FRANKLIN, TN — The elder board of Summit Creek Church unanimously approved a $4.2 million capital campaign Sunday morning to fund the construction of a new 1,200-seat worship center, a decision announced approximately fifteen feet from the fellowship hall’s commercial coffee maker, which has been broken since Pentecost Sunday 2024 and whose replacement cost of $340 remains unfunded.

“This is a bold step of faith,” said lead pastor Craig Bowman, 49, standing in front of a glossy campaign brochure featuring architectural renderings of the proposed facility, which includes a café with “a state-of-the-art espresso bar.” He did not address the current coffee situation.

Church administrator Vicki Lane, 53, confirmed that three separate requests to replace the existing coffee maker have been tabled by the finance committee over the past nineteen months, most recently with the explanation that “it’s not in the budget.”

“We are asking people to give sacrificially toward a building with a café while they are currently drinking room-temperature water out of Dixie cups. I have raised this point. I have been thanked for my feedback.”

Lane offered the above comment with what reporters described as “the calm, measured tone of a woman who has been thanked for her feedback many times.”

The capital campaign, titled “Building on the Rock,” includes a three-year pledge model and a thermometer-style progress tracker that will be displayed in the lobby. A similar tracker for the coffee maker fund does not exist, though one member has taped a handwritten index card to the machine reading “$14 raised so far.”

At press time, a congregant had brought a personal Keurig from home and placed it on the counter with a sticky note reading “For the body of Christ. Please return pods.”