Case Study:  Harvest Bible Chapel Davenport

Harvest Davenport began in 2004 with 20 people.  Their launch team worked hard to start this new church, and over 400 people attended their first service.  They began looking for a facility shortly after launch.  They found a big box store sitting on the busiest intersection in the quad city area.  Previously, the building was an electronics store.  The building was 53,000 sf. 

The original asking price was $10 million.  Six weeks later, the owners dropped it to $5.1 million.  They settled on a final price of $4.7 million. 

The church had about 600 people at the time of purchase.  They needed $150,000 in earnest money.  They needed a down payment of $1.3 million.  They had six weeks to do it.  They were only one and a half years old.  They didn't even have elders yet.  After a massive blitz, they collected $1.7 million and made the down payment.   

The building was a mess.  They had a one year build out process.  Their total project cost was $8 million dollars. 

The whole deal almost collapsed when their financing fell through, but then a local bank gave them a loan.  After the building was done, they had $123 dollars in the bank. 

They had 600 people at the time of purchase, 1,000 at their move-in service, and one month later 1,500 showed up to worship.   

They are currently flat out of space.  They have three services and are averaging 2,300 people each weekend.  They have no rooms available, and the building is being used every night of the week.  They are praying to plant one new church every year.