Church Overwhelmingly Approves New Campus Resolution
On Announcement Sunday, May 16, Planning and Development Committee Chairman Mark Lovvorn announced that congregational response to a six-month capital campaign totaled $115,062,000 — enabling First Baptist Dallas to recreate its downtown campus for 21st century ministry.
Referring to God’s provision for the Israelites in the Old Testament account of their Exodus from Egypt, Dr. Robert Jeffress said, “For generations to come, people will look at May 16, 2010 as a day that God parted the Red Sea and did a miracle for the people of First Baptist Church of Dallas.”
Since then, architects have been making minor changes to the design of the new campus to improve its functionality without affecting ministry capacity, and reduced the total cost of the plan to $115 million.
Sunday, June 6, at a church-wide business meeting, detailed plans of the adjustments made to the original new campus plans were outlined by Mark Lovvorn, Executive Pastor Walter Guillaume, CEO of ChurchWorx David Hatton and our representative at The Beck Group, John Paul DeFrank.
After a period of questions, the congregation overwhelmingly approved a resolution to “proceed with the plans for the re-creation of the downtown church campus.” which also includes the creation of preschool space on the 4th floor of the Criswell Center and the renovation of the Spurgeon Harris building for Student Ministry and First Baptist Academy.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Sunday, July 11, immediately following the 10:50am service, and dedication of the new campus will be Easter Sunday, 2013.
Construction of the new buildings will not begin until the church has approved a definitive contract with the general contractor containing a guaranteed maximum price. That vote will take place in November.
“I want to extend my highest gratitude to Mark Lovvorn and our Planning and Development Committee for bringing us to this point,” Dr. Robert Jeffress said. “And I also want to thank each and every family and individual in this church for the sacrifice you’ve made to make this all possible.”