God is pouring out more than we can hold
As Israel journeyed through the wilderness, God provided for his people in a way Scripture returns to again and again:
He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river (Psalm 105:41). It’s a fitting image for Apostles. Twenty years ago, we launched “Upon This Rock,” a campaign to secure our church home. We find ourselves today in a rapidly growing part of our city, and we’ve discerned a mission specific to our location: to be a community in midtown Raleigh that serves as a hub of renewal. God has blessed us – water has come from the rock – and there have never been more children, students, and adults in our community.
We need to make room to receive all that God is pouring out. We believe God is calling us to expand our facilities and align them with our model of ministry.
But not as an end in itself. Upon this Rock was grounded in a conviction about the kind of church we want to be: “Our goal is not to be big, but to glorify God, grow, and then thoughtfully plant other churches as the Lord leads us.” What follows is our response to both – the call to make room and the call to plant.
“Water From the Rock” is a campaign to expand our facilities and establish a seed fund for church multiplication. It focuses on four key areas:
Expanded spaces to gather and worship
Room for the next generation to grow
Outdoor spaces for community
A vision for church planting
expanded
spaces
to gather
and worship
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God
[Psalm 46:4]
Expanding the sanctuary, chapel, lobby, fellowship hall, and upstairs entrance.
A new balcony will add 165 seats to the sanctuary, and a dedicated 64-seat chapel will give our community a purpose-built space for deep prayer. An expanded lobby will make the first steps into Apostles feel like an invitation rather than a squeeze.
And a fellowship hall 25% larger than today's will let us gather, eat, and linger together the way a growing church needs to. We will also reimagine the upstairs entrance — a primary point of entry for many in our community — making it as welcoming and hospitable as the rest of our building. These are the spaces where the life of Christ is proclaimed, prayed, and shared — streams that gladden this house, and flow out from it.
room for the next generation to grow
The Lord will guide you always...You will be like a well -watered garden
[Isaiah 58:11]
Unifying and expanding children’s and student ministry spaces.
Children’s ministry spaces will be unified and expanded by 35%, with a secure check-in point, dedicated bathrooms, an indoor open play area, and an outdoor playground — so that families know their kids are safe, known, and delighted in.
Student ministry spaces will grow by 50%, giving middle and high schoolers room to belong as they are formed in faith. This is where the next generation of Apostles takes root.
outdoor spaces for community
He leads me beside still waters
[Psalm 23:2–3]
Creating an open plaza and community gathering space.
By opening our campus more visibly and accessibly to the surrounding neighborhood, improving sidewalk access, and creating a plaza for outdoor gathering, we extend an unmistakable welcome to midtown Raleigh.
A columbarium garden will also give our congregation a place to lay loved ones to rest on the grounds where they worshipped, prayed, and belonged — making this campus sacred not just for the living, but across generations.
a vision
for
church
planting
Come all you who are thirsty
[Isaiah 55:1]
Establishing a seed fund for church multiplication.
New churches reach people existing churches can't — the empty-nesters who just moved to Raleigh, the twenty-something with no church background, the family looking for a place to put down roots and be known. That's why Apostles has never wanted to be big, but to plant — and why we'll plant a new congregation when the Spirit makes a people and a place unmistakable.
By "place," we mean somewhere in the Triangle close enough to still lean on Apostles, but distinct enough to need a new congregation with its own life, leadership, and identity. We'll initially stay joined to that new congregation to help it find its footing and free it to spend its first years on ministry and discipleship, not the exhausting work of starting from scratch alone.
New congregations tend to surface leaders who might never have stepped up in a more established setting, and the vitality of a new plant has a way of washing back into the church that sent it — new energy, new people, a fresh reminder of what church is for in the first place.
for
the renewal
of
raleigh
Campaign Overview
$7.5 Million
God has blessed Apostles with growth beyond what our building can hold — and our founding vision has always included planting new churches, not just growing our own. Water From the Rock is our response to both. Our aim is to raise the full cost of this project, in order to proceed without long-term debt.
Balcony, Lobby & Entrances
$1,600,000
Fellowship Hall
$1,400,000
Meeting Space & Chapel
$600,000
Children’s Ministry & Playground
$1,400,000
Student Ministry & Fellows Lounge
$750,000
Community Gathering Space
$750,000
Site & Access Improvements
$500,000
Columbarium
$250,000
Church Multiplication Fund
$250,000
Progress to Date
Listening and Discerning
The Leadership Council has spent the last two years developing a plan for our facilities, driven by three things: using what we already have well, keeping costs down, and opening our campus to the neighborhood. Before the campaign launches, we want to bring this plan to our church family. Over the next two months we'll gather feedback through 1:1 conversations, small groups, town halls, and a survey open to the whole congregation. We want to know what resonates, what doesn't, and what questions people are sitting with. What we hear will shape the campaign we'll launch next year.
They drank from the spiritual rock
that accompanied them
and that
rock
was
Christ
[1 Corinthians 10:4]
