MP100 Recipient, Fall 2020:
Babcock Ranch, Florida
We give thanks to God for a unique community that is forming just outside of Fort Myers, Florida; a place where sustainability and environmental awareness drive development and daily life. This place is the new Master Planned Solar Community of Babcock Ranch, and God is calling the Florida-Bahamas Synod and the ELCA to this new mission.
The first of its kind in the United States, Babcock Ranch is built on 18,000 acres with 50% of its land dedicated to greenspace, reinforcing the vision of the developers to place an emphasis on the environment. Babcock Ranch is surrounded by 73,000 acres of preserve and draws power from a field of 680,000 solar panels. The community is zoned for 19,500 homes and 6 million square feet of zoning for commercial and institutional spaces.
With its first residents moving into their new home in 2018, there are now nearly 1,500 residents at Babcock Ranch, and that number is steadily increasing as the developers work towards their goal of having 50,000 people call Babcock Ranch home.
Being the first “smart town” in the United States, we have an opportunity to build a worshipping community in Babcock Ranch that nurtures the idea of faith and innovation and comes alongside its residents in giving Creation a voice in worship, service, and learning.
Today, there is not a worshipping community within Babcock Ranch, but that will soon change. We invite you to participate in what God is already doing in this development. By becoming a Ministry Partner with the new mission at Babcock Ranch, you will help us work towards locating a site for worship within the community and, together as co-creators with our amazing God, building a place for faith to grow, gifts to be shared, people and creation to be cared for, and God to be worshipped and praised.
Your gift to Mission Partners 100 will be used for the purchase and development of a site in Babcock Ranch where God’s mission for this new community will be revealed and sustained.
I thank you for your prayerful consideration of giving to this new mission at Babcock Ranch.
Together in Christ,
Pr. Rob Carlson Pr. Khader El-Yateem
DEM/A2B, North DEM/A2B, South