Welcome
Posted by Pastor Brian Thomas at 5/23/2007 3:26 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
Welcome to my blog. This is a way for all of you that have questions, concerns, thoughts and ideas about the relocation of our church to tell me directly. It is my hope that an open discussion of this nature will benefit everyone and be a blessing to all.
Pastor Brian,
WOW!!!!! We are so excited about what is going on with Northstar Christian Center! Donna,I and the boys will be praying for you and the vision to take hold in the hearts and minds of every believer at the church.
We Love You,
Jack
PS Eric and Lisa were here last month on their way to Ft Knox, I hope to see them again soon.
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I am looking forward to all the great things that God is doing!
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We are in the final stages of formulating an offer on the 50 acre track of land in northeast Columbia and are pursuing a very interesting building for our temporary location. We are should know more about both of these issues by the end of this week. Thanks so much for praying about this with us.
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I am looking forward to seeing this blog work for you.
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Good Morning....
We have made an offer on the 50 acre tract of land that we've been looking at - be praying for us in the negotiation process. Plus we have officially notified the party interested in buying our property that we are willing to sell. This starts their due diligence period that could be as long as 270 days. Please be praying for this as well. We are looking intently at a certain piece of property for our temporary location. We need God's favor - guidance - wisdom as we proceed.
Thanks for your partnership!
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Good Morning...
It may take serveral weeks to hear back from the owners of the land that we made an offer on - so please be praying.
When we told our propective buyer yesterday that we were willing to sell our property they got visibaly excited and said that they would get busy doing their part. So don't be surprised if this thing speeds up.
Thanks for your partnership!
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Praise the Lord! I am excited to hear that things are progressing. I will be praying that the process is sweatless.
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Angela,
Thanks so much for your prayers - it's been really good having you and your entire family back in our services...
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Good Afternoon,
Along with the upcoming relocation I outlined some of our staff expansions with the church on May 20th. I wanted to give you an update on those proceedings as well. We are busy gathering resumes for a full time Children's Pastor and a full time Youth Pastor so that we can expand and redirect Pastor Dave and Pastor Bill's roles on our staff. We have gotten several very interesting prospects and will be dialoging with them more within the next week or so. Please join with us in praying that God will lead us in these decisions.
Thanks so much for your partnership!
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Gee what a beautiful young couple on this page. I pray that the Lord Bless you both and all the elders of the church for you faithfulness to GOD in your decision to move the church where he wants you to go. He will continue to lead you as long as you are faithful I just pray that the entire congregation will be as faithful as you have been. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH.
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Danny and Terry,
Thanks so much for the complement - we were just commenting on how we needed a new picture of us posted. Thanks so much for your support and prayers as we move ahead. God is faithful and that is what He requires of His people. God bless you both too!
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BRIAN, I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT OUR MOVE AND MORE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT GOD IS GOING TO DO IN US AND THROUGH US. I HAVE A WONDERFUL PEACE ABOUT OUR MOVING!
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Rollie and Lugene,
We are so excited too and are expecting great things from God and His people. We have that same peace as we move ahead, although there will be giants. We are confident that God is going to supply EVERYTHING that we need to fulfill what He has called us to do. Thanks for your encouragment and prayers!
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Hi Pastor Brian,
You are making it easier and easier for Erik and I to decide to retire in Columbia. The planned addition of a school is exactly what I was thinking about before I even listened to the 20 May sermon. Wow God is sooo good. We are enjoying Gert's presence and I was a bit jealous that she was going back to South Carolina this past week. I think she is home tonight. I will chat with her this weekend and will see her at church. Please pray for Erik. He has another month and a couple weeks in Hawaii before going to Kuwait. While he is over there, he will be expected to travel to Iraq and Afganistan so please keep him in prayer. We know this assignment has been blessed by God so I am at peace. I just cannot listen to some people I have come in contact with. I keep a positive outlook and know that God has Erik in the palm of his hand and God has a plan for our future which I believe will be in Columbia. Blessings to all and I look forward to hearing about more details.
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Good morning Lisa,
Thanks so much for the encouragment and we are so looking forward to you guys settleing back in Columbia. Alot has to take place before the school will become a reality, but we are confident that God will put the pieces together. Our main focus at the moment is settling the temporary site and securing the land. Thanks for your prayers and we are praying for Erik!
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I support everything that the church does and think that this is a good direction that you are going. I would encourage you to visit Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia. They are a good church that has a vibrant ministry in the community, a fitness center, a day care center, a banquet hall, etc. I think that you might get some good ideas from them.
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Gloria,
That is a great idea. I know Pastor Jackson and admire what they are doing.
Hope you have a super week! Thanks so much for your support and encouragment.
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Good Morning,
Nothing much to report yet this week. Our offer on the property is being reviewed by the owners and we would expect some type of response by the end of the week. It looks like we might be able to sit down with the owner of the building we are eyeing for our temporary site sometime this weekend.
I will post an update as soon as we have some news to report. Please remember to be praying for these 5 areas.
1 - Guidance - as we finalize the temporary and peranment sites.
2 - Excitement - for our Church Family to catch the vision
3 - Wisdom - in all of our decisions
4 - Favor - as we face the giants in the land
5 - Creativity - as we expand our ministry
Thanks for your partnership...
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Good Morning,
A quick update and invitation to pray with us. We are meeting this coming Saturday @ 4 pm with one of the owners of the building that we are interested in for our temporary location. Please pray for favor, wisdom and God's anointing.
Thanks for your partnership!
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How did the meeting go?
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Jeff and Golda,
So sorry for the delay in responding. I have update the blog - but the meeting went very well and has opened the door for more discussions.
Hope you guys have a great week! It's good to see Jeff walking without a cane!
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That's wonderful!! YesmJeff is doing pretty good still some discomforted but we are so blessed. Thanks for that word from God Sunday I really needed that. ..made me feel so special for God to answer me so specific in areas I was concerned about. Today is my 50th birthday also!!! I'm coming down for prayer tonite after work and bringing a few women from work.
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Happy Birthday!
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Thank-you.
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Good Morning,
Here is a update on our progress. We had a very good meeting on Saturday with the temporary building's owner. We walked through the facility talking about our plans and can really get excited at the potential. We did not specifically talk about money - but we have opened the door for discussion and dialog about the terms. Please continue to pray about this site.
We should hear back from the offer we made on the land sometime this week. We are looking forward to this negotiation.
Please keep praying as we continue to walk through the days ahead.
Thanks for your partnership!
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Good Afternoon,
It has been brought to my attention that I have never indicated where the temporary site is that we are looking at. If you are on Two Notch Road going toward Clemson Road, turn right into the SandHills Shopping area and it's the first building across the railroad track on the right. There is some construction going on in the front of this building, but the part that we are interested in is behind the new construction. Please continue to pray for this site.
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Good Afternoon,
We have still not heard back on our offer on the land @ I-77 & North Pine Road. We know that they are formulating a counter offer, so let's please join together in praying for this situation. If God wants us to have that land, then He will work out all of the details. If we are to pursue other options, He will guide us there too.
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BRIAN, PLEASE VERIFY DIRECTIONS TO POSSIBLE TEMP. SITE. THANKS
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Rollie,
If you are traveling Two Notch Road towards Clemson - turn left into Sandhills (Fashion Road I think). Cross over the railroad tracks and it's the first building on the left. There are some stores being built in front of it - it's the back space that we are interested in.
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Good morning,
We still have not heard back from our offer on the land. We are not sure what the hold up is so we are starting to investigate other properties, just in case this is that the one that God has for us.
It was brought to my attention that there was a major typo in my initial directions to the temporary location that we are looking at. In my blog entry dated 6/27 I mistakenly said turn right into Sandhills and the building would be on your right - That was incorrect - you should turn left into Sandhills and the building is the first on the left after you cross the railroad tracks. Sorry for the confusion!
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What other locations are you looking at for the church location? are there any out on I-20 heading east.Or in other words just where I can almost see it can't you?
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Danny,
I don't have the exact addresses on these properties, but they are located off the next exit up from Killian. Hope this helps some.
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Good afternoon,
We have still not received any word back on the offer on the land, but we have been encouraged that a counter offer is on the way. In the meantime we have been looking at several other pieces of land that are interesting. I will update you as soon as I have more information.
In regards to our staff expansion, we have placed Regina Harlan in as our Interium Children's Director and Pastor Dave is now our Media, Technology & Operations Pastor. We also added E.J. Irizarry as our new Youth Pastor and this moves Pastor Bill into his new role as Missions and Leadership Development Pastor.
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Good Morning,
Pastor Mark and Anne & Susan and I just got back from a whirlwind tour of 4 Atlanta area churches. We were in multiple services that indicated to us what was happening outside the four walls of Forest Drive. God was really good to us. We are exctied to be back home and are looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.
We expect to hear this week from the offer on the 50 acre track of land that we made an offer on. Please join with us in praying that if this is the land that God wants us to have that we will work out the deal!
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Update on Sale of Our Land
The agent representing the buyer interested in our property said that things are moving along well in their due diligence phase. Right now they are in the phase of getting full commitments from the clients to do the deal. The clients are going through a 3 phase process to get to the full commitment to do the deal. These phases are:
1. Approval of the site for their purposes.
2. Approval of the market—this seems to be where we are now in that they are crunching numbers to see if it would be profitable to go with this particular piece of land. Factors of a softer market and rising interest rates play into this becoming a more meticulous process.
3. Approval of the overall health of the Midland’s market. This involves more numbers crunching and demographic looking to make sure that these clients are coming into a solid area of the country.
The agent for the clients is overly optimistic that this will go through and is hoping that around September or October he will have more definitive information for us so that we can move forward with a better timetable.
Please be praying that God will continue to intervene in this entire process, leading and guiding everyone involved, whether they know God or not. Continue to pray that God will give great wisdom to the leadership of the Church as they look to make plans for the future by faith. Pray that God will shower us with favor even in the midst of a softer market and sagging economy.
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Wow Pastor Brian,
through you, God has really shown us that He will always take care of us. I am (along with my family) praying for this sale. Thank you for showing me what true faith can do to a body of Christ.
Samantha Hustus
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Samantha,
Thanks so much for your encouragment and prayer. We are all standing in faith!
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Good afternoon,
Just a quick note to let you know that we are still in negotiations on the property. That door is still open - please continue to pray for God's wisdom and guidance as we move forward.
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Good morning,
We finally got a revised purchase counter-offer written and are submitting this today to the owners of the 50 acre track of land. Please join with us in praying that God will open the doors He wants us to go through and close the doors that are not His will.
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Awesome! What an exciting time to walk in the steps ordered of the Lord. We agree in prayer that every door that God wants us to go through He will open wide, and every door that He wants closed will close. Yes, and Amen. Debby (and Dennis)Waufle
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i have a prayer for my mother (stephanie) and my nephew(gabe). well my mothers health isn't very well physically that is, well they need to be out of there place by oct. and she can only afford no more then 275.00 a month and it has to be on the ground floor. if by the will of god if anyone hears of such a place or can help it would be greatly appreciated. i am trying to do what i can, i have just moved not too long ago to a 2 bedroom upstairs duplex and have a total of 5 people living here, i am helping a couple out, if i knew my mother needed to move ahead of time i would of moved her in with me. i feel helpless in trying to help my mother and nephew find a place. we are also in search of a motorized vehicle like a hover round for my mother her hips and knees are getting worse which is making it harder for her to walk and get around. these things i pray for my mother and nephew. thank you for being here and listening. god bless you, lisa
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Lisa - If your Mother is over 62 she could live at Finlay House. Hud building. Call me at 252-8003 for more information. Your nephew could not live here. Myrtle
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myrtle
thank you for the info.
lisa
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Good Morning,
Just an item for you to pray about - the owners of the property that we are interested in have requested that we meet together to discuss this purchase. Please be praying for God's will to be done as we meet together. Our prayer has always been for Him to close the door if it's not His will. Our meeting is Thursday 9/6 @ 2pm.
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Dear Pastor Brian:
I am praying in agreement with you. Staying in His grip,
Susan Smith
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Good morning,
On Thursday we met with some of the owners of the 50 acre track of land. They requested a meeting so that they would be able to meet us and hear our hearts. They turned down our counter offer so it seems that we may need to increase our offer a bit. There are a couple of other items that we need to work out if we are going to move forward on this piece of property.
We also found out that the temporary site that we've been discussing - has another person interested and they are willing to sign immediatly for multiple years. This may be the closing of that door - but who knows, that deal may fall through and they certainly know we are interested.
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY ABOUT THE LAND ISSUE AND THE TEMPORARY SITE ISSUE. WE NEED GOD'S DIRECTION AND WISDOM.
See you on Sunday!
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My prayer is in agreement with you for God to close the door if this is not His will. There are no accidents in the kingdom of God. He knows the end from the beginning and my prayer remains for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
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Good Morning,
We are working very hard to come up with a counter offer on the land. We still feel that this door is not closed. We are beginning to step up our search for temporary sites. Thanks so much for your prayers and partnership.
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