October 19, 2007 by Gail Carter.

The outdoor amphitheater is designed to have a brick patio and we decided to sell Memory Bricks to help offset the cost of the building. You can buy a brick with a message or name (or almost anything) on it and it would be placed in the Brick Garden. There is room for about 2,000 bricks and so far the response has not been as fruitful as we envisioned — we have sold less than 60 bricks. The good news is that there are plenty of bricks to be bought, but the bad news is that to meet the construction schedule, only the bricks bought before the end of October can be guaranteed to be in the Brick Garden when the new site opens. So, in about 2 weeks, we close out the sale of Memory Bricks and may not sell them again unless we hear an overwhelming request from the congregation. So folks, time is running out - if you want a brick, don’t wait get one now!

Online ordering can be done here. (Note that this link will take you to the ServiceU site.)

Posted in New Cut Road Building Progress | No Comments »

October 19, 2007 by Andy Lunt.

If you’ve driven past our new site recently you may have been amazed, as I have, with how much construction has progressed over the past few weeks. Walls have gone up and exterior panels installed. The building now has most of a roof in place. And, perhaps most encouraging, work is well along on the relocation of New Cut Road.

At this point we are less than 7 months from the time we anticipate holding our first service in the new facility. While there are still many things about which we’re uncertain, I thought it might be helpful to review a few of the things we do know. First, construction is on schedule. This means we expect the building to be essentially finished in April. We’ll then have a month or so to complete finishing touches and furnishing before holding our first worship service.

We expect to worship for the first time in the new facility on Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008. There will be three morning services, at 8:00, 9:15, and 10:55 (continuing our current schedule). Then, since May 11 is also Pentecost in 2008, we will be holding a Confirmation Service that afternoon. Just imagine the thrill of confirming a group of young people on the first day in our new facility! What a great day that will be.

I want to remind you that we will be holding worship services in the multi-purpose room that will accommodate many other types of activities throughout the week. We are making every effort, both in design and in furnishing and decorating the space, to assure that the multi-purpose room provides a worshipful setting. And we’ll be needing teams of people to set up chairs for worship and then take them down each week.

The multi-purpose room will be able to accommodate 600+ people for worship, nearly twice the capacity of our current sanctuary, and to seat approximately 300 at tables for meals or other events. More than three times the number of parking spaces will be available after this first phase of construction, with more slated for future phases.

The building we expect to move into in May represents phase 1 of what will likely be a 4-phase construction project. The Phase 1 building includes the multi-purpose room, kitchen, child care facilities, a large narthex (larger than our current sanctuary) for gathering and other activities, as well as storage on the upper level. The lower level of the building includes classrooms for children, youth, and adults. Several of the rooms are very large (roughly the size of our current fellowship hall), and can be used as one large space or subdivided into several smaller rooms as needed.

This first phase building includes approximately 33,000 square feet of space. This compares to about 27,000 square feet provided by all three of our current buildings combined. However, in the first phase building there will not be space for the Glen Mar Pre School or for staff offices. These will continue to be housed at our current site at least through the summer of 2009.

Phase two is represented by a 2-story education building with pre-school and early elementary classrooms, an enlarged child-care suite (the phase 1 child care area becomes the music suite in phase 2), as well as offices for all staff. This building contains roughly 20,000 square feet of additional space, making the total of phases 1 and 2 twice the size of our current facilities.

My personal goal is to do everything possible to enable us to begin construction of Phase 2 soon after phase 1 is completed. This depends, though, on a very successful capital campaign in the Spring of 2008. We will need to generate pledges and gifts of at least $3 million in order to be able to begin construction of the phase 2 education building in 2008. This would enable us to occupy phase 2 during the summer of 2009 and totally vacate the Glen Mar Road facility at that time (which would enable us to stop paying rent of $20,000 per month).

While this goal may seem ambitious, I am confident that God will provide for this next step in the same way God has so abundantly provided for our needs at each step along the way. The reason I’m so confident is that I know we are not regarding the new facility as simply a place where we can be more comfortable and spread out a bit more. Rather, our new facility is an instrument for greater ministry–both to our members and to the surrounding community. Many ministries will become possible when we move to the new facility that have not been possible with the limitations of our current site.

In other words, this is God’s building, for God’s mission in the world through us. And that is why I believe God will provide, through us, whatever is needed to enable phases 1 and 2 to be completed by the summer of 2009. Which is, perhaps not coincidentally, when–as you know–I expect to retire.

So, as we look ahead to May of 2008 and beyond, we have much to be excited about, much to celebrate. At the same time, we have many challenges to meet. By God’s grace, for God’s mission in the world, I believe God will provide.

Posted in Pastors Ponderings, New Cut Road Building Progress | No Comments »

October 17, 2007 by Larry Resch.

Dan Kagey gave a update/overview of the construction status at the Church Council meeting on 25 September. Here is a brief summary from the meeting minutes and from the Building Team report for 2006-2007.

How we got to where we are
The estimated Guaranteed Maximum Price for the initial design and phasing of the construction was beyond our current means so the Building Team repartitioned the construction phases which shifted the construction of the Education Wing from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and reduced it from 3 levels down to 2 levels. This shift in phases forced us to also rethink the initial use of Youth World and the Multipurpose Room to accommodate all of our needs along with future growth.

Where we are
The first footers were poured in March 2007 and the construction is presently on schedule. The second floor is being worked on, exterior brickwork is being done, and the roof is moving along nicely. The New Cut Road plans and financing have finally been approved - construction has begun and we expect it to be completed prior to winter.

Where we are going
We expect to hold our first services on May 11, 2008. This Mother’s Day and Pentecost Sunday! Pastor Andy Lunt has decided that all services will be held at the new site and only the staff offices and preschool will remain at our current site until Phase 2 is completed. We hope to kick off the capital campaign for Phase 2 in 2008 with the goal of starting Phase 2 construction by early 2009.

As Dan pointed out so well
2003 through late 2006 has been a case of waiting for God’s time. In the fall of 2006, God flipped the switch and we are off and running, sometimes holding on for dear-life.

We need to just remember that God is driving this bus at His speed and following His route. We need to sit back and enjoy the ride because it sure is exciting!

Posted in New Cut Road Building Progress | No Comments »

October 7, 2007 by Larry Resch.

What a great day today. I was out at the construction site and, boy, is the new building growing by leaps and bounds! There is a rumour of being in the new church by Mothers Day 2008, and at our current pace, I don’t have doubts that we can make it. If we don’t meet our schedule, I (we?) just need to remember that this is God’s project on His timetable and he has provided everything we needed when we needed it.

Here is what the building looks like from the hill between the upper and lower parking lots. The openings on the bottom level are the windows into some of the “Youth World” classrooms. You can also see into the Multipurpose Room where we will be holding our services (and other stuff) during this first phase of construction. If you squint and look through the Multipurpose Room you can see daylight which is about where the Sanctuary will be built in Phase 3 or 4…

Here you can look into the Multipurpose Room — I am standing about where the Sanctuary will be. The area in the front with the neat brick walls is the Narthex.

Here you are looking down into the outside amphitheater. The dirt area at the bottom is where the Brick Garden will be and the lower concrete area is the area outside of Youth World. The floor directly above is the Narthex. Oh, yeah, this is all going to be glass so the from the amphitheater you can look into both areas.

Here I am standing in the Narthex looking into the Multipurpose Room. It is a bright day outside, but the photo is a little dark since most of the roof base is on! Check out how high the ceiling will be. You can see the stage area in the center and may be able to make out the I-beam support for the stage.

This is the view from the stage looking out to the Narthex. I took some other pictures from the stage but for some reason they never got saved… I’ll just have to get some more soon. (Or maybe Al can!)

Posted in New Cut Road Building Progress | No Comments »

October 4, 2007 by Gail Carter.

It was recently suggested by one of my esteemed colleagues that a reminder be given (via telephone) to each congregant so they may consider donating a brick (or bricks) to the Brick Garden. Short of conducting a telephone campaign, this seems to be an easy way to reach people. Just one of the perks for being Lay Leader, I guess!

Flyers were sent out several weeks ago and, if you’re like me, it’s still in my mail pile! (If you can’t find your flyer, click here to look at it online.) The Brick Garden donation deadline is October 30 (for Phase I). This is such an ingenious and lasting way to commemorate a special date, person, or group, that I would hate to have anyone miss this chance. Your tribute lasts a lifetime and it’s always a joy to see.

Just to make it easier for you, here is a link to the online registration form and payment method options so you can simply do it right now and take it off of your endless “To Do” list.

Thank you for taking the time to prayerfully consider your contributions to the new Brick Garden!

Posted in New Cut Road Building Progress | No Comments »