The 2026–2029 Long Range Plan · FBC, Kaufman
Fearless into
The Future
John 10:10
Seven engines. Three giants. One vision, 155 years and counting.
Movement One
Who We Are
Our Vision
FBC Kaufman is about Jesus Christ and His mission to redeem the world. We believe we have been called together to shape the future of Kaufman County toward all that is good and beautiful in the eyes of God.
We are a church where the hurting, the confused and the sinful find what they need most: authentic love, salvation, acceptance, hope, forgiveness, and encouragement, with open arms and hearts, passionate about sharing the Gospel with our neighbors.
We are building a new campus for central Kaufman County, beautiful yet versatile facilities set on forty acres of rolling hills and majestic oaks, a sacred place to meet with God, grow in faith, make deep friendships, and reach out to our neighbors and world.
Our mission in a sentence: transforming Kaufman County and the whole world for Christ, one changed life at a time.
The 7 Loves & the Power to Be Human
Two convictions shape this plan. The 7 Loves are the operating system of this congregation: every new member learns them in Gateway 1, and every ministry answers to one of them.
- 01Accepting God's love
- 02Loving God
- 03Loving Christ's church
- 04Loving your family
- 05Loving the Holy Spirit's work in your life
- 06Loving others the way only you can
- 07Loving people into God's family
The Power to Be Human names our moment: a world of artificial everything, where people hunger for deeper relationships and the things that make us uniquely human: a life empowered by the Holy Spirit and connected to the creative impulse of our God. You are not a user or a profile. Human beings are made in the image of God. We are more than consumers. We are spiritual creators.
On the horizon is May 23, 2033 which marks two thousand years since Pentecost. This long-range plan is a part of our gift to God on the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection.
How We Measure a Life: the Six Rings
Movement Two
Where We Stand
An incredible opportunity is before us. Our church is strong and healthy, the needs of our county are growing, and a hunger for the Gospel has never been greater.
What we have going for us
A 750-seat worship venue near capacity. Seven in ten adults in a Sunday lifegroup. Promiseland, Kaufman Connect, and The Center serving thousands. Growing giving, and first buildings alive seven days a week.
Where we need to grow
We are out of room on Sunday morning. The ParentJourney needs rebuilding. Leadership development has been informal. We need a pipeline and a process that can help us identify and develop leaders. And we carry manageable, faithfully-serviced campus debt.
Movement Three
The Seven Engines
The seven systems that drive the 7 Loves are this church's engines. Before any building rises, they must be rock solid. One thesis binds all seven: nearly every bottleneck is the same: leaders. The next thirty-six months are a leader-making season.
Engine One
Evangelism & Assimilation
We love people into God’s family. We go and tell, and we invite people to come and see. Beyond our front doors, six to seven life-stage campaigns run each year, each led by a different staff team and lay champion, each leaving behind a new lifegroup. We need to celebrate and continue to strengthen the evangelism systems our team has been working towards.
Goal · 100 baptisms a year; 7 new lifegroups a year, roughly 300 baptisms and 21 lifegroups over thirty-six months.
Engine Two
Discipleship
We love the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Formation’s home is the Sunday lifegroup, led by class pastors. The step forward: a better leader-development plan: an apprentice in every group, a sustainable huddle rhythm, and homegrown content as the media studio comes online.
Goal · 70% of adults in lifegroups now, pressing toward 80% as the cabins open; at least 7 new class pastors a year.
Engine Three
Volunteer Mobilization & Leadership
We love others the way only we can: every member a minister. Our team is building two systems: a leadership pipeline (from serving, to leading others, to leading leaders) with the apprentice norm throughout, and a greatly expanded hospitality team, the church’s widest on-ramp into serving.
Goal · To be set: percentage of adults serving; groups with a named apprentice; hospitality roster and per-event load.
Engine Four
Worship
We love God, and Sunday worship is the best hour of the week, moving people from fans to players. The big lift is the Worship Collective in the new cabins: an arts academy developing worship leaders of every talent and age: voices, instruments, and the tech arts.
Goal · Every platform role with a named apprentice; worship leaders developed and deployed each year; partner churches served by 2029.
Engine Five
Missions, Local & Global
We love people into God’s family to the ends of the earth, an Acts 1:8 church. Our mission arc walks every young person outward through five radii: local, Hidden Acres, Colorado, Germany, and Ukraine. The build is organizational: one leader per rung, each with a standing team and apprentice.
Goal · To be set with five rung leaders: trips and participants per rung, teams fully staffed, partner commitments kept.
Engine Six
Family Formation
We love our families like Jesus. The plan already exists in Gateway 1: FBCTots through FBCWellness, held together by the ParentJourney with its seven Milestones, Stepping Stones classes, and the Navigate summit. It has not been well implemented; in the next thirty-six months, it must be, calendar-first.
Goal · All 7 Milestones held every year with participation tracked; Stepping Stones between each; Navigate every fall.
Engine Seven
Stewardship
Our church belongs to God and so does everything in our hands. Generosity of time, talents, and treasures should be a hallmark of the way our church loves God, each other, and our community. Much of the season ahead is about motivating us all to love well.
Goal · To be set: percentage of households giving; people serving; families making more time for God and the things of God.
Movement Four
The Giants of This Moment
For 155 years this church has faced the giant in front of it. Sunday School. The Center. FBC Español. Promiseland. The campus. Kaufman Connect. We have never really built programs. We have built answers. We believe three giants face us now.
Dehumanization
AI, automation, and the glowing rectangle quietly flatten people into users and data. Our neighbors are more connected, and lonelier, than any generation. Against it stands an ancient announcement: you are made in the image of God.
A New Gnosticism
The old heresy in new clothes: the body is optional and endlessly editable, the algorithm holds hidden knowledge. The church answers as it has for two thousand years, with stubbornly physical things: communion, baptism, in-person worship, face-to-face small groups, making things with our hands that are first born in our heart.
An Education Revolution
The AI revolution is rewriting how children learn and what childhood looks like, asking more of parents and educators than ever. Since 2000 our vision has prayed for a community "where children go to school without fear." As our church seeks to do all we can to strengthen local public schools, we are also launching a new kind of school that asks much more of parents as we unapologetically seek to invite parents and children alike to a holistic educational journey.
And so, in the pattern of every generation before us, we are building answers.
The Recreation Ministry
The first giant, met with joy. No tryouts, no cuts, no travel fees. Everyone in, three generations on one campus.
The Creator's Village
A confession of faith about the body, built in wood and stone. Every workbench preaches against the new gnosticism without a word.
The same studio building also houses
The Worship Collective
Spectators become participants. An arts academy for every age and talent, built to develop worshipers, for our platform and county churches.
Kaufman Academy
We stand with public schools and educators, and build a hybrid academy whose heart is a covenant: parents at the head of the table.
David carried five smooth stones: small, specific, physical. So this plan comes down to things you can touch: a child catching his first fish; a widow laughing at a quilting frame; a young adult baptized in water that is actually cold. That is how giants fall in Kaufman County, one changed life at a time.
Movement Five
Room for Sunday
Everything flows from one conviction: Sunday morning is the best hour of the week, the best time for worship and for Bible study, for adults and children alike.
And it is the best kind of problem: we are out of room. The 750-seat venue is near capacity, and Bible-study space is just as tight. Four projects lead the expansion, because they unlock the hour that matters most.
Build for the best hour of the week, and you discover you've built for all 168 of them.
Financing the Build
Refinance options at an estimated 8% interest.
| Loan amount | Extra for the build | Monthly payment |
|---|---|---|
| $5,450,000 Current refi | · | $42,064 |
| $8,000,000 | $2,500,000 | $61,734 |
| $8,500,000 | $3,000,000 | $65,604 |
| $9,000,000 | $3,500,000 | $69,463 |
| $9,500,000 | $4,000,000 | $73,322 |
| $10,000,000 | $4,500,000 | $77,181 |
Stewardship of Our Space
Together, ministry is happening in most of our spaces, most of the time. We are building these buildings to be used to love God and love people, not sit empty and wait until the next Sunday.
Morning
Sun · Bible study in every room; worship in the venue
Weekday · Kaufman Connect: breakfast, wellness, lunch
Weekend · Farm work days, archery, recreation
Midday–Afternoon
Sun · Lingering, lunch, campus open
Weekday · Academy days; Collective lessons; studios
Afterschool · Arts, archery, fishing, cooking
Evening
Sun · Youth and young-adult gatherings
Weekday · Lifegroups, Re|Engage, classes, huddles
Weekend · Ensembles; fire pits; late-night courts
Three generations. Multiple ministries. One campus, every day, and Sunday first.
Movement Six
The Road to 2029
Year One
'27
Rock Solid
The seven engines enter the new year rock solid: campaign playbook written and running, class-pastor development launched, pipeline and hospitality systems live, the Collective's first cohort begun, mission rung leaders named, the ParentJourney calendar kept. The first cabin and the first Creator’s Village studio open, and Kaufman Academy welcomes its first families in August 2027.
Year Two
'28
Open the Rooms
The second cabin and the worship venue expansion open, and the layered week begins: Bible study moves into its living rooms, Kaufman Connect grows, and the Collective moves home. The campaign rotation reaches full stride.
Year Three
'29
Full Stride
Twelve hundred fifty seats filling; eight in ten adults in a lifegroup; twenty-one new lifegroups leading; the giants engaged on every front. Full capacity by 2030, then let’s dream again.
One changed life at a time. For 155 years and counting. Praise God that we get to be a part of something so great for our Lord.
Where we begin
First Steps
Fine tune and approve this plan by November 8, 2026.
Begin assembling the many leadership teams that we need to move this forward.
And a strengthening of all our existing teams for the chapter ahead.
Be Part of What God Is Building
We give up things we love for things we love even more.
Every gift moves this vision forward, one changed life, one classroom, one acre at a time. Join us in making room for everyone God is sending.
Give at fbckaufman.com/give