Greetings to you all from our home office in Charlotte! The boxes are unpacked and our staff and their families are settled into their new homes. I cannot thank you enough for the prayers, support, and notes of encouragement we received throughout the transition. Some of you even hosted home office employees in your homes, as they made their journey across the country. You lived out Peter’s counsel in I Peter 4:
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
We are overwhelmed by your love and God’s blessing throughout this transition. Our goal is to continue to serve and support you all from our new location. Stay tuned for a message from GCI Vice President Greg Williams, and a sneak peek of our new office. What a joy to participate with Jesus and each of you in loving one another and the communities he calls us to serve.
I am Joseph Tkach, Speaking of Life
Welcome to our new Home Office.
Like many of our churches, we are “re-launching.” We are sharing in the similar struggle that many of you are — re-positioning ourselves to be more effective in how we fulfill our calling and Christian service.
A big reason for our new start here on the east coast is that we are physically closer to two-thirds of our U.S. churches. Serving our pastors and our churches is our primary purpose, so in essence we have re-located closer to our “target community.”
There were many challenges in making the 2,400 mile corporate move, especially with settling into new homes and new office space at the same time. However, there were equally many amazing stories of how we saw the Holy Spirit guiding us through the entire process. We are so glad to be here and are getting more settled every passing day.
Another goal that we are accomplishing is to provide the same level of care for our pastors and churches at a lower cost. We are working with a smaller staff, and once we are finally settled we will have added four to five new faces and end up with 14-15 staff members on-site. That’s half the size of the staff we had in Glendora. Rather than down-sizing, we view this as right-sizing, to be an agile team with the right people in the right positions. The cost of doing business is lower in North Carolina than in California, so once again this meets our goal of being good stewards.
A new office means a fresh start with fresh opportunities. As you see the office and grounds in this video presentation, you will appreciate the beauty of what the Lord has provided for us. It is a building with great functionality as well; there is a good flow to the building with the right amount of meeting spaces, as well as being bright and cheery with so many windows. This office fits us very well and we are excited to see how our great Triune God works with us in this next chapter of Grace Communion International!