The January 2012 Town Hall Meeting
If you were not able to be at the January 8th Town Hall Meeting you can view Pastor Bob and Pastor Barksdale’s Talking Points by clicking here.
Click here to download the most recent building update (April 2013).
Today and Tomorrow
Today: Wildwood Church sits today on 10 acres at 100 Ox Bottom Road. We moved to this location in 1995. Six years later we added our Children and Student Center Building as well as the Sanctuary. In 2002, we recognized that our current site had little if any potential for future growth, and we began to consider what did GOD have in store for us in the future, and how should we prepare. Recognizing that if our growth continued we would soon be out of space in many of our ministry areas we initiated a plan to relocate our campus. Our goal was to stay within the N.E. community where GOD planted us originally. All four of Wildwood’s locations have been in the N.E. area of Tallahassee.
Preparing for Tomorrow: In 2003 Wildwood Church acquired 25 acres 2.2 miles further north on North Meridian Road. In 2004, we added an additional 17 acres directly north of the original 25 acres, and then in 2005 we completed our land acquisition objectives by adding an additional 18 acres directly west of the 42 acres we previously acquired. In a time where 60 acre parcels are “far and few between” in the high growth N.E. area of Tallahassee, GOD provided for Wildwood Church.
Over the past several years the term “Building Bridges” has been used to describe three major areas: 1) building ministry bridges into our community; 2) building physical infrastructure at our new campus; and 3) raising funds to accomplish these efforts. From this point on when you hear the term “Building Bridges” we want you to understand we are talking about ministry. We will refer to the “bricks and mortar” aspect of our moved to the new property as the “Relocation Project”; and our fund raising activities will be referred to as our “Capital Campaign”.
The Project: We believe that this 60 acres of land would provide tremendous opportunity for ministries that we can not accomplish at our current site. We also realized that this land would position our church for the future and eventually be a resource for ministries that are not yet in our dreams.
To see an aerial photo of the church site please click here.
In 2005 we published a document titled “Our Journey Together Continues…” Please click here to view a copy of this document. This document describes various ministries and ways that we can connect and serve our community. This vision is still our vision today.
The relocation effort has experience multiple delays since 2005 including delays due to permitting, capital campaign shortfalls, as well as delays due to the world-wide economic downturn. During this time we have not lost our vision for using this property in reaching our community. We have worked through delays and proceeded cautiously with ministry plans preparing for the day we could begin. Pastor Bob sent out a congregational letter in November announcing that the Session believes that now is the time to proceed. Please click here to view a copy of Pastor Bob’s letter.
Our environmental permit is under review at the City at this time. This review and approval process is anticipated to take approximately 90 days. This means that by April of 2012 we will finally begin construction. Stage One is projected to be completed in 2012 and this stage includes building a road to the site as well as needed site work to prepare the site for each building and our recreational fields. Please refer to the building team update attachment for more detail on each stage.