By 2014, Rock Creek was ready to build At that time, the church had moved out of the Wilkersons’ home and was meeting in a middle school in nearby Denton, Texas. By divine appointment, Brad Wilkerson met the owners of 30 acres of property six miles to the east in the rapidly growing community of Prosper— an ideal location for a permanent church home.“ I always say we were at the right place at the right time,” he says.“ The story of them and us is incredible, because they were longtime residents on that land.” Indeed, the family raised 3 children on the property in a 7,000-squarefoot home. All graduated high school from Prosper ISD when the now-380 Corridor was a two-lane road. The family were also longtime members of a church in Prosper, where significant life transformation had happened on their land.“ They didn’ t want to sell their land to a developer; they wanted it to be used for ministry,” Wilkerson points out.“ So, when I say‘ right place, right time,’ it’ s because I think God ordained it years before we ever knew about it.” In 2014, Wilkerson enlisted Billy and Tanner Goff— CEO and COO, respectively, of Richardson, Texas-based Goff Companies— to evaluate the land for building potential. He’ d been referred to the two gentlemen by several peer pastors, as well as by Rock Creek’ s capital campaign consultant.“ There were no utilities on the property. No city water, no city sewer,” Wilkerson explains.“ The house that sits on the property was on an aerobic sewer system [ a wastewater treatment system ] and a well.” As such, he wanted to get an idea of what utility costs might look like and, overall, how viable the acreage was for construction. The Goffs determined that four acres of the 30-acre tract lay in a floodplain, which left 26 buildable acres of usable land— more than enough for Rock Creek’ s purposes. With this intel in hand, the church confidently purchased the property. a better range of entertainment options. Accordingly, new housing developments and master planned communities followed. So, for solid reasons, Wilkerson and the leadership team decided to plant an autonomous, standalone church in this area, somewhere between Denton and McKinney. One of the first steps they took in this direction was partnering with an organization called Converge, which plants churches across the United States. In the fall of 2007, Midway Church leaders began publicly discussing their plan. After some informational meetings, 24 adults( 12 couples) and 10 kids started a Bible study in the Wilkersons’ living room. This Bible study would soon become what is now Rock Creek Church.
Taking a DIY approach … at first When it was time to build the 25,000-square-foot facility in 2017, Wilkerson and his team opted to disengage with Goff and instead take a more“ DIY”( or rather,“ BIY”— build-it-yourself) approach. A member of the building team with a construction background was selected as project manager, and the church served as its own general contractor. The goal, ostensibly, was to save money: about $ 750,000, by the church’ s estimate. Long story short, that didn’ t happen.“ It was a 25,000-square-foot building. It wasn’ t anything, you know, huge,” Wilkerson explains.“ But we were soon in over our heads, and there were many building issues along the way— some that we’ re still dealing with today.” With this approach, Wilkerson and his team also needed to contract an architect. The gentleman’ s expertise was in designing commercial properties and shopping centers. Meanwhile, though the personal relationship with the project manager was great— again, he was not only a church member but also serving on the building committee— the 12-month project timeline lapsed into 18 months. Even at that point, the building was still a long way from being finished. As a result, Rock Creek leaders began to pay interest on their construction loan, but without a finished building.“ Looking back on it, going in this direction was one of two worst leadership decisions I’ ve ever made,” Wilkerson says.“ Number one: churches shouldn’ t be building buildings; we should be doing ministry. Number two: I didn’ t save our church a dime. In fact, it actually cost us more than if we’ d just engaged Goff in the first place.”
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