The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church 1951-2001

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Above: Boxes...and more boxes...are
unloaded at the new campus.
Below: Mementos from Basse Road
are collected by Concordia School
students on the last day of school in
1998. The items, including the
original school cornerstone, were
moved to the new school for display.
written by the church growth agency. The LCEF
had financed only one project larger than $10
million, and Concordia’s undertaking was at least
fifty percent larger. Haake, who so diligently
advocated the Concordia project to the LCEF
board, died before seeing the project completed.
The difference between the amount loaned
by LCEF and the ultimate cost was to be covered
by pledges from Concordia members.
To achieve the maximum commitment from
the membership, Concordia did something it had
never done in its 45 years. The church hired a
fund-raising consultant to run a capital campaign.
The consultant, Resource Services, Inc., had conducted
numerous church building programs in
the past, and helped bring a new level of involvement
by members into the building campaign.
The campaign, named “Share His Love” was
chaired by Gorder and incorporated dozens of
Concordians in campaign leadership positions.
Ultimately, the campaign reached every
Concordia family with complete information on
the proposed construction project, the dollar
amounts required, and compelling reasons to
pledge to the effort.
The campaign got under way in mid-1996
and culminated with a Sunday afternoon praise
service and barbecue at Fiesta Texas on
November 10, 1996.
Gorder says the campaign “mobilized the whole
congregation. As momentum built through the fall
of 1996, people got more and more excited.”
“Then we had the celebration at Fiesta Texas
where members made their pledges to the building
campaign. I’ve never seen anything like that in
my life. We had about fifteen hundred people
there. We had great music and great testimonials.
We turned in our pledge cards, and then we had
the barbecue. But after the meal, nobody left.
They just stayed there, talking and the kids played
out in the open areas. That was the day when
Concordia re-discovered that it was a family.”
The “Share His Love” campaign fell short of
its goal, but $5 million was raised in cash and
pledges, enough for a down payment and initial
mortgage payments.
“The interesting thing,” said Thompson, “was
that the money, to a great extent, came from those
who been most closely allied with Dr. Merkens.”
The $5 million pledged over three years was
enough to make a down payment on the project
and to begin making payments on the LCEF
mortgage. Including the land purchase, the
entire project cost $17 million, with $14 million
provided by LCEF.
During the spring of 1997 the men of
Concordia held a series of brush clean up days, to
help prepare the acreage for the work to come.
Formal groundbreaking took place on July 20,
1997, and site work began shortly thereafter.
Fourteen months later, in July 1998, the day
care center opened with 175 children enrolled
and a long waiting list. The school opened two
weeks later than expected, in August 1998, and
the administration building was occupied at the
60 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY