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There are many ways that the funds will be used, but the areas where most of the funds will be used include:

• Improving the safety in the Children’s Wing by establishing single-entry point for children and preventing any unauthorized persons from accessing the area during Sunday morning worship.
• Improving safety and accessibility at Luke’s Lodge by providing an alternative exit stairway from the second floor.
• Increase the number of classrooms that can be used by groups from St. Luke’s and the broader Indianapolis community.
• Improve classroom technology and ability to provide hybrid classes and programming.
• Create secure storage for large equipment (e.g. snowplow, golf carts, youth vans) and the supplies utilized by the Scouting Troop hosted by St. Luke’s.
• Improve sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint through solar panel installation.

While there will be no changes to the Sanctuary or Robertson Chapel, there will be noticeable changes to the facility (please see floor plan).

• The Children’s Wing will be reconfigured to provide single-point entry and additional security.
• An extension will be added to the west side of Luke’s Lodge to add additional classrooms and a new staircase and exit from the second floor.
• The kitchen in Fellowship Hall will be removed and converted to restrooms. This will result in a net gain in available facilities overall. The restrooms in the Children’s Wing will not be accessible to the public when kids are in the East Wing, Sunday mornings, & during Preschool.
• The Modge will be removed to allow for additional classroom space to be added behind the Great Hall.
• The East Passage will be widened, and classrooms will be reconfigured.
• A storage facility will be constructed in the parking lot on the west side of Luke’s Lodge.

St. Luke’s is more than a Sunday morning church. An important aspect to being an open community is making our facilities available for small groups and external groups that provide critical services to the Indianapolis community. We host many of the large events for the Indiana UM Conference. Almost daily, the St. Luke’s facilities are utilized as some form of a school for youth and adults alike. To continue to provide the most services to the community and the St. Luke’s congregation, we need to add space and modernize our facilities, particularly improving the safety in the Children’s Wing.

In the Children’s area, the number of classrooms lost is equal to the number of classrooms gained. With the proposed changes, the minimum gain in classrooms is five. Depending on the final design and sizes of the rooms, it could be as many as eight. In the Lodge, there will be a net gain of four classrooms due to the second-floor expansion and moving storage from the Lodge to the new storage building.

Currently, within Fellowship Hall most equipment is not functioning and the kitchen has not been functioning for years. The proposed design will have a small serving area for coffee and a place to sort donuts as well as prepare communion.

We will eliminate the existing restrooms in the East Passage and one of the restrooms by Fellowship Hall. We will add restrooms in place of the Fellowship Hall Kitchen. There will be a net gain of six total fixtures/stalls - two inclusive, two for men and two for women. 

With the financial commitments received this far, we have started working with architects on bids and work could begin as early as this fall. We will work the construction schedule to minimize the impact around holidays, key church priorities and programming. We estimate that work could take 18-24 months to complete all the desired updates.

The Finance Committee reviewed this carefully, and we are on track to pay off our current obligations by the end of 2026. It is our goal to fund the entire project with donations and be debt free in 2026. Should we fail to raise the necessary funds to complete the entire list of projects, we will work with the Finance Committee and Governing Board to determine the best way forward. In the event we are fortunate to raise more than the goal and/or we can complete the project under budget, we have committed to two priorities. We will evaluate Solar Panels for the new roof on the Education Connector (new classrooms east of Great Hall) and secondly, funding will be allocated to programming for our missional goals for the Hub for Hope.

The Annual Stewardship Campaign supports the yearly operations of the church. Each year it is essential that the congregation supports this through their resources and gifts. St. Luke’s depends on those finances to fund the building needs, staff compensation and benefits, all programming and missional efforts. The Building Campaign is a separate campaign (3-year commitment) and is focused on the specific needs to add space and modernize our facilities, with a focus on safety improvements. We hope that congregants will be able to continue to support the Annual Campaign and the Building Campaign.

We view St. Luke’s North Indy & Midtown to be one church and therefore our Trustees and other administrative committees view the budgeting and support in aggregate. As we prepared to open St. Luke’s Midtown, our Trustees oversaw many improvements and upgrades to make that church a fresh, clean, and welcoming space for the new congregation. As we have continued to live into a multisite model we experience sharing of space across campuses. We may worship in different locations, but we are deeply interconnected as one faith community, and this is an exciting opportunity to create future opportunities for ministry together.