Our church (Aulne Methodist) is considering a substantial building project. We're looking at adding on a new fellowship hall and kitchen facility. These items have been needed for a long time. The architect has done a great job, and the plan is a good plan.
I am struggling with questions that keep coming back to me time and time again. How does this project enhance our ability to serve and praise God? Are we wanting to do this for our convenience? Is there a better use of our funds? Is God more pleased to see a church give it's money to mission projects, or does He smile when He sees us taking care of His house? Are we being good stewards by potentially putting the church in debt and obligating future generations?
A good arguement can be made that if you enhance your church via improvements to the facility, it sends a signal to the surrounding community, as well as people who don't attend regularly that the church is making a long term committment. It is a well documented fact that building projects alone can and often do have a fringe benefit of increased attendance. The "build it and they will come" adage definitely has merit. Increased attendance hopefully brings increased giving, not only to help pay for the cost of the improvments, but also to help fund missions and other vhurch supported evangelism projects.
I know there are other areas within our church walls that need addressed (Sunday School class rooms, updated and increased sanctuary space, ect), but with the high cost of construction, it is just unreasonable to expect our little rural church congregation to "bite off more than we can chew". The arguement can be made that the fellowship hall project can be the springboard and foundation for future improvements that can address these other issues/needs.
Pray for our church that we make the right decisions. All we want to do is praise Him and be His servants in all we do. After all, we are His hands and feet. Will making improvements to his house make us better servants? We will find out!!
De Colores
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I have lots of opinions to share about this project, but the one concern I will share right now is that we may have a false hope that if we build we may see an increase in attendance.
I can certainly see how the old adage merits truth in some circumstances, but I don't see it applying in ours. The reason is that we don't have much of a community of our own in this small place. We're nearly invisible, and I think in order for a new addition to be infuential to visitors, it has to be seen. In my experience, as we have travelled in outreaches to nearby communities, we have not generated much interest in our church. I hear lots of people comment about all the good things going on at "Aulne" but it doesn't inspire them to come join us. Most people in the area are pretty content where they are, and the churchless people I think need something more personal than a buidling addition to connect them and draw them to church. We've had few newcomers here and there, and I think that trend will continue with or without a beautiful fellowship hall. I would be much more concerned with the inward beauty of the people who call it home.
One question: If people are drawn to a church because it has a new building or seems to be growing, what is their motivation? Certainly, these may be people who need to be witnessed to, but could we more effectively witness by making do with what we have and setting an example that material beauty does not facilitate spiritual beauty? Rather than proclaiming the outward beauty we are capable of.
If I thought a new fellowship hall was truly a "need", I would not be so quick to discredit the idea. But if I have clothes in my closet that I can wear, new clothes are not needs, they are desires. i don't think it's necessarily wrong to try to fulfill desires if they don't come in between you and God. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars we don't have doesn't seem to draw us closer to God, like you said, Kevin, when those funds could go toward serving God's kingdom in missionary form.
For me it all boils down to the fact that I can't convince myself why we need a new fellowship hall. We have needs for more room, but when I see the average attendance of fourth Sun. fellowships that don't even take up half of the space in our current fellowship hall, I realize our efforts could be more effective creating SS space and more sanctuary space. I'm hopeful when I think of how beautiful (if beauty is what you want) and functional our church could be with the use of money that we already have!
Sorry, I've taken up so much blog space, and I'd actually add more, if I didn't have a little girl who reminds me every five minutes she needs me!
God is good, and I know he will take care of us throughout this heavy time of decision making. Thanks for your thoughts, Kevin.
Take a look at the big metropolitan churches that are springing up everywhere in the cities. Their main motivation for building these mammoth worship centers is to draw people in to see the building, and then hope that the worship and atmosphere keeps them coming back.
Several years ago, we had a dynamic young preacher, and he drew people in with his warm, loving style. Most of the new worshipers were not coming because of the people, they came because of the minister. We were happy though, because at least new people came in the door, and then it was our job to try and make them feel like our church was a place that they could experience God's love and grace.
My point is, sometimes we have to look at other ways to get people to come through our doors besides standing on the corner and shouting to the world "come worship at Aulne!!". Is our project a good way to do this? Could be.....
So where are all these new people the dynamic young preacher brought in?
I don't think our focus should even be on how we can get people to come to church. Maybe we should be trying to figure out how to minister to our friends and neighbors before they ever attend a Sun. service. Wouldn't they come then?
An outsiders point of view: As is the case with many decisions concerning how to be good stewards of what God has given us, the decision of whether building projects are God led or people led is one I'm sure you all will discover through prayer. I cannot answer those questions and concerns for you, only through prayer will you find the answers. I trust you are also using your members God given talents to gather information on similar decisions made by other churches and the results they experienced. (The old "don't re-invent the wheel sort of thing) I have experienced several building projects both in remodeling of existing facilities and building new facilities, and I would be happy to share a couple of personal examples if you would like. I will refrain from doing so here due to space & time limitations. I will leave you with this thought however. Even now that I am approaching senior citizen status, I still firmly believe that a churches future lies in its youth. While we are important people in fulfilling God's work, seldom will a church grow by initiating new entry points for us seniors.
A Brother in Christ,
I feel our wonderful little church in Aulne is sometimes "the best kept secret" and that we need to share our strength in faith and talents to reach out to others. I believe God wants to use us to reach out to the un-churched, or to bring back home members who no longer attend and strengthen those of us who are current church members. But, we do need to keep our building somewhat updated to meet future needs and we need the classroom, office and sanctuary spaces to meet our current needs!
I feel we have several real needs to be met concerning space and that the proposed new fellowship hall could meet most of those needs, along with donated manual labor help from our church family, which has already been volunteered.
Here are my thoughts. I don't feel the fellowship hall itself is the big need here, but certainly a good avenue in which to accomplish a lot of concerns through that major project and increase our outreach in the process.
First, our kitchen and fellowship hall are VERY outdated, to say the least. I feel each generation should do their share to keep the church updated and in good repair to pass on future generations. We are known to draw a community crowd with our various music talents, good food and annual fireworks-home-made ice cream-music, successful VBS program, hay-rack ride/ wiener-roast, Christmas Caroling, etc. We are a fun church! These "non-churchy" type of events are an excellent outreach mission to invite people into a church environment that may otherwise have reservations about attending a "church service". Many people who attend these events that have church homes already, they have heard of our proposed building project have made encouraging comments of "You really need that!". With updated facilities, and more room, just imagine what MORE we could do!!!
CONCERNS/NEEDS:
*Classrooms
*Office
*Increased Sanctuary Seating
*Increased area at front of church
*Updated nursery
*Increased storage
*Updated kitchen/fellowship hall
We currently have 9 Sunday School Classrooms that meet every week, two of which are poorly heated and air-conditioned, 5 of which are very small. By building the Fellowship Hall, it would allow us to take the existing Fellowship Hall and kitchen and make 6 larger, much needed classrooms.
The 2 classrooms that meet in the library and balcony could be converted to permanent increased seating for the Santuary. (It was suggested if we put nice padded chairs in the balcony instead of pews, and remove all the stored items, we could seat many more for services, when needed.)The pews from the balcony could be relocated to the current library if turned into permanent sanctuary seating.
The tiny classroom at the front of the sanctuary, as well as the inadequate current office/music storage, could be opened up for increased choir loft, pulpit, piano, space. If the piano were moved onto the stage area, perhaps we could consider taking a couple of the balcony pews and add another pew row for more sanctuary seating or use the space for a larger children's story/ prayer kneeling area.
The two, small classrooms downstairs could be converted to minister office (west) / libray room (east) that adjoin. The minister needs a place to councel in a private, have a heated/air-conditioned office w/ space to seat several, desk area & bookcase.This would allow direct access to those trying to find the office and it would be heated and air-conditioned!! The east adjoining classroom could be library/ copier/ small table and chairs so our minister has a private meeting area for weddings, funerals, counseling, general meetings, etc. but also easy access for members needing the copier or books.
The classes that meet in the sanctuary could continue to meet there and the two large classes that meet in the basement could move to the new fellowship hall and continue to use the existing divider wall.
We could relocate the stored music to the area where the copier is, across from the choir robes. The storage items from the balcony could be relocated to planned storage in the new addition.
The storage area at the entrance of the sanctuary (SW under stair) could also be relocated to new storage and that area could be converted to a small sound booth by enlarging that area a couple of feet to the north without taking out any pews or obstructing the sanctuary entrance.
A lot of people have already offered to donate their skills for carpentry, sheetrock, electrical, painting services to do the renovations that are not included in the new fellowship hall plan.
I personally would like to be able to compare costs to a plan that includes an unfinished basement area under new fellowship hall. I don't know what the added cost would be, but seems a lot of excavation work is already being done. I assume we're looking at mainly concrete costs. Just something to consider. We can sure use the storage and easily finish it in years to come if needed.
I know there are many ideas to be heard and these are just my 2 cents. I hope we can keep in mind the "big picture" while we pray through the process so we can try to meet as many needs as possible along the way you know?
Sure, we would have to do fund raisers, building project funds, auctions, garage sales, music programs, community dinners, increase our giving, but what a blessing that can be! I can just feel the excitement in the air!!! With our strong leadership, all of our talented members pulling together and most important with God at the helm, I can only imagine what we can accomplish when we put our hearts into it and put our Faith into Action!!!
Blessings,
Nancy
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