Perhaps you remember the context for these four words. A year ago this Sunday, Kelly Auditorium was packed to the gills as the Special Committee on Facilities and Mission offered a presentation to the congregation regarding the future of our church. There, we all heard the proposal to restore the exterior of our historic Sanctuary building, reduce our cost by razing Buildings B & C and draw to a close the ministry of the Children’s Center, renovate Building A to create a standalone and fully functional space for our ongoing ministries, and reimagine the landscape of our life together with the addition of an atrium and outdoor sacred garden.
Since then, we have learned so much together, discovering the scope of what our beloved community can take on at this time. And even though we will not immediately complete the full project outlined a year ago, these words still ring true for what we will soon experience.
Final preparations are in full swing! After a memorable Pentecost Sunday celebrating what God has done through these spaces and a Wednesday night sale of various artifacts and hidden treasures to our members, we now enter the final month prior to the project’s beginning, a month where dozens of folks in our fellowship are working tirelessly to prepare us for what is to come. This will be the first of many such updates to come! Regular progress reports found in your eBlast and on our church’s website will inform all of us of how First Baptist will “restore ☩ reduce ☩ renovate ☩ reimagine” that week. These notices will connect you with the project, answer questions you may have, and pass along needed information for the coming days ahead.
So for this week, here are a handful of updates:
- This is the final week to pick up whatever items you may have purchased at our presale. After this Sunday, any item that remains in the building will need to remain for our community-wide auction on June 23.
- Sunday School class teachers have been notified about their class’s new location in Building A. If you haven’t heard from your teacher yet, call or email to ask!
- A special ladder allowed Michelle Walter (preservationist and Senior Project Manager of Walter Robbs) to ascend the narrow inside of the tower and take final pictures of its facade. This will enable our architects to complete the drawings of the restoration work, the most intricate piece of their work.
- Various leadership groups (Deacons, Finance, Policy, Special Committee, House & Grounds, Capital Campaign leadership, staff) remain hard at work managing all the details to prepare us for transition! The Deacon subgroup that has so helpfully cleaned out our buildings will gather again on June 5 & 6, 6:30-9:00 p.m. to complete the move of items into Building A. All are welcome!
God is at work in our church! May we join in with hope for what lies ahead.
Together in the work of Love,
Pastor Emily