Nearly two years after selling our facility in search of more space, God has provided an extraordinary new home for OneWay that is above and beyond anything we could have asked for or imagined. We want to thank so many of you who have faithfully prayed toward this end. He has done it!
In February, OneWay closed on a building in Aurora, Illinois, that will serve as our new global ministry center. The 62,000-square-foot facility is an amazing space from which strategic missions and media initiatives can be carried out by a growing team of staff, interns and volunteers for years to come.
“The greatest thing continues to be that God is reaching people, and that is our heart,” shares Michael Thompson, OneWay’s founder and president. “We are just thrilled because we believe this new ministry center will help us do a better job of that.”
The two-story building, which we were able to secure at less than half of the appraised value, sits only 1.3 miles from the building that served as OneWay’s home for 10 years on Ogden Avenue. Our former headquarters sold for about $176 a square foot, while we were able to purchase the new ministry center for about $37 a square foot.
The incredible deal we got on this property gave us more than three times the amount of space we were looking for within the budget set by the OneWay board, including more than seven acres of land in a beautiful setting. That extra square footage will allow us to lease space to other organizations and ministries, greatly offsetting ongoing operational expenses.
“This gives us a place to grow a united community of people serving in powerful, meaningful ways — everyday people bringing their different gifts, resources and time together to reach people,” Thompson adds.
“It addresses almost all of OneWay’s current needs in a facility and has the space and the land to meet our future needs as the ministry grows,” says David Morrill, OneWay’s chief operating officer. “This building and grounds will accommodate a studio with features that we have never been able to have before, which will produce media that God will use in amazing ways,” Morrill explains.
The building will provide space for both live worship and media production.
“This new facility will bring our staff and volunteers together to be able to brainstorm and energize each other to find new ideas and means to reach the lost,” Morrill shares.
Our staff, partners and friends have been praying that God would provide a new headquarters since February 2020 when we sold our previous facility, which we had outgrown. Just weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. Our team has been working remotely for the past two years as we have searched for a permanent facility.
God provided a large portion of the funding to purchase the building through the generosity of partners who invested in OneWay's capital campaign in 2019. When the pandemic hit, the campaign was put on hold. Early this year, a generous friend of the ministry provided a $1.2 million low interest-only loan to allow us to move forward with the closing in February. We are now praying and trusting God to once again provide resources to repay those funds in the next year, with the help of OneWay partners.
Thompson said he was amazed that God provided a building that was so much more than anything he had imagined could happen.
“Initially I was just overwhelmed because I felt God really challenged me to the core about what He’s able to do when we ask Him for big things,” he said. “I was overwhelmed because faith and vision — they all got stretched to the max.”
Let's all take a moment to praise God together for this incredible provision. We will be sharing more exciting updates and opportunities in the coming months!
Hear more about the vision for the new ministry center on the March 16 episode of the Brand New Day podcast:
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