Last Sunday morning our congregation met during the Foundations hour to hear another presentation from Bruce Wardell with an updated proposal. Because of a misunderstanding, Bruce had to shorten his presentation Sunday, and so we started the meeting with a restatement of why we are doing a master plan, and then opened it up to an energetic Q&A from the congregation.
In our Q&A, we considered our commitment to make room for spiritually needy souls at GCC. Given the current overcrowding in our Children’s Ministry, and the occasional overcapacity in our worship services and parking lots, we want to thoughtfully consider how to enfold more people into our flock. We talked about some of the challenges of the church planting option: things like sending off some of our most committed volunteers and leaders and the impact that may have on us. We also discussed how the leaders of our church decided to pursue this master plan process in order to gain wisdom as to how to proceed with any changes to our facility. There also were specific questions about space needs for children that will help inform our next round of decisions and discussions as we refine the master plan.
I was especially excited when the topic of reaching out to our neighbors came up in our discussion, and I am eager for us to consider how we might better build bridges of friendship with our neighbors in the coming year. Various ideas are being considered for 2014 for our whole congregation to be involved in, but your suggestions are welcome. I’d love your input and help in planning activities to reach out to those who may be spiritually searching or needing to plug into fellowship.
Bruce’s newest proposal combined some elements of the 2nd and 3rd designs that were presented at our first meeting. This latest plan incorporates concerns that were expressed about phasing and pricing. In addition to correcting overcrowding in nurseries and children’s ministry, his latest proposal included a phase one expansion to our current worship area. This expansion is much less costly than building a brand new sanctuary. If we decide that the new expanded worship space will meet our needs, a fellowship hall might be built as a final phase of building.
An interesting feature of the proposed expanded worship space is breakout rooms for classes. Two breakout rooms could be used on Sunday mornings and at other times of the week for adult classes and groups. One proposal includes a fireplace in the one breakout room, which would make it an ideal place for a group to meet during the week for a small group or prayer meeting. Let’s throw a log on the fire and get busy praying!
There will be a final meeting to present the results of various inputs, comments and questions. That was originally planned for December 8th, but we will need to change that date in order to allow time to incorporate some of the changes suggested, and to gather more input from the church leadership. We will let you know about this next meeting soon, and I encourage you to come. Please be in prayer for Bruce, the master planning committee, and our leaders as we consider the next steps in this process and God’s vision for the future of GCC.
In Him,
Don