| One Step Forward By Andy Bratton, Senior Minister |
Things are getting ready to happen with our lower level construction project and I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the why and what of the happenings. When I arrived in 2015 I had a weekend getaway with the Elders to discuss the current health of the church and to create a strategy going forward. When I started here at KCC, what was fresh in people’s minds was a horrific tragedy that struck our community and in particular a family in our church body. Along with other tragedies in our country, it was clear and important to our Elders that safety and security be addressed with our church. Yes, we want to be about reaching the unchurched. Yes, we want to disciple those God has called to be a part of our church. But, we also want to make sure those who are in the four walls of our church on Sunday and during the week are safe and secure. Especially our children.
If you were to take a child to our lower level today and set him/her loose, there would be five places they could leave the building. On Wednesdays, Sara, our Children’s Minister, has over 60 children and Thursdays she has another 20. On Sunday night David, our Youth Minister, has 20 high schoolers and on Wednesday night another 25 middle schoolers. On Sunday morning, we have approximately 35 kids in the lower level. Short of having one adult for every child, we needed to make some changes to ensure the safety of our children.
With all of that being said, this first phase of construction for our church will be to build a wall that will define the elementary kid’s area, the pre-school kid’s area, and the middle school/high school area. All three will be painted and decorated in a way that reflects our love for children and our desire to have them dragging their parents to church and having their parents dragging them away from church when we are done because they love their new space and are enjoying learning about Jesus.
The construction will take approximately two months. Beginning Tuesday, February 4th, a group will be at the church starting some demolition. There are some things that the professionals will need to destruct for us, but our group will do what they can in order to save some money. After the remodel, we will still be able to host funeral dinners and other large events, as the majority of the “big open space” will not be affected.
I have a tentative price tag, but I don’t want to share it here. The Elders will give that information out as they are ready to do so. I will say that most of the cost will be taken care of with savings on hand. We want to be wise with the finances God has blessed this church with. That means that we want to keep some funds on hand in the event of an issue with the building that needs to be addressed.
I would like to ask you to pray about a couple of things. First, pray for the workers that will be here doing the construction. Pray that the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts to want to join us when they are done if they don’t have a church home. Second, pray for future families, specifically children, that God will lead to us after the project is done. Ask God to give us the words to speak that will cause them to surrender their lives to Him. Third, ask God if He wants you to participate financially with the part our savings won’t cover. Pray with your family about what God might lead you to give over and above your regular giving toward the project. In the coming weeks, we will give the project a name and a way to give specifically toward it. Before anyone starts giving toward it, however, I want us to pray.
You may have noticed I said, “Phase one” earlier. We have more plans to consider after this project is completed. We need storage. We would like a bigger area for our youth. We would like more “fellowship” areas for small groups of people in the upper level. And hopefully, we will need more Worship Center space in the near future. One step at a time. Let’s secure our children and let families know we want them here worshiping with us and will provide a safe and comfortable space for that to happen.