God Provides Saddleback Central Offices

As part of our Daring Faith campaign, two of the five F.A.I.T.H. goals are to train our members to be global leaders and to interconnect our growing fellowship through new technologies. In an effort to make this happen, we had been trusting God to help us build a Global Training and Broadcast Center. This 133,000 square foot broadcast center will help train our members and church leaders around the world, with communication between all 16 campuses across four countries. It will be the hub for training through satellite, and will benefit not only the Lake Forest campus, but the church as a whole.

As our church family stepped out in daring faith, we believed that God would provide for this need despite the financial obstacles that stood in our way. This meant being fast, fluid, and flexible, open to the direction that God would lead us. To launch this project, we moved in obedience by starting the demolition of our portable buildings in February of this year.

It was a shock to discover that the initial bid to construct a three-story Global Center would have accounted for 74 percent of our entire Daring Faith contributions. Turning toward God for direction, Pastor Rick explained: “I prayed, ‘God, we need the space for a training center to deepen all the discipleship in all our campuses. And we need a larger permanent space for the central PEACE Center that distributes to all the others. Lord, you’ve given us faith, and we’ve stepped out in faith. So now what is your plan? God how do you intend to do this?’”

Just as God has proven time and time again, his plan is always better and usually bigger than ours. He has made this evident throughout the history of Saddleback Church, turning small dreams into global realities. When we step out in faith, to the best of our ability, God will open doors we didn’t even know existed.

Demonstrating his awesome power once again, this time God opened the door to a new building that will serve as our Saddleback Central Offices. Located across the street, on the southeast corner of our Lake Forest campus, it’s a fraction of the cost to build the same space. The purchase of this building allows us to use the existing facilities at the Lake Forest campus for more training, and even helps with the Daring Faith goal of using PEACE Centers to assist 250,000 people in need. It also allows us to continue the construction of the Global Leadership Center at a reduced size and cost! The new Saddleback Central Offices will save us time and money while accomplishing our Daring Faith goals! Stay tuned for the new Global Leadership Center plans. There is more to come!

“God just dropped a building in our lap,” explains Pastor Rick. “This building wasn’t even on the market, but we made an offer to buy it. During all these negotiations, you wouldn’t believe what God was doing. This building saves us money and time, plus we’ll have instant space for our Daring Faith goals. This is just like God.”

Exciting plans are already underway. In the coming months, the Saddleback Church staff will relocate from the Ministry Center into the new building we purchased. This will free space for the Lake Forest PEACE Center to relocate from the portable into the bottom floor of the Ministry Center.

To meet our "A” goal of assisting 250,000 needy people through our local PEACE Centers, it’s critical that we move to a more permanent space. While the PEACE Center occupies the bottom floor, the top floor will be dedicated to the ministry teams serving the Lake Forest campus. Ultimately we will construct a much smaller building for the Global Training Center to be located at the original building site for a fraction of the cost.

“It’s all in the plan of God,” says Pastor Rick. “It will allow us to repurpose where the PEACE Center currently is for more classes, conferences, and meetings. The bottom line is that it will free up millions of dollars for faith projects. Thank you Jesus!”

Once again, God has proven that his hand is on this church, and that his timing is perfect. Only God could have built a multistory building at the bridge entrance of our Lake Forest campus, saved it for us, and then allowed us to pay half of what we had envisioned for our project.

In this season of growth, it’s time to make plans while saying, “God I give you the rights to make a better plan!” The Lord has called us to be a global church, one that reaches far beyond the four walls. This new Global Leadership Center will empower us to serve our members and church leaders around the world.

Thank you for honoring your Daring Faith commitment and for giving to these projects that change lives and spread the hope of Jesus Christ. Learn more at saddleback.com/daringfaith.