FAQ

Oak Pointe Novi and Oak Pointe Milford are two campuses, but one church. Even though the two campuses worship and operate in different locations and minister to different communities, we share a common history, mission, vision, and values. Both campuses are Oak Pointe Church. This is unlike Bell Creek Church and Mosaic Church, which are church plants. Those churches are completely independent of Oak Pointe, though we maintain a friendly and collaborative relationship.

Oak Pointe Church has always been about expanding the kingdom of God locally, regionally, and globally. The church has talked about expansion many times before. Now, with the growth of our local communities, the time seems right. After years of prayer and pausing expansion, God has put it on our hearts that it is time to make more room for stories at both of our campuses and at future campuses.

The answer is different for each campus. But, in general, churches around the United States are closing their doors at an alarming rate. We believe it is important to continue to be outreach-minded and build momentum by seeing new people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

At the Novi Campus, over the past decade attendance numbers have plateaued. But we believe that the growth of this campus should keep pace with the growth of the region. Plus, by building community and connection spaces, we believe we will have far greater community impact than if the building remains in its current footprint.

At the Milford Campus, new people will not step in the doors more than once if their experience is that of a congested parking lot and an overcrowded atrium and worship center. More space is needed for people to feel welcome.

While some worship services are nearing capacity at each campus, there are ways to add or alter service times to help balance attendance across all services. We believe that our current worship spaces are adequate to sustain growth over the next several years, while our connection and ministry spaces are inadequate.

We started with a vision frame process to understand what God is calling us to over the next five years and calculated the resources needed to accomplish it. Then, we gauged our potential financial capacity. Most churches can raise two times their annual offerings in a 2-3 year campaign. The annual budget between Oak Pointe’s two campuses is approximately $7 million.

We have worked closely with our architect to create building plans that will accommodate the greatest needs of each campus. The Novi campus building cost would be in the ballpark of $7 million and the Milford campus building cost would be around $6 million. Adding $1 million for future church plants brings us to a $14 million goal.

While financial giving is the obvious way to participate, it is not the only way. Building expansions have a way of capturing the imagination of the community and bringing new visitors to a church. Over the life of the campaign, and until the building expansions are complete, it will be vital for each campus to be developing outreach and discipleship strategies to receive new guests. The more engaged you are in the life of the church now, the more ready we will be when the doors open to our new spaces. Please consider how you can use your strengths to impact current ministries!

We are planning a two-year campaign that officially launches January 5-6, 2019 and will conclude in January 2021. Gifts can be made during this period.

Depending on the outcome of the two-year campaign, including giving levels and building costs, NEXT could be extended for a number of months.

There are three ways to fulfill your NEXT comittment.

Online Giving
Give a one time gift or schedule recurring giving using your debit/credit card or checking account (incurs lowest fee).

One Time Gifts
• Visit online giving.
• Select “NEXT Building Capital Campaign” from the “Give” dropdown menu.

Recurring Gifts
• Change giving frequency to “Regularly” as your set up your gift.

Text to Give
Setup takes about two minutes. Then, donating is as simple as sending a text.

• Text any amount followed by the word NEXT to 84321 (50 NEXT will donate $50).
• If it’s your first time using text-to-give, just follow the set up instructions.

Cash or Check
Use the NEXT giving envelopes available at the Welcome Center.

Check
• Write “NEXT Campaign” in the memo field of your check.

Cash
• Include name along with email or mailing address in envelope.

The staff in our finance office is available to help answer any questions about giving that you might have. Call us at 248.912.0043 or send email to giving@oakpointe.org.

Yes. Simply text any amount (example: 50 for $50) followed by the word NEXT to the short code 84321. If this is your first text-to-give donation, you’ll receive a reply text with a link to confirm your donation and set up text-to-give. Learn more at here.

When you give via cash or check, be sure it’s clearly designated for NEXT. And when you give online, make sure you select the NEXT fund.

The staff in our finance office is available to help answer any questions about giving that you might have. Call us at 248.912.0043 or send email to giving@oakpointe.org.

Yes. Recurring giving can be set up in Oak Pointe’s online giving. Just remember to “NEXT Building Capital Campaign” from the “Give” dropdown menu as you arrange your recurring gift.

Please don’t. Our church campuses depend on general fund giving to sustain our current ministries. NEXT challenges us to do something extraordinary – to give over and above our regular tithes and offerings for a period of two years.

No worries. We understand not everyone has the capacity to give over and above their current giving level. We will work with what God provides to complete the NEXT initiatives.

Since we are one church, currently with two campuses, we desire this unity to be reflected in the giving of the campaign. As a result, we will have a single NEXT fund for both campuses and future church planting.

All of your giving is recorded and accessible at any time through Oak Pointe’s online giving system. You will receive periodic email reminders of your commitment and progress to date. You may also contact the financial office for an update on your giving amounts. Send email to giving@oakpointe.org.

Yes. We understand circumstances and giving capacity can change. You can always alter your commitment if needed. Just let us know.

The church elder board, which is comprised of both lay members and staff members, are responsible for all financial decisions. In addition to the elder board, Oak Pointe has a finance committee comprised of both lay members and staff members that make recommendations to the elder board.

No. While we do have some high capacity givers, it is the financial generosity of everyday people in our community that provides the majority of resources for Oak Pointe’s many ministries. Our church depends on the tithes of average people (giving 10% of their earnings) as well as other contributions from Oak Pointe members and attendees to meet our annual budget.

We hope to break ground on the Novi and Milford campus projects in the spring of 2020 and complete them 12-18 months later. New plants will be determined by a number of factors. However, we plan to launch two or three campuses or church plants over the next five years.

We will use what resources God provides and adjust our building plans accordingly. This means we may need to shell some spaces initially and wait to finish and furnish them. In addition, if giving falls short, we will allocate a representative percentage of the resources to each of our three initiatives.

We will not incur greater debt with the NEXT campaign. We will only use what God brings in to accomplish the campaign initiatives.

The campuses have a collaborative relationship. Leaders from both campuses are involved in weekly strategy discussions for the overall church and have participated in the vision frame process and NEXT campaign planning. Pastor Paul Jenkinson from Milford meets regularly with Pastor Bob Shirock from Novi for message planning and sermon series development.

The campuses share technical, accounting, and communication resources. The student ministries teams from each campus jointly plan and host retreats. At times, staff members move between campuses. Each campus has the necessary autonomy to impact the surrounding community while still sharing Oak Pointe’s values and ethos.

While we have been approached by several churches and people in a few different communities regarding having an Oak Pointe presence there, we have yet to determine a definitive course of action. The opportunities are abundant, but we desire to more clearly discern God’s leading before committing to locations for an additional campuses.