation. A structure is not necessary for a church fellowship, but a structure is beneficial for the fellowship in which God has placed us.

With this reasoning, it would seem like Living Water Church does indeed need a building, yet what structure best suits our vision for the future? What is our vision? What are we asking God to do at Living Water Church over the next two years? Five years? Ten? Twenty? One hundred years? Indeed! Let’s think about the future generation of Christ’s disciples! When we are long called home to glory, will we have laid the foundations for a thriving, growing, church-planting, kingdom-focused house of worship?

Our shared vision for Living Water Church is to be a home, a home base to launch effective ministry into Poughkeepsie and the surrounding areas, the state, the nation, the world! We envision a worship center that will hold 350-400 individuals on a Sunday morning. A building that will support outside community activities and engagement. A structure that will enable a thriving children's ministry and be a comfortable meeting location despite the outside elements.

We envision a structure that will be used as a home base for church planters to grow, learn, and launch into surrounding communities, sharing the gospel and growing the kingdom one changed life at a time. (Matthew 28:16-20) We envision a structure that will spearpoint and support the planting of two churches in the next ten years and ten churches within the next twenty-five years. We envision a structure that will be community-focused, both inviting our community in, and reaching out in support to love our neighbors both near and far.

We envision a structure that can be paid off in less than ten years, leaving finances open for missions and community outreach. We envision a church that is a sharpening stone for those that are seeking truth, pursuing truth, and imparting truth. (John 8:32) We envision a structure that will enable us to foster physical growth in our youth, spiritual growth in everyone, and kingdom growth as we spread. We do not envision a structure that will help us stay within the walls, but a place of growth that we can use to reach outward, a place of beginnings like a seedling that grows and drops its seeds proverbially into other churches and church communities. A church that reaches out while growing from within. A church that magnifies, glorifies, and honors the one true king Jesus Christ!

Before continuing, if you did not listen to the message in the F.A.C.T.S. series about Tithing and also the messages about our vision to Gather, Grow, Give, and Go then please do so on our Youtube channel. After listening to those messages, I will lay out the needs of the church and ask that you prayfully decide if the Lord would have you partake in cheerful giving to support the rest of the family here at LWC.

As we count the cost of buying the new building in Poughkeepsie, it would be wise to look at our current church finances. Currently, we have approximately 150 active adult church members/attendees and their children. We also have 50+ sporadic attenders, which brings our congregation to roughly 250 that attend at least once a month. Out of those regular attendees, about 75% are married, leaving us with approximately 90 individual homes to support the growth of the church. Nationally, church statistics show that less than 50% of the church body supports the church financially. If Living Water gives accordingly with the rest of the nation, then we can assume that less than 45 families are carrying most of the financial burden of the church.

Sometimes people don’t give because they are not aware of the need. In order to move into the missionary journey to Poughkeepsie, and not overburden those who are already supporting a large portion of LWC’s ministries, I’m now asking that each family make a commitment to become a regular giver to the ministries of LWC. We need resources and servants to support the move to Poughkeepsie and allow us to grow over the next season of life here in this family.

If the missionary work to Poughkeepsie and our vision to grow and train church planters for other communities is to be realized, we need your help. I for one am commiting with my family to increase our support for the next three years. I believe with my whole being that God has planted LWC in Poughkeepsie and I'm so excited to see what he will do as we grow and serve the people He has called us to reach.

Some of us have been given much, some have been given little. I think of the words of the apostle Paul as he writes the early church of Corinth:

“In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” 2 Corinthians 8:2-7

To support the church family as we become missionaries to Poughkeepsie, I am now asking that each one pray about what God would lay on your heart to give; and not under compulsion but cheerfully knowing that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).

Here are our specific needs:

• Approx closing and moving costs including lease termination at our current

  property: $118,400

• Payback needed for our mortgage and no interest loans: $1,300,000.00

• Potential increased staffing needs in the next 6 months as we grow: $100,000

Yes, I know times are hard, and inflation is tightening up many already overtaxed budgets. Yet, as the apostle Paul asked, I am also asking. Is there something you can sacrifice for the next few years as we grow? Can you cancel Netflix and give that financial commitment to the growth of LWC? Can you give up going out to coffee? What about skipping dinner out once a month? Some among our body have much while some have little. But sacrificial giving is what the Bible calls us into and we must then ask, in this blessed country where God has placed us, what real sacrifices are we making in the expansion of His kingdom? The poorest among us live as kings in this country. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

“I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.” 2 Corinthians 8:8-14

In much love and prayer,

Pastor Anthony