Reaching the Beacon Goal

We recently sent out a letter and an update on giving to the campaign with a renewed request for pledges to help us raise the remaining $95,000 needed to reach our Beacon Goal of $600,000. Below is a summary of the letter:

In June 2006, Memorial’s friends and members pledged $505,000 to “sharpen our tools” to optimize our historic building and grounds for gospel ministry. Through this Campaign, we’re preparing for the coming decades as we bring the welcome of Jesus to our neighbors and their families and communities here in the heart of St Louis.

Our goal has always been to raise $600,000, and we are currently about $95,000 short. We ask you to prayerfully consider helping us in this final push to reach $600,000. What will this gain? It will light the church’s exterior as a literal Beacon for the Gospel in St. Louis. It will provide for a more complete renovation of the basement fellowship hall. It will construct a top-notch play garden by our award winning landscape architect Ted Spaid. Picture the worn-out asphalt disappearing, and finding in its place an SUV-sized interactive sculpture of a lion surrounded by lambs, with little children playing among them.Three large projects remain, and these three promise to make quite an impact:

1. New exterior lighting—to make Memorial's building and tower, visible from Forest
   Park, literally shine as a Beacon for the Gospel.
2. A Children's Play Garden—including interactive sculpture and play equipment. This project will include an ADA accessible ramp to the Chapel and Nurseries.
3. A renovated Fellowship Hall—where internationals come to hear about Christ, where wedding festivities abound, where kids run free and where the entire congregation can
   gather together to share a meal. This project will include renovations to the
   Porte Cochère entry and stairwell up to the Narthex.

Combined, even scaled back versions of these three projects will easily take up our current funds and the remaining outstanding commitments that we expect to receive by July 1. However, if friends and members like you are able to help us to reach $600,000 in total gifts, then we will be able to fully fund each of these projects as well as several smaller projects we still hope to complete. Please contact us if you can offer help in reaching the goal.