Hey, Wait...I Still Have a Blog!

(NOTE: I am going to attempt to put at least one post every week or so concerning week-to-week happenings in the congregation. Think of it as a commentary of sorts about things going on at Soldier Creek. I might clarify some things that are going on concerning projects and happenings, or I might just offer some thoughts on congregational life. Hope you enjoy! I hope to come up with a spiffy title for this hoped-for regular entry.)

The renovation project has been an odyssey, to put it lightly.

I will admit that things like codes and building permits are far away from anything resembling an expertise of mine. I've never been a minister anywhere in my career that involved any kind of construction while I was there. I will confess that this process has made the thought of being somewhere that would want to build a new church building nowhere near as exciting as I would have assumed once upon a time.

So when Tom sent word via text last week that the building permit was finally approved, I replied to him that I could faintly hear the Hallelujah chorus echoing in my office! As most of us know, this has been a prolonged give-and-take with the city of Piedmont to get our remodel approved. It would be fair to say that it has been perplexing at times as to why it took so long. Sometimes Tom and Dave would say these things were predictable, other times they seemed puzzled too. I believe that we as a congregation owe Tom Squires a big debt of gratitude for his work and dedication for years on this project. Dave Osborn also deserves a lot of love for adding his experience and help to Tom. These guys had to endure numerous delays not of their own doing, but have successfully delivered up a feasible and workable upgrade to our facility.

Needless to say, many of us are ready to start swinging hammers and knocking things down to get the project started! Much will be revealed soon concerning preparations, work days and many other changes that none of us can probably even predict at this earliest stage of the remodel. We are going to have to do some creative thinking now, however, concerning how the remodel is going to affect some activities.

1. We are scheduled to host a youth rally on Sunday, April 19th. I’m frankly not sure we can pull this off if the remodel has begun in earnest by that time.
2. Friend Day on April 26th might be kind of iffy as well. It might be fun, though, to still have friends come and see a congregation that is putting work and creative thought into its place of worship.
3. Depending on how long it will actually take to completely finish the auditorium, it might come very close to when we usually have Vacation Bible School. Same thought process as above in having members of the community see our progress, but presents challenges as well.
4. Last, and certainly not least, the temporary transfer of all worship activities to the fellowship hall.

So get excited, but also be ready to contribute some flexibility and planning concerning activities at the building the next several months..

QUICK HITS:  The Teachers Appreciation fellowship meal was a big hit! Really nice goodie bags for all of our Bible class teachers. Big shout-out to the Wandels, Wolkes and anyone else who was involved (feel free to list anyone I might have missed in a comment to this post)...Sorry again for the confusion this past Sunday night which resulted in evening services being cancelled. With that night being our usual “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” night (which Cathy was not able to plan due to travel), everything kind of got jumbled with our evening worship. Having cancelled so many activities the previous few weeks because of weather didn’t help matters either.