Valley Family Church “No Limit” Building Project
FAQ’s

This FAQ section is designed to keep our church family and local community up- to-date on the progress of our “No Limits” building plans. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation floating around regarding our proposed new building project. In an effort to provide factual, up-to-date information, we are offering this FAQ section on the “No Limits” website page.  Check back often as we will update this section as new information becomes available.
1. Several neighbors have stated that their number one concern is traffic. Some neighbors are afraid the new church will create a “traffic nightmare”. Didn’t you think there would be traffic problems when you purchased the Cathedral? What are you doing to prevent this? 

This is also our number one concern. We do not want traffic issues either. We have no desire to create frustration for the neighbors, nor for our own church members. We are interested in a smooth, safe, non-congested traffic situation that does not create a hardship on anyone.
People have asked us if we considered any potential traffic problems before we purchased the Cathedral. The answer is “yes”. These are the proactive steps we took beginning in the spring of 2007. Once we realized that the Cathedral property would be the ideal solution for our growing church and before we purchased the Cathedral, Pastor Jeff and our realtor Joyce Wiles met with the Transportation Department of the City of Portage to discuss the traffic impacts of our proposed project. At that time, before we purchased the Cathedral property, we were told that they did not see traffic as problematic or beyond anything that could not be remediated. Based on that meeting, in good faith, we purchased the Cathedral in June, confident that there would not be any traffic problems that could not be solved.
In August, the City of Portage remarked that we may want to consider a traffic study as they were receiving concerns from the neighbors about our project. In September, on the day of our initial site plan approval meeting, the City of Portage determined that there was enough concern among neighbors to definitely warrant a traffic study and they advised us of that necessity just hours before the initial Planning Commission Meeting.  We agreed that day to hire a professional traffic study and we adjourned our presentation to the Planning Commission.
Therefore, at the request of the City of Portage, we have hired Midwestern Consulting, out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a professional traffic engineering company, to conduct an extensive traffic study. This traffic engineering company came highly recommended by the City of Portage. They began their traffic study the weekend of Oct 5 & 6, 2007. We felt it was in the best interest of the neighbors and the VFC church family to spend nearly $15,000 to have this professional study done. In addition, we commissioned a traffic warrant study to be done as a follow up to the initial traffic study.  Both of these studies have been completed and meetings with the Portage and Kalamazoo Transportation Departments as well as MDOT have been taking place for the past several months to determine the best mitigation plan for traffic.

As an FYI… 

Vincent Avenue - According to the City of Portage, Vincent is a collector (major thoroughfare) roadway with a capacity of 16,200 vehicles per day. The current vehicle count for Vincent is 1,329 vehicles a day, well below its capacity.
Oakland Drive – According to the City of Portage, Oakland is a minor arterial roadway with a capacity of 30,600 vehicles per day. The current vehicle count for Oakland is 23,633 vehicles a day, well below its capacity. The recent expansion of Oakland to 6 lanes at Vincent makes it even better for moving traffic. 

2. What were the results of the professional traffic study?
We received the traffic report recommendations from Midwestern at the end of November 2007. It was our belief all along that with the proper remediation, a traffic signal or other solutions, that the traffic concerns would not be an issue. We received the final traffic report from Midwestern and the traffic report came back as we imagined all along…a traffic signal at Vincent and Oakland would solve any traffic concerns. A traffic signal would cause the traffic flow to move from an “F” (failure) to a “B”.  According to Midwestern, Portage commonly accepts a “C” or “D” on other roadways in Portage. Midwestern has developed a computer virtual model to show the actual flow of traffic with the recommended traffic signal.
We believe a traffic light will be a welcome blessing to the Cathedral neighbors as many of them have voiced this desire to us in our meetings and conversations with them.  A traffic light will also solve any traffic concerns for VFC, as well.  At this time, the City of Portage and MDOT are reviewing the recommendation for a traffic signal.
Midwestern’s computer model takes into consideration the current public traffic counts, projected community growth and traffic counts for the next decade and the potential traffic VFC would bring to Vincent Drive and they have proven that all traffic concerns will be solved by a traffic signal. The full traffic study is available at the City of Portage for those who would like to view it. 

As an fyi... The traffic study submitted by Midwestern was based on 2000 adult seats at VFC.  ITE Trip Generation procedure considers the size of the facility and total number of seats. Using national averages, Midwestern calculated that two-thousand adults represent 749 cars. VFC is proposing a parking lot that will accommodate less than that.

Valley Family Church’s site plan is requesting 667 parking spaces + 14 barrier free parking spots for a total of 681 parking spaces.  This is needed for the 1500 people in the adult sanctuary and 500 people at a simultaneous wedding or adult overflow service in the Cathedral.  We do see both venues as happening simultaneously.

Per Portage Zoning Ordinance church and combined uses on a site - we obtain a 2000 seat / 3 people per car = 667 spaces + 10% overflow allowed = 734 parking spaces.  Our 681 falls less than the maximum allowed by the city. The current Cathedral has 200 parking spaces

Currently, at 995 Romence Road, we have 408 parking spaces for an adult sanctuary that seats 800 and our parking lot is full within 10% every weekend at our 11am service.

3. What is the latest update on the progress of the site plan and going before the Portage Planning Commission?

The latest news as of Dec 1, 2007 is this:

-We postponed going before the Portage Planning Commission on December 6, 2007 because the traffic study and appropriate reviews had not been able to take place by the City of Portage or MDOT in order to meet that timetable.

-We postponed going before the Portage Planning Commission on January 17, 2008, as we were still awaiting all of the reviews by government agencies and traffic signal assurances.

-We postponed going before the Portage Planning Commission on March 6, 2008, as we were still waiting for a final review by all of the government agencies regarding the traffic signalization plans.

-We are scheduled to appear before the Portage Planning Commission on April 17, 2008 to present our site plan for approval.

4. This is very much a pedestrian neighborhood. Neighbors walk, jog, ride bikes as families, walk their dogs, have their children run down Angling Road to the school to play on the playground on the weekends, etc. There are no sidewalks on Vincent Avenue and most of Angling Road. The neighbors would feel better if all your traffic was directed only between your church and Oakland on Vincent only, but I can only imagine the boondoggle that would create for you.
 
We are going to do our best to encourage our people to leave the property and follow Vincent to Oakland and avoid Angling Road, as much as possible. At the same time, we cannot force people to use Vincent - as tax payers they will have a right to use Angling, a public road, if they so choose. However, we will be very purposeful in communicating on a regular basis that our people need to drive slow, be a blessing and good Christian neighbors. That will be our goal. 

The other thing that can be factored in is this: the bulk of our church hours and services happen on the weekends and at night, when school is not in session – so there should be virtually no conflict with Angling Elementary. Fortunately, the Cathedral is located on Vincent east of Angling Elementary and there is only one other home on Vincent Drive. 99.9% of all the residential homes are to the west and north of the Cathedral. So, the actual interaction of the neighbors, kids playing in the streets, runners, etc. will be very minimal. We are planning to install a sidewalk on our property along Vincent for the benefit of runners and joggers, etc. The neighbors may want to take up their desire for any additional sidewalks on Vincent or Angling with their fellow neighbors or the city of Portage to see what options are available. 
5. Why didn’t you contact us, the neighbors, sooner about your plans? 

Since we took possession of the Cathedral on September 1, we have done our best to learn the construction/approval process as we go. We apologize if we have not met your expectations in consulting with you prior to this date. Honestly, this building project is one of about 20 plates we are spinning on a daily basis, as we care for the needs of the thousands of kids, teens and families that call VFC home. Being pastors is our first priority, but we have leaned on the wisdom of our builder, staff and a team of volunteers from the church who are professionally involved in construction, development and facility management.
It’s important to keep in mind that we are pastors of a church, not developers. We spend the bulk of our time investing into the hearts and lives of people who need Jesus and those who want to grow in the Word and in their walk with God. In our past construction project, we worked with our builder and complied with Portage’s requirements for building and were approved at our one and only site plan approval meeting. It was simple and easy and the result is that we have grown. 

We have been surprised by the negative, hostile and in some cases defamatory response of a small group of neighbors, while at the same time encouraged by the positive and encouraging response of many of our new neighbors. We are doing our best to be a good neighbor without compromising on the needs of our church family or the gospel-mission that is our mandate as a church. We are currently working with the City of Portage, our builder, staff and a board of advisors involved in construction, development, facility management, etc. to determine the best course of action as we move forward. 

6. What efforts have you made to build a bridge to the neighbors? 

Once we realized that the neighbors were interested in talking about our building plans and desired to express their questions and concerns, we immediately hosted a “Meet the Neighbors” Open House at the Cathedral on October 3, 2007. We mailed invitations to over 550 homes (potentially 1100 people) inviting them to attend this meeting and only 44 showed up. Again, we were surprised, but this showed us that the majority of the neighbors are not that interested in the project and did not feel it was necessary to attend an informational meeting. Although the number of attendees was small, we felt we had a good dialogue with most of those in attendance. The number one concern of most of the neighbors had to do with traffic concerns. There were a few neighbors that were very upset and clearly want us to dismiss our plans for building. We realized that they were not interested in talking about the building project, but rather wanted us to nix the building project. It’s evident that most of the neighbors are not in an uproar about this project.
In addition to the “Meet the Neighbors” Open House on October 3, 2007, we have met with these people:
-We met with two neighbors from The Preserve who were very supportive and complimentary on our project. 
-Our Associates have met with a group of 4 neighbors who have been vocally opposed to our project in public hearings, on their Angling Vincent Alliance website, through picketing, stirring up other neighbors and via the Gazette.  After this group of four met with our Associates they along with a small group from the Angling Vincent Alliance requested another meeting with a moderator to rehash the same questions that had already been answered in previous meetings, via our FAQ’s, etc.  We declined their desire to meet again due to their demonstrated antagonistic activities – knowingly sending a defamatory letter to the IRS (you can read more on that below), writing misleading, negative Viewpoint articles, picketing and intentional misinformation being disseminated through their website and mailbox flyers. These things have caused us to lose any level of trust we might have had in this group. Our confidence in their desire for “friendly negotiations” is now completely eroded. We do not believe any additional meetings with this small group of neighbors would be productive.
Finally, we’ve done our best to respond to legitimate email questions. We've received a few "hate-filled" letters and emails where a couple of people chose to vent and we did not respond.

7. What are your plans for communicating with the rest of neighbors?
 
Again, since the turnout for the October 3, "Meet the Neighbors" open house was so low turn out; and since there does not seem to be much demand for other meetings, we will not be hosting any more community meetings.  We understand that everyone lives busy lives and finding time for additional meetings does not seem to be of interest to most neighbors.

Here's what we have done communicate with the neighbors:
-Website: We are now primarily communicating via the kvfc.org - FAQ’s. We are doing our best to respond to any questions, rumors or misinformation that comes to us and are posting those answers on the FAQ’s. In an effort to notify the neighborhood of the FAQ website, we recently sent a mailer to all 550 homes in the neighborhood to advise them of the FAQ site. For those who do not have internet access, we notified them that we'll be glad to print them a copy of the FAQ's and they can pick it up at VFC at their convenience. 

September 27, 2007
Two neighbors from The Preserve requested a meeting to talk about our building plans and their impact on The Preserve. We met with them and they were very supportive and congenial.

October 3, 2007 - Immediately Following First Site Plan Approval Meeting
VFC Hosted “Get To Know You” Open House
550 Homes Invited  - 1100 Potential People
Only 44 People Attended
Main Concern Expressed: Traffic

November 7, 2007
Four neighbors from Angling/Vincent Neighborhood requested a meeting to discuss their concerns. We had two of our Executive Associates meet with them to hear their concerns and answer their questions for several hours on November 14, 2007.

November 16, 2007
VFC Designed & Sent “Hello Neighbors” Mailer
To 555 Homes In Cathedral Neighborhood
Purpose: To say hello and to inform them of the FAQ’s on our website as an accurate source of accurate and up-to-date information on our project and also in self-defense to the multitude of misinformation that was being propagated and continually put into neighbor mailboxes by Angling Vincent Alliance.

November 21, 2007
Pastors Jeff and Beth Jones listened to the CD recording of the November 7th meeting with four  neighbors and our two Executive Associates and sent a personal follow-up letter to the four neighbors to summarize their concerns and to clarify several points of concern.

November 23, 2007
We received a letter from one of the four neighbors (whom requested the Nov 7 meeting) asking for another meeting to be mediated by 3rd party to discuss  VFC’s plans for maintenance, lighting, yearly calendar, etc. Based on this person’s leadership with the Angling Vincent Alliance and their contrary and defamatory behavior (ie. Sending letters to IRS, writing Viewpoint articles, hosting misinformation on website, picketing, etc.) we declined her offer as we did not feel that another meeting with her or the Alliance would be productive. By this time, she, her husband and other Alliance members had made their statements and expressed their hostile attitude and disapproval of everything VFC has done. Their attempt  to give the impression that she/they wanted “friendly negotiations” was contradictory to all of her/their and their previous actions.  As a result, any level of trust we might have had in her or the Angling/Vincent group was completely eroded. We did not believe any additional meetings with this group of neighbors would be productive. In addition, all of this person’s questions had already been addressed via previous meetings and/or VFC’s FAQ’s. 

December 2007
Two of VFC’s  Associate Pastors and members of our Executive Team went door-to-door in December to talk with neighbors of the  Cathedral.
Other Meetings: Other than the few neighborhood ringleaders mentioned above, there has not been any interest by others desiring a face-to-face meeting. In the event any other neighbors would like to a face-to-face meeting, we are requesting that they contact our Facilities Associate Aaron Johnson - aaronjohnson@kvfc.org  and he or one of our Associates will be glad to meet, as their schedule permits.

8. As a non-profit, non-taxed organization what type of financial benefit do you bring to Portage and the Greater Kalamazoo community? 

All churches are non-profit organizations and while the church does not pay taxes, every Pastor and every employee of the church does pay taxes, as does every member that attends VFC.

VFC Brings 1000’s of Consumers to Portage Every Weekend: The economic impact of several thousand people attending VFC every weekend cannot be denied or overlooked. Any city would be thrilled to have that many fresh consumers descending on their city each weekend. A recent survey showed that 40% of the people that attend VFC on the weekends said they shop, eat and spend their money in Portage and that they otherwise would NOT be in Portage, if it were not for the church. This is a good thing for Portage business owners, residents and economy - each weekend hundreds of people, who attend VFC and who otherwise may not step foot in Portage on the weekend, shop and eat at the mall, stores, restaurants and gas stations in Portage. VFC brings a financial boost to the City of Portage every time we have church and that is a benefit to everyone who lives in Portage. 

VFC Gives Portage an Employment & Tax Base Boost: VFC is among one of Portage’s larger employers. We employ a growing staff of 40 people. At least 10 of our staff members have moved to Portage from other states just to be on staff at VFC. This is good for Portage. The majority of our staff lives in Portage and all of them pay income and property taxes which is a benefit to the Portage community.  
Interestingly, the Gazette recently ran an article and stated that an unnamed “expert” on economic development from the W.E. Upjohn Institute didn’t believe that having 2300-2500 consumers in Portage each weekend because of VFC would not have any impact on the business community. Imagine that? Over two-thousand people coming to a city every weekend and they would not buy gas, meals, sundries, consumer products or groceries? 
The Gazette was asked to disclose their “expert” and they revealed their source as a link that references George Erickcek, senior regional analyst of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
http://mlive.stage.advance.net/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-25/1192027948319010.xml&coll=7
Unfortunately, the Gazette article writer totally missed the point. The impact VFC has on Portage does not hinge on whether it is in a residential neighborhood or not, it hinges on whether it is in Portage or not.  The thing this expert totally missed is that if VFC leaves Portage because of the community’s unwillingness to be accommodating, they will TOTALLY lose out on the economic benefits that even their expert says that we do bring to the community.

9.  It seems like Portage would want a $10 million dollar construction project in their backyard as the Michigan economy suffers and construction is down.  I know people in the construction field and they have to go to Indiana and Ohio to get jobs. Wouldn’t this project be good for local builders, electricians, plumbers, excavators, etc.? 
Yes, we totally agree.  According to the Michigan Economic Indicators of April 2007, the average weekly earning of those in the construction field was down by 4% over last year and the housing starts were down by 16% from the previous year. The Michigan wage and salary employment fell by 5,000 jobs in April from the March level and was 42,000 jobs below the April 2006 level.  Compared with March, the construction sector lost the most jobs – 4,000 jobs lost.  (The government sector also lost 4,000 jobs.)  Clearly, any new construction jobs are a good thing for Michigan – and specifically Portage!

10.  We heard you are building a “hideous, pole-building” - is that true? 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! We are not building a pole-building and we don’t think it looks hideous. Our proposed addition is a combination of brick, glass, dryvit and split-face block. We actually like the combination of “old and new” architecture coming together in this project.

The Cathedral is one of those buildings that people either “love” or “hate”…the architecture is so gothic and massive. Actually, many of the people we have talked to are in the “hate” category and they are surprised we are not tearing it down. We talked to people who think the Cathedral is an architectural wonder; and we’ve talked to people who wonder what the architects were thinking?
We are not attached to the Cathedral building either way – however, we do feel a strong attachment to further the gospel mission for which the landmark Cathedral was built and for which the property was dedicated. Therefore, our goal is to maintain the “old” look of the Cathedral and to add a “new” modern look to it. The “old/new” look is very popular in churches around the country as they update their “old” buildings and add on new, larger modern additions. The new modern building will incorporate some of the features of the Cathedral – the towers; and will help tone down the “massive, dark, gothic” look of the Cathedral.  

We understand that when it comes to exterior features of any building it is very subjective. People have all sorts of personal tastes and we understand that. Some people love Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and some people don’t…it’s a matter of personal preference. Fortunately, we and our church family are very excited about the new and old styles coming together.  

11. Do you have plans to include a McDonald's on your property as other corporate "churches" have done? 

No plans for Ronald McDonald are on the table at this time. We will offer a café snack bar for our members to grab a cup of coffee or sandwich after church, but as a rule we will encourage our people to continue to visit the many restaurants and coffee shops all over the greater Kalamazoo area. 

12. I want you to construct a brick privacy wall on the west and north side of your property. For example, like the brick privacy wall which the Kalamazoo Country Club constructed to keep activities that pertain to your church contained. Would you consider doing this? 

Sure, we would consider this if the Portage Planning Commission and our budget would allow it. In the meantime, we will plan to build berms and add privacy trees for screening in accordance with the City of Portage building codes. 
13. Tell us about your Day Care Center? 

We don’t have a Day Care Center. This has been a false rumor floating around. We do have a Preschool for 3 and 4 year olds. We operate this Preschool from 9am-11:30am and we have about 25 kids enrolled. In our new building, we may be able to have up to 50-75 kids in our Preschool. 

14. What type of School do you have? 

We don’t have an Elementary, Middle or High School – that is another false rumor that has been circulating. We do offer a Bible School for adults – the EPIC School of Ministry – on Sunday nights and we have 150 adult students enrolled in this school which currently meets at the Cathedral. 

15. Vincent is a very slick road in the winter. Anytime there is a rain during the day and temps drop below freezing or there is freezing rain or damp snow, there is a high chance cars will be off the road. The chance of increased accidents increases with the greater number of cars coming down the road. 

We just recently heard about this ice/slick issue and hopefully Portage will make a more concerted effort to salt/sand Vincent and if it’s possible and not cost prohibitive, we will do what we can to help that issue. 

16. Green space is highly valued and we have already experienced a negative impact by the highway department and all of their construction. MDOT removed the dirt berms and most of the small trees and shrubs that helped filter the air from the highway. The air quality has decreased and the noise increased. 

Right now our plan is to remove the least amount of trees possible – we are leaving up a majority of mature trees. In fact, Portage requires parking lot islands and we are planning to add nearly 200 additional trees to the project. At the moment, our site plan will result in 50% of the property being totally green. We will be adding berms and trees as screening on the north and west sides of our property for the benefit of the neighbors and in keeping with the Portage codes. We are also doing our best to go over and above the call of duty…the required set backs are 40 feet from the neighbors…by using berms as a screen, we are currently planning to give our neighbors anywhere from 80-100 feet of set back green space.
One bonus of our building is that it will actually help to reduce the noise from I-94 in the neighborhood…this may be a welcome surprise for the neighbors. 

17. I don’t like the look of your proposed building. It doesn’t even look like a church. 
Thank you! Actually, we take that as a compliment. That is our goal. Our mission is to reach people that don’t go to church; those that wouldn’t be attracted or interested in attending a traditional type of church or building. There are many great churches in the Kalamazoo area that are effectively reaching believers who prefer the more traditional style of church and building. That is not our primary calling. Our goal is to build a building that doesn’t look like a traditional church, but rather a building that looks like an inviting public building to welcome those who are unchurched. When people say that our new building looks more like a mall or shopping center instead of a church, we say “thank you” as that is our goal!

Again. . . we understand that when it comes to exterior features of any building it is very subjective. People have all sorts of personal tastes and we understand that. Some people love brick, some love glass, some love logs, some love vinyl siding - some people love a traditional look, some love a contemporary look and some love an industrial look. The "likeability" of the exterior aesthetics is simply a personal preference. Our church family is a blend of mature people as well as many young people, full of energy and they are very excited about the "new and old" styles coming together.

18. Did you know there is a very small group of people that are very upset about your project and they have started a website, put signs in their yards and held a protest on Oakland Drive? 

We know there is a small group of people that are upset that anything is being done at the Cathedral. Many of their fears are based on misinformation, but we understand that certain people don’t like change no matter what the project. Unfortunately, this small group has launched a negative website, yard sign campaign and picketing to spread rumors and fear. There are about 20 yard signs in yards in the neighborhood and there were about a dozen people that picketed. We also understand that the “squeaky-wheel” gets greased with media-attention. That’s life. 

At the same time, we’ve actually had some positive comments from other neighbors. Many are thrilled that a church is going to develop the property rather than a low-cost housing development, industrial or commercial buildings. Any time there is change or a new development, it is not uncommon to find some people that don’t support your project…we understand that… although it is a bummer. We believe in the end, the neighbors that are upset will find VFC to be good neighbors. 
We’ve also received amazing support from our congregation as well as nearly a dozen other churches in Portage and the greater Kalamazoo area.  As we are out and about around town, we are constantly hearing positive comments from business owners, residents and those who have heard of VFC and the good we bring to the community.  Most people can read between the lines and they recognize that a small group of people are grasping at every straw they can to stir up controversy…we understand that as well.

19. What kind of building are you trying to build? 

First, it’s our goal to build a building that will serve the needs of the church family – they are the ones who are financing the construction of this project. This proposed building is for them and those they want to reach out to - including their families, friends and neighbors. Second, it’s our goal to build a building that is economical and inviting to anyone in the greater Kalamazoo area – especially those who don’t know the Lord. Third, it’s our goal to build a building and maintain grounds that will be pleasing to the nearby neighbors and those who drive by on I-94. Fourth, obviously we want to build a building that complies with the laws and codes established by the Portage Planning Commission. 

20. When do you plan to break ground? 

Sometime in late Spring or early Summer 2008. 

21. How big will your church become? 

Our church can only become as large as the capacity of the building. We are proposing a 1500 seat auditorium for adults + the 500 seats of the existing Cathedral. That means at any given service, if every seat was taken we would have 1500 adults in the new church building + 500 people in the Cathedral for a simultaneous wedding or overflow service. The traffic study was based on these numbers. Our initial plans will be to offer 2 services – one on Saturday night and one on Sunday morning.
We don’t know how fast we will grow. It’s taken us 16 years to grow to 2300.  However, if and when the time comes, we will add 2 more services, so that we would have 2 services on Saturday night and 2 services on Sunday morning. (That is what we are doing in our current building.) Once we get to four services, our auditorium will be maxed out and the cumulative total of adults in the auditorium in all 4 services – if every seat were filled – would be 6000 – spread over 2 days and 4 services.  That is…2000 per service.

22. Some of the neighbors are concerned that you are a megachurch like Willowcreek, Saddleback or Joel Osteen’s church. 

Thanks for the compliment. It’s true, we are a megachurch. By definition, any church that is over 2000 people is considered a megachurch. (That includes several other churches in Kalamazoo!) But, we are in Portage…not Chicago, LA or Houston! In a market like these giant cities, it’s not surprising that Willowcreek has 20,000 attendees, Saddleback has 22,000 and Joel Osteen’s church has over 30,000 attendees. We can all rest assured that in a much smaller area like Kalamazoo, the largest our church can become will simply be our maximum 100% seating capacity.

23. How fast do you think you will grow? 

Who knows? It took us 16 years to reach 2300. We have seen a more accelerated growth rate in the past 7 years – due to our location on Romence Road and the spiritual hunger of many families these days. We have no doubt that we will grow on the Cathedral property, but we’ll have to leave the timing in God’s hands.
Using our current figures and a small bump for growth, we believe that when we hold our first services in our new building our Saturday night service attendance will between 800-1200 adults; and our Sunday morning service will be at close to the 1500 full capacity from the start.  At that time we’ll determine when we need to add more services.

24. What will you do when you reach your capacity? 

Once all four of our future services are filled to capacity; we will look to offer video satellite churches in other parts of the Greater Kalamazoo area. We have a vision for being a “Multi-Site Church” and this is a part of our long-term plan. 

25. What does a typical weekly schedule look like at VFC? 

Primary Services are Held on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – We Project: 

                                                                                                Current              New
Numbers           Building.


Saturday Service - 5pm & 7pm  Combined                                 600-800             1000              

Sunday Services - 9am & 11am Combined                                 1200-1400         1500+
Sunday Adult Class/Overflow in Cathedral                                  100                   300+    

Sunday Bible School         5-9pm                                               150 Adults        300
                
Sunday High School          6-7:30pm                                          120 Students     300

Office Hours/Volunteer Meetings are Held Monday-Thursday 

M-Th Staff Office Hours                    8:30-4:30pm                      40 Staff            50

Preschool                                           9-11:30am                       24 Kids             50

Monday Volunteers Meetings          6-8pm                                  50 Volunteers    75

Monday Family Care Center            By Appointment                               8-10 People      12

Wednesday Worship Practice         6-9pm                                  15 Volunteers    20

Occasional Special Meetings are Held at Various Times During the Year 

Crave Worship Night – 2 times/year                                            700                   1000

FLY on the Wall Conference – 1 time/year on weekend                50                     50

Guest Speakers – 4 times/year                                                   300-500             800

Fall Family Carnival – 1 time/year – Oct 31                                  1200                 1500

Weddings and Funerals – as calendar permits                            50-500              50-500

Concerts – 1 or 2 times/year – as calendar permits                      700-1000           2000

At This Time - We Don’t Offer These Ministries:

We don’t hold a weekly midweek church service – as many other local churches do and therefore, we won't have the typical midweek traffic you would find at other churches.

26. How many people from Portage attend VFC? 

Our church of 2300 is made up of 40% Portage residents and 60% of our congregation lives in surrounding areas: Kalamazoo, Vicksburg, Schoolcraft, Three Rivers, Mattawan, Lawton, Paw Paw, Plainwell, Parchment, Gull Lake, Comstock, Galesburg, etc. Several families travel as far as Grand Rapids, Jackson and Lansing. 

27. What concessions are you willing to make in light of the neighbors? 

We have said from the beginning that we want to be a good neighbor and that is why we have made numerous concessions on the site plan. These concessions include: rain gardens instead of large retention pond, large set backs, extra berms, smaller parking lot, sidewalk on Vincent, etc. Unfortunately, we may not be able to compromise to the degree that some people would like and we may not be able to make everyone happy.
Here are some specific areas that we have already made concessions on from our original site plan design. 

Parking Lot:

Currently, the Cathedral has 200 parking spaces, we will be adding 487+ spaces. We have reduced the overall size of our parking lot and we have removed the drive around lane that was originally on the north side of parking lot.
The City of Portage code states that a church may have one parking space per three seats. Our new auditorium will seat 1500 adults and the Cathedral will also seat 500 adults simultaneously for weddings/receptions and/or overflow adult services. This means that potentially, we could have 2000 adults on site in different spaces at any one time. As a general rule, at VFC we have 2.3 people per car. Therefore, according to our actual needs, we would require 870 parking spaces. We are not asking for that many! We are asking for considerably less.
Concerning the layout of the parking lot, we have intentionally put most of our parking on the I-94 side of the property for the benefit of the neighbors. We thought they would appreciate us keeping the parking lot as far away from their homes as possible. We have put a minimal amount of parking on the north side of our building for easy access to the covered drop off area for those that require a handicapped ramp. 
Set Backs: 

Portage requires a 40 foot setback from our parking lot or construction to the neighbor’s property line. On our updated site plan, we have given our neighbors even more set back space - almost 3 times that amount, with over 100 feet of set back on the north side for the benefit of the neighbors. We will keep most of that set back area natural with the grasses, trees, bushes and plants that are already there. We will add the appropriate amount of screening as required by Portage. 

Building Location: 

A lot of thought and discussion went into the placement of our new building on this property. Building to the west was not an option as we have agreed that the Episcopal diocese will have deeded access to the Resurrection Garden and we are not able to put our building on the west side of The Cathedral.
We recognize that The Cathedral is a massive, 40-year-old landmark. On one hand we want to maximize the landmark value of the Cathedral and on other hand, we want to minimize and tone-down the massive, gothic look of the Cathedral. In order to accomplish these two goals, we believe the best location for our new building is exactly where we have placed it – to the east of The Cathedral and in line with The Cathedral. This allows us to have parking on all three sides for ease of access by our attendees. 
Green Space: 

In keeping with the Portage 2025 vision, we are only using 7% of our total property for actual buildings.  We are leaving 45% of our property green and beautifully landscaped. We will leave as many trees as possible in their current and natural location. We will transplant numerous trees as we are able. 55% of our 30 acres will contain the actual buildings, sidewalks, parking lot and islands. 

Retention Pond and Rain Gardens:

In keeping with the Portage 2025 vision, we have integrated rain gardens throughout the property for run off water and retention.  This allows us to reduce the required size of our retention area. We have reduced this area and in the end it will be a large grassy area – fully mowed – with a very gradual slope of approximately 4-5 feet in depth. The property is extremely dry and sandy and the chance of it ever accumulating water is very rare. The city has a retention area on the west side of our property for use by the city and we cannot use this retention area.  

Lighting: 

We will comply with the City of Portage on their requirements for lighting in a way that is economical and in a way that provides for the safety of our attendees. We will also put most of the lights on a timer set to go off at an appropriate time. 

Screening: 

We will comply with the City of Portage in providing adequate screening for the benefit of the neighbors. We plan to install 6 foot berms with much of the natural grass, trees and foliage currently on the property. We will add evergreens and other trees as needed.

Sidewalk: 

We plan to install a sidewalk across the front of our property along Vincent. 

Bonus: 

Sound Buffer: The neighbors are concerned about noise.  Unfortunately, this beautiful piece of property is already very loud with I-94 being the major route for trucks and traffic between Detroit and Chicago – and with 131 nearby, this adds additional noise. One bonus of our project is that our new building will likely act as a welcome noise buffer for the neighbors directly north of our building. 

28. What type of ministry impact, outreach to the poor, etc. has VFC done to be a benefit to the Greater Kalamazoo community?
 
VFC has had a very positive reputation and track record on serving Portage and on being generous with human, material and financial resources to impact Portage and the Greater Kalamazoo area. We’ve listed several of these impacts below: 

Local Financial and Outreach Ministries: 

1991-2007     Local Financial Support: We have felt strongly about financially supporting local organizations, ministries and other churches in the greater Kalamazoo area. As a church, for years we have been monthly financial supporters of Way FM, Pregnancy Care Center, Gospel Mission, The Dream Center, Deacon’s Council and Loaves and Fishes. We have been financial sponsors of the local Red Cross, Portage Community Outreach Center, Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade for Christ, Kalamazoo Christian Schools and Walk for Warmth. Because we believe that we are one body in Christ, we have always looked for ways to financially support other local churches and have contributed thousands of dollars towards local church building funds and projects for various other local churches.  

1991-2007     Benevolence: Each year, we give away thousands of dollars in benevolent help to hundreds of people in the greater Kalamazoo area through the years by paying electrical bills, helping with late mortgage payments, offering Meijer Cards for groceries, etc. for those in need. 

1992-2007     Fall Family Carnival: For the past 16 years, we have hosted an annual fall carnival for thousands of families in our community – those who do not attend VFC; where we have given away thousands of pounds of candy and prizes to kids – free! 

2000-2002     Bikes for Kids: On Christmas Eve, as a church we purchased and delivered over 1000 free, new bicycles to needy boys and girls that do not attend VFC; so they could have a blessed Christmas Day! 

2002-2005     Summer Skate Park: For 10 weeks during the summer, we transformed our parking lot into a skate park complete with a half-pipe, ramps and grind bars so hundreds of kids in the community –VFC attendees and non-attendees - could skate and roller blade for free, in a safe, positive environment. The City of Portage saw the value of this outreach and since that time, Portage has built its own Skate Park for teens and we discontinued our program. 

2004-2007     Family Care Center: Every Monday night, we offer free, spiritual guidance and Biblical support ministry. This is where people from the community may set up a one-on-one appointment with one of our Christian care givers for Biblical counsel and encouragement to help with life’s issues including; marriage, parenting, financial, relationships, addictions, recovery, etc. 

2006-2007     Meals for Local School Sports Teams: In an effort to bless our public schools and reach out to young people, our youth ministry has hosted and provided free pre-game meals to numerous school football and basketball teams at their schools. 
2008               Project 1:27: We are launching an outreach to the needy, widows, orphans, single parents and less fortunate in our community and abroad during May 2008. We will offer 10 Projects for people to participate in as they are the “hands and feet” of Jesus to others in need. 
2008+             Cathedral: Once we move to our new campus, we may make the Cathedral available for rent to the public for weddings, funerals and special banquets as the calendar permits.  

29. Are the site plan and proposed building etched in stone or are you still making tweaks and adjustments to the plan? 

We are still making final tweaks and adjustments to the plans. In an effort to listen to the ministry needs of the VFC church family, the input from the Portage Planning Commission and the concerns of the neighbors - and in order to keep within our budget - we are in the process of many final tweaks and adjustments. These tweaks include such things as: 
-The final overall size of the building. We originally proposed a 129,000 square foot building and we have looked at ways to downsize the new building to 85,000 square feet.  We looked for ways to cut costs without compromising on the space requirements needed.
Here are some of the things that are on the table. 
-The final layout of the retention pond and rain gardens.
-The final layout of the parking lot and traffic flow on site.
-The final layout of berms and landscaping.
-Determining if and when we will offer a walking path.

30. When do you hope to go before the Planning Commission for your site plan approval? 

Unfortunately, one of the rumors that neighbors had been told was that VFC was trying to “rush the process” to get an approval from the city. That was never our goal. We were actually more concerned with the weather and potential ground breaking dates in the early stages of seeking site plan approval. Now winter is upon us…we are in no hurry. We have plenty of time to obtain a site plan approval before the next construction season of spring and summer arrive. Once we have settled on the final site plan and are confident that we have met with the city’s requirements and the traffic concerns have been addressed, we will present our final site plans to the city for approval.  Our current date to present our plans to the Portage Planning Commission is set April 17,2008.

31. A few neighbors seem very hostile towards the church and they attend the City Council and Planning Commission meetings to complain; they stir up neighbors through fear and misinformation, etc. What is VFC doing to counteract that? 

It’s sad, but true. We have received some very hostile, negative emails from some neighbors who are very emotionally upset. We understand and we respect their right to voice their feelings.

VFC is not in the business of fighting with people, it’s always been our goal to follow the Lord, live to please Him and do our best to be a blessing to those around us. We are certainly not perfect, but for the past 16 years, we have a track record to prove that this has been our motivation as we seek to serve the greater Kalamazoo area.  

We are doing our best to continue that tradition. Our strategy for “counteracting” is simply this.

Here’s what we WILL do: 

-Prayer:             we continue to pray for our neighbors and God’s wisdom for His plan.
-Listen:             we continue to listen for constructive criticism and input
-Website:          we will update this website to provide accurate information.
-Inform:             we will speak the truth in love to defend ourselves against misinformation
-Provide:           we will continue to provide information to the City of Portage
we will send a mailer to let all the neighbors know about the FAQ website; and                             we will make our Associates available for face-to-face meetings
-Traffic Study:   we will conduct a professional (not emotional) traffic study.
-Comply:           we will comply with the requirements of the Planning Commission.
-Support:          we will ask the entire VFC family to continue to voice their support for VFC to the                                    Planning Commission and Gazette - as voters, tax-payers and members of the                            Portage and Greater Kalamazoo community.
-Process:          we will let the process work…the City has it in place because it works.

Here’s what we will NOT do: 

-We won’t write negative or hostile Gazette articles or post misinformation on our website.
-We won’t picket.
-We won’t speak despairingly of our neighbors.
-We won’t attend every Planning Commission or City Council Meeting to complain.
-We won’t hold any further community “negotiation” meetings with neighbors.

32. You purchased the Cathedral property and you have a right under federal law to develop that land, correct? Do other people have a right to tell you how to develop your property?

It’s true…we did purchase the property. This included the Cathedral and nearly 30 acres. It was for sale and anyone could have purchased it – as it turned out – we did. We have a right to develop that property as long as we comply with the codes laid out by the Planning Commission. We are also protected from any prejudice under the federal law RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000) which is a federal statute that was passed in 2000 to provide stronger protection for religious freedom in land-use.  
Thankfully, the right to develop your property is true for all home and land owners. As long as the local codes are followed, it’s nice to know that your neighbor cannot tell you what color to paint your house or how to landscape your yard.

Obviously, we want to build a building that will serve the needs of those that are paying for the building – that is, the VFC members, attendees and those they will invite. We want to develop a building that is aesthetically pleasing, economical and functional. Finally, we want to build a building that has factored in the concerns of the neighbors. In our case, we have already made many concessions specifically for the neighbors benefit.
Ultimately, we do have a legal right to develop the property we own.
33.  I would like to voice my support for VFC’s building project, and I would like our community leaders to know about the benefit VFC brings to kids, teens, families and businesses in Portage and the greater Kalamazoo area.  How can I do that? 

Feel free to email the Planning Commission and the City Council. Also, feel free to write a letter to the editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette. You should send your primary correspondence to Chris Forth at the Community Development Department and he will disseminate your communications.  If you'd like to write to the other members of the City Council and Planning Commission as well, their contact info is posted below. Please keep all of your communications respectful and courteous.

Portage City Council

Peter Strazdas, Mayor pstrazdas@charter.net

Larry DeShazor deshazorw@aol.com

Margaret O’Brien Obrien@obrienforportage.info

Claudette Reid Claudette@reid4portage.com

Ed Sackley edsackley@msn.com

Terry Urban terryurban@pia.com

The Planning Commission members are volunteers (they will ultimately make the final decision, because they are in charge of zoning and approving construction within Portage) include:

Planning Commission

Tom Fox, Chairman tom_f@kiarts.org

Paul Welsh paul.welch@stryker.com

Chris Forth forthc@portagemi.com

James Cheesebro jecheesebro@cmsenergy.com

Richard Yonke m-ryonke@juno.com

Kerry Hettinger khett57@hotmail.com

Elizabeth Campbell elizabethc@keystonebank.com

Nancy Martin nmartin@chartermi.net

James Hoppe jimrhoppe@hotmail.com

Bruce Dean brucewdean@netzero.com

If you want to write them via US mail and want ALL PARTIES to receive a copy of your letter, you can address the letter:

TO: ALL Portage City Council and Planning Commission Members, City Manager and City Development Office

US Mail address:
7900 South Westnedge Avenue
Portage, MI 49002

34.  Someone from the Cathedral neighborhood wrote a Viewpoint article in the Gazette and said that VFC has had some “bad” relationships with their current neighbors?  Is this true? 
We have always made it our goal to be a good neighbor.  When we built the church at 995 Romence Road in 1999, there wasn’t a neighborhood to the east of the church. That neighborhood went in after our building was built and they knowingly moved in next to the church parking lot. Since the construction of those homes, we have endeavored to be a good neighbor, while at the same time carrying on with the ministry that was in place. 
There have been reports of “dead trees” that screen our property from the current neighbors and we admit it has been an ongoing problem to get the trees to take hold and grow in the mix of dirt and stones there.  We have replaced more than 3 dozen pine trees – over 36 trees – over the past several years with the hopes that through extra watering and TLC they would take hold. Many of the trees have done well, but for the others, it has been a struggle. While there have been some dead trees over the years, we have always replaced them with new, healthy trees. 
There have been reports of “loud music and noise”. During the summers of 2002-2005, we were guilty of hosting an outdoor skate park for hundreds of local teenagers on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, on a few occasions the music became too loud and when we became aware of that problem we nixed the music for the subsequent weeks.  We also intentionally closed the Skate Park before the sun went down in an effort to be a good neighbor. 
It has truly been our desire to be a good neighbor. One of our neighbors, Gloria Romence has lived across the street from VFC since we began excavating and she has nothing but glowing comments about what a great neighbor VFC has been. 
We have done our best to keep immaculate grounds and to provide a clean and safe parking lot for everyone. We made our previous playground and sand volleyball court available to neighbor kids who were supervised. We have done our best to provide all kinds of free, fun activities outside and inside our building for the local community and nearby neighbors – including our annual Fall Family Carnival, Skate Park and giant, 4th of July Picnic. 
At the same time, we have not been perfect and we have had a few neighbors that have become upset with us because we asked them to not dump their garbage over the fence onto our property and because we asked them to supervise their son when he played on our playground equipment. It was not our intent to offend them, but we understand that they did become offended as a result. 

35.  The same Viewpoint article seemed to indicate that VFC hasn’t considered what they will do in the future as the church grows. A couple of the Cathedral neighbors seem to think that VFC will “take over” Portage and affect the infrastructure of the entire city! 
We appreciate their faith in our ability to grow!  The reality is that we can only become as large as our seating capacity will allow.  So – in truth, the largest any one service could ever be would be 2000 adults – 1500 in our sanctuary and 500 in the Cathedral for a simultaneous wedding or adult overflow service. We are confident that the greater Portage infrastructure can handle the growth via its roadways and interstates. 

It may take years to ever max out the capacity, but if and when we have maxed out 4 weekend services – 2 on Saturday night and 2 on Sunday morning – we will be full at The Cathedral property site. Our maximum main auditorium capacity for all 4 services would be 6000.  Our plans for growth beyond that are simple…as we have said; we plan to be a “Multi-Site Church” – one church with multiple locations.  We will begin satellite churches in other parts of the Kalamazoo County and other parts of the USA.
We have given a great deal of thought to this, we have visited many other churches around the country that are utilizing this model and this is a part of our master plan.  That is why the “hysteria” over our potential growth is so mystifying.  We cannot – nor do we plan – to grow our Cathedral site beyond what the total adult seating capacity allows. Worst Case Scenario: Main Auditorium Church Service 1500 + Wedding in Cathedral 500 = 2000 Adults - at the most at any one time. It’s simple math.

36.   The Viewpoint writer also said God never intended for churches to be so big - “…a mega church is a colossal departure from the house of worship that once nestled comfortably on the village or neighborhood green.”  What happened to small churches? 

Unfortunately, this person’s statement is based on a lack of knowledge and is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. When the Church first started (according to the Book of Acts) it was a megachurch from the beginning!  The first sermon that Peter preached resulted in over 3000 people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  A few sermons later, over 5000 people showed up for “church”! God’s idea of church has always been big…that’s because He loves everyone and wants all people to come to know Him. Jesus is “building” His Church and that is certainly descriptive of growth. Jesus Himself could not abide by some people’s desire to have a small church “nestled comfortably in the village” - as all of His meetings drew multitudes of men, women and children. The Bible tells us that over 5000 men were present when He multiplied the loaves and fish – not counting the women and children. There are plenty of small churches that do a wonderful job in touching families, but God is very much into big churches. 

37.  We heard that some of the neighbors have gotten 200 people to sign a petition regarding this project.  They said there is a “ground swell” of people concerned about this project. 

We read the petition. The "ground swell" is comprised of people who want VFC and the City of Portage to follow the codes, policies and laws set in place. We agree!   

Here's the Petition From The Angling Vincent Alliance: 

October, 2007
A Citizen Petition
To the Portage, Michigan City Council

To ensure that the plans proposed by the Kalamazoo Valley Family Church for development within the Angling Road/Vincent Drive Neighborhood will maintain the integrity and safety of the neighborhood residents and that of its contiguous neighbors.

We, the undersigned citizens, taxpayers and home owners in the Angling Road/Vincent Drive Neighborhood, do hereby respectfully petition you to:

-assure that the City’s Development Office provides to all Portage and Kalamazoo residents living in the Angling Road/Vincent Drive Neighborhood the information necessary to understand the full scope and impact of the proposed special land use permit site plan submitted for acceptance by the Kalamazoo Valley Family Church (KVFC);

-assure that the City’s Development Office criteria for approval of the KVFC final site plan includes realistic solutions that solve not only issues within the boundaries of the church site, but also those that impact the entire Angling Road/Vincent Drive neighborhood;

-assure that the City’s Development Office coordinates with the KVFC traffic consultant, KATS, the City of Kalamazoo Engineering Department and the MDOT traffic engineers in the preparation of all traffic surveys and that the resulting plan not only reaches concurrence of these entities but also addresses the safety of the Angling Road/Vincent Drive Neighborhood residents, the members of the KVFC, and the users of Oakland Drive;

-assure that the accepted KVFC project plan includes in its scope allowances for future growth which can, without major impact, be serviced by the existing infrastructure and does not compromise the safety, the integrity and intrinsic characteristic of the existing neighborhood;

-initiate the action necessary to assure the City Planning Commission tables acceptance of any and all plans submitted by the KVFC until a comprehensive traffic plan is prepared by and has the concurrence of all affected planning units and that the resulting final project plan meets the criteria that maintains the integrity and safety of the Angling Road/Vincent Drive residents.

Please Sign the petition

We agree with the basic premise of this petition! It is our desire to abide by the legal codes and laws in place for the planning and development of all property in Portage and we have no doubt that this is the desire of the City of Portage and the Planning Commission.  

It’s no wonder that 200 people signed a petition that said that VFC must abide by the requirements of the Portage Planning Commission codes, criteria for approval, traffic study results, etc.  Of course! That is how the process is designed to work! That is not a “ground swell” - this is just common sense. 

When anyone proposes any type of building plan, permits or approvals they have to work in accordance with the legal process in place. They are not required to do more than the City requires and they certainly are not allowed to do less. VFC has been following the requirements of the Portage Planning Commission to the letter and has every intention of continuing to do so. The City of Portage has done a good job of notifying neighbors as required by law and they have made all pertinent public documents available to those who wish to view them.  

38.  A friend of mine who lives in the Cathedral neighborhood - and who is supportive of our project - said that this small group of naysayers are putting letters in his mailbox practically everyday and that they never sign their letters. Why is this group trying to remain anonymous? 

We have no idea.  People have sent us copies of some of the literature that has been disseminated and they are not signed by anyone.  Even the website this group of neighbors has started is hosted by an anonymous service and they have registered their domain anonymously.  We are aware of a few members of the alliance, but we really aren’t sure why they want to remain anonymous. 

39.  Can you define what you mean by “No Limits”? That phrase scares me and makes me think you intend to grow to reach all 175,000 unchurched people in Kalamazoo County. 

We understand that at first glance that phrase could give you the wrong idea.  When we are talking about “No Limits” we are talking about several things… 

-We are talking about a spiritual attitude that as we follow the Lord there are no limits to what He will do in us and through us. Jesus said, “With God nothing is impossible!”   

-We are talking about the scope of all the ministries VFC has pioneered – our local congregation is just one part of the “No Limits” vision.  VFC is touching lives way beyond Kalamazoo! VFC’s ministry is felt around the world; through missionaries, disaster relief trips, church growth conferences, satellite churches, books, CDs/DVDs, the internet and other ministries that are impacting people way beyond Kalamazoo. 

-We are NOT talking about a church size that is without limits. Common sense will tell you that a church cannot grow beyond its seating capacity or parking.  Once we have reached our maximum size of 6000 in four services, we will plan to start satellite churches in the Greater Kalamazoo area. 

40.  A local campus planner and one of the Cathedral neighbors wrote a Viewpoint letter to the editor disagreeing with your plans; she thinks you should have developed this property like a college campus – with multiple buildings; why didn’t you do that? 

This campus planner does not have any experience with the dynamics of a growing family church. Her reference points are based on college campus experience and the logistics of ministry in a church are much different than the logistics of a college campus.  On a college campus, everyone is an adult and capable of transporting themselves from one building to another.   

We understand that for those who are primarily familiar with the habits of college students and campus life – they may not understand the logistics of a large family church. Since we have pastored a growing family church for the past 16 years, we can speak from experience, with some expertise, on the habits and life of a church family…it is vastly different from a college campus.  We have studied the campus development of churches like ours across the country and without exception every large church has one main large church building that houses all ages and the entire family.  They may have additional buildings for warehousing, extra offices, gymnasium, etc., but the church family meets under one roof.
The traditional campus approach DOES NOT WORK for a church environment. Common sense will tell you that a church caters to families and families consist of babies, elementary kids, middle schoolers and high schoolers.  Parents are adamant about being in the same building as their children during church services.  They absolutely don’t want to be in a separate building – away from their preschoolers, elementary or middle school students - especially in this day and age.  Parents want to be accessible for their kids in the event of an emergency and for the ease of drop off and pick up. Parents do not want their kids to walk to a separate building – especially in the Michigan weather; nor do parents want the inconvenience of taking their kids to a separate building. Our preschool, elementary and middle schoolers need to be in the same building as their parents and that is absolutely non-negotiable. 
So…while the campus idea is a nice theory, it is not practical, effective or logistically appropriate for the weekly ministry of a family church in Michigan.

41.  Some of the opposing neighbors sent another Viewpoint letter to the editor criticized you because they don’t believe that you have spent enough time planning for this project and the future. 

This criticism is primarily based on a lack of knowledge.  To our knowledge they have never attended one of our services, sat in any of our planning meetings or heard any of the 16 years of annual vision-casting message series. The critics have been fairly condescending in their comments, but the reality is that they have no idea what has gone into the planning, research and development of our building or vision for our ministry.  

A tremendous amount of research and planning goes into most everything we do at VFC. Have we thought of everything?  Absolutely not…but our 16 years of history shows a track record of wise planning and consistent growth. 
Trust us, you don’t grow a church from 5 adults and 4 kids to a church of 2500 in sixteen years, without a strong faith and God’s grace and without serious research, planning, organization and effectively mobilizing an amazing team of staff, lay leaders and volunteers.   

For those who are interested in hearing more about the “who, what, when, where, why and how” details on our vision and the research, preparation and planning that have gone into VFC’s past, present and future - feel free to listen to any of our past sermons where we annually share these details with our church family. The past few years of vision-casting for VFC have included these series:  “A Vision Worth Living For”; “24” and “No Limits”.  Feel free to order any of these series. 

42.  I am upset that you purchased the Cathedral. What other buildings or land did you look at before purchasing the Cathedral and why didn’t you pick one of those? 

We realize that change is difficult for some people. When the Cathedral was for sale – anyone could have purchased it and developed it into a variety of things in line with the zoning. As it turns out, we purchased the Cathedral. We believe it is the right property at the right time. 

Since 2004, we have been looking for the right place for our future growth.  We have traveled to numerous churches around the country to research church buildings and the multi-site concept to determine what type of building or property we needed. As a result,  we looked at practically every commercial or industrial building over 100,000 square feet in the greater Kalamazoo area including: Midlinks, Sam’s Club, Mead, the big glass Pfizer building on Portage Road and several other Pfizer buildings, etc.  We looked at numerous pieces of property that were at least 25 acres or more including land at 9th Street, West Main, Centre Street, etc. and including the option of purchasing land behind our current building. Each one of these sites was unsuitable for our needs for a variety of specific reasons. 

43.  How do you plan to use the Cathedral? 

We are currently using the Cathedral every Saturday night at 5pm and Sunday mornings at 9am for our Bible Foundations Class and every Sunday night from 5-9pm for our EPIC School of Ministry. Once our new facility is built, we will continue to use the Cathedral for these purposes while at the same time holding our adult services in the new sanctuary. In addition, we will use the Cathedral for weddings, funerals as needed.   

44.  The Angling Vincent Alliance has sent a letter to the City officials and posted an article on their website that VFC has violated its non-profit status by encouraging its members and constituents to write to the City officials in support of their project.  Is this true?

Yes, it’s true. They did send such a letter. Unfortunately, those people are potentially guilty of knowingly filing false accusations and defamatory comments. They are in error regarding the law and may be held liable for engaging in illegal, defamatory behavior. Our attorney – who works with hundreds of non-profit ministries around the country - has sent them a letter to correct their misunderstanding of the law and to explain our legal right to actively encourage people to support our building project and to exercise their right to express their support to influence any and all City officials.  In addition, under the law, in self-defense against the misinformation and protests that have taken place to oppose our project, we are free to garner as much support as we desire to influence the City officials. The law actually protects our right to encourage the public, our members, constituents, subscribers, etc. to use their voice to favor our cause with any and all federal, state and local governmental officials.   

This type of fear-mongering, intimidation and defamatory misinformation is the classic reason we have established this FAQ site. We have purposed to provide truthful, factual information that is not emotionally-driven or fear-based. 
Interestingly, after our attorney sent the Angling Vincent Alliance a letter admonishing them; they immediately shut down the Angling Vincent Alliance website and all known leaders have disavowed any relationship to the Angling Vincent Alliance. Of course, transcripts of City meetings, Gazette articles and photos and copies of their former website clearly mark those who are or have been involved with the Angling Vincent Alliance.

45.  I heard that the Vincent Alliance had copywritten material from VFC on its site and they refused to remove it and comply with the law. 

It is true that they illegally posted 3 of VFC’s copyrighted building photos and site plan on their site. We emailed the neighbor who serves as the website administrator and asked them to remove all of our materials on Nov 13. We never heard from them and they did not remove our materials.
This is the email VFC sent:
Subject: Illegal Use of Copyrighted Material is on your website
Date: 11/13/2007 11:38:18A.M. Eastern Standard Time
TO THE WEBMASTER/OWNER OF: (WEBSITE LISTED)
It has come to our attention that your site (website listed) contains several pieces of media (pictures, renderings, blueprints and videos) that are copyrighted by Valley Family Church of Kalamazoo.
One such illegal use can be found here: (their website was listed) We would kindly ask you to remove ALL material copyrighted by Valley Family Church from your website as soon as possible.
We would prefer to handle this informally, but if all copyrighted material is not removed within 48 hours we will forward this request to our attorney for further action.
On Nov 20, their web hosting service insisted that they remove it.

46.  The Cathedral property is very noisy with I-94 traffic to the south and 131 rumbling to the west.  Will the noise from the highway interfere with your church activities?

You are right.  That piece of property is extremely loud. The recent construction on I-94 has moved the highway even closer to Vincent and it’s become even louder! As a major route for trucks and traffic between Detroit and Chicago – and with 131 nearby, this adds additional noise. We have spoken to our Audio Consultants and we do not anticipate any problems within our building.
We believe that our building will actually act as a welcome noise buffer for the neighbors directly north of our building.

47. We recently heard that 12 people from across the highway from the Cathedral signed a petition against VFC in a complaint about the music we played at the picnic on Labor Day?

It would be funny if it weren’t so ridiculous – or pathetic! If the neighbors across the highway, behind 1st Assembly, heard any of the 4 songs we sang in a 15 minute time span from 5:30pm-5:45pm on Labor Day – over the extremely loud, constant rumblings of the 18 wheelers that ran between us and them on 1-94…they need to call the Guinness Book of World Records and Miracle Ear to report that they have the most amazing hearing on Planet Earth. We spent a total of 30 minutes dedicating the Cathedral to the Lord from 5:30-6pm. During that 30 minutes; we spent 15 minutes talking/praying the prayer of dedication and 15 minutes singing these songs: Happy Day, Song of Love, How Great is Our God, I Am Free. The audio crew and band also had a 20 minute sound check from 2-2:20pm.

Unfortunately, we have reason to believe the neighbors across the highway are being coached by some of the hostile neighbors behind the Cathedral. Fortunately, the $5 million-dollar-a-mile sound walls that MDOT has recently installed on I-94 should totally prevent any future “noise” spill.

48. How are you all doing? The noise, negativity and misinformation from a few neighbors have to be discouraging. How are you and the staff handling it?

That is a great question! Of course, it’s never fun to have critics – especially when so much of the negative criticism is based on misinformation. It’s even more of a bummer to have such strong critics – when our goal has always - and only - been to be a blessing to this community.

In any event, we have tried to listen to and heed the legitimate concerns – primarily regarding traffic impacts. These are legitimate and we, and the City of Portage, are taking them seriously.

For the other comments, we have found a few secrets that help us to deal with challenges and the persecution that comes from the emotion-based negativity.

Here’s what keeps us going…

We Live for an Audience of One. Our number one priority is to please the Lord and sometimes that means we have to make leadership decisions that don’t please men. We are okay with that. “Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval — only God approval.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4

The Joy of the Lord is our Strength. We have decided to laugh in the midst of what sometimes seem like crazy comments and strategies. Life is too short to be mad, bitter, offended, ticked and angry. Sometimes we just shake our heads and laugh…sometimes we crank the praise music up real loud and we sing and dance. "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. Not only that — count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens — give a cheer, even! — for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.” Matthew 5:10-12

We Endeavor To Speak the Truth in Love.  Passive Christianity doesn’t do anyone any good, so we have purposed to speak the truth in love when it is appropriate. Jesus was the Master and being direct and quite blunt with His critics, yet His motivation was always in love. Oftentimes, people don’t know what they don’t know – and ignorance or a lack of knowledge has them believing something that is untrue. The purpose of this FAQ site is to simply speak the truth in love on issues related to our building project. “…we state the truth openly (clearly and candidly). And so we commend ourselves in the sight and presence of God to every man's conscience.” 2 Corinthians 4:2

We Are Refreshed By Great Friends.  We have been so thankful for the support of our staff, church family, other local church leaders and members of the community. There is nothing like the source of strength that comes from the friendships we have built over the years. “Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. Reliable friends who do what they say are like cool drinks in sweltering heat — refreshing!” Proverbs 18:24, 25:13

We Are Staying Focused On Our Primary Purpose.It’s easy to get distracted by all the “noise.” We haven’t done everything perfectly, we will be the first to admit that; but we have purposed to stay focused on what the Lord has called us to do in pastoring and caring for the needs of a large church family each week. Thousands of adults, teen and kids are counting on us, our staff and volunteers to teach the Word, encourage their faith, pray for their needs, and to help them reach out to their friends and family with the gospel every week. This is a huge responsibility that we do not take lightly.

The reason we can stay focused on our purpose, is because we are confident in the Portage Planning Commissioner’s ability to look at all the data and to review the professional traffic study to make their own determination.  We are confident they are able to distinguish between legitimate concerns, facts, solutions and hysteria. We are confident that as we comply with the Portage Planning Commission’s guidelines, codes and requirements, we can pursue our legal right to further develop the Cathedral property we purchased.  “I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me…I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward — to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. So let's keep focused on that goal….” Philippians 3;12-15

We Pray For Our Critics.  The best thing about praying for others is that it keeps our heart in the right place. It’s no fun having “enemies” or people that say or write things that are untrue about you or the church, but Jesus told us the remedy for our hearts is to pray for them.  So…we have done that - individually, as a staff, in Prayer School and during our weekend services - and will continue to pray for all of our new neighbors. Jesus said… “I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer…” Matthew 5:44

We Trust The Lord. The bottom line is that VFC belongs to Jesus. It’s not our church, it’s His Church. We’ve said this since we started the church in 1991…Jesus is the One building His Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This project isn’t about us or the neighbors, it’s about thousands of people - adults, families, teens and children - in our community who are broken, discouraged and far from God. He loves them and has called us – along with many other churches - to reach out as His ambassadors. We trust the Lord to help us do what He’s called us to do for Him! “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6