Last night's meeting

It was good to see the new faces on building committee, and the old ones too. Not that faces are old, just folks that have been on the team for a while. You know what I mean.

Here is how the discussion went:

1. Plans are finalized for a new parking lot. Final costs should be provided to us in a week or two. We will need to raise $225,000. I have been approached by folks who have pledged $46,000 so far. We will have an all church conference to approve the project just as soon as we can connect all of the dots.

2. A small remodel job will be discussed with trustees that would replace one of the double windows on the east side of the new foyer [by Jonnie's fern] with a double set of doors. A side walk will be run heading east to the parking lot. Estimated cost is $10,000. The purpose of this is to remedy the fact that almost all of our parking is on the east side now, and we have only one entry door and it is a single door on the east side.

3. Plans were presented to expand the current sanctuary. The group was split over whether it would be better to expand the current sanctuary or build a new one on the east side as was previously planned. This is a very complicated issue:

Reasons to expand the current sanctuary:
-we would only have one sanctuary
-people like our current sanctuary
-it may be cheaper than building new

Reasons to build a new sanctuary
-a remodel of the old one may not be possible due to structural reasons
-a remodel of the old sanctuary may not give us enough seats
-a new sanctuary may be cheaper
-some were concerned that a remodel would "cobble up" the feel of the old sanctuary.
-the only way to return to a three service format is to build new with expandability.
-city fire codes may make current sanctuary remodel impossible.

The architect is reviewing the situation and will return with some ideas.

4. A report was provided on the construction at the Christian church on 7 highway in Blue Springs. We thought they were building a sanctuary, they are not. It is all education space. An interesting side note is that almost the entire job, including steel beam placement has been done by volunteers.

5. Everett's Restaurant. A report was made indicating that several of our leaders have toured the building. Word on the street is that it is held by the FDIC and will sell for about $500,000. I hate to miss it at that price, but it is not in very good condition and would take lots of money to get back into shape. Although having the frontage on 291 and the 70 parking spaces would be nice, we have other priorities which include expanded parking on our site and more sanctuary space.

These are good problems to have. Big challenges related to our continued ability to connect people to Jesus Christ. Please keep your church in your prayers. Exciting times.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.