Never thought I’d be so excited about a pile of dirt.

The first sign that construction is about to begin. The ever-growing pile of dirt will be used to bring the parking lot, sidewalks, and all other areas around the front addition to an elevation that will match our new front door. We will extend this elevation out from the front door to the new drive lane in front of the building, and the accessible parking stalls, to make access to the building a bit more level.

Matt Floersch gives an update on the Making Room expansion during the April 29th services at Faith.

Length 6:38

As the saying goes, the train has left the station! So, what’s next you might ask?

A lot of details! We are working with Brian Rathsam (architect), and the entire design crew pouring through the plans, adding details, and asking a lot of questions. The more questions we ask now, the less issues that arise during construction. This is time well spent!

As a building inspector for more years than I care to count, I have lost track of how many times I’ve helped work through an issue during construction that would have been so easy to correct on paper, but gets difficult (and expensive) to solve on the construction site.

This part of the process can seem tedious and perhaps a bit frustrating when it would be so great to see concrete being poured, and walls going up. We would appreciate your prayers for faith, fortitude, and clarity during this time. Stay tuned – before you know it, there will be a job trailer on site, and dirt being moved!

As we near the congregational meeting on February 27th, I would like to update you on some modifications that have been made to the building plans. Our central focus of Making Room has not changed. Our desire to serve more people here at Faith remains strong.

God showed up in a significant way through the Making Room Campaign. I often think about and am amazed that our congregation could pledge over $1 million dollars. In our human planning, we were hoping to raise around $1.3 million. With this “shortfall”, the building committee was forced to ask some difficult questions. Is Making Room in God’s plan for our church? If so, what is His plan for our facility? These questions led to more prayer and discussion.
As God guided our steps, it became clearer that we would be better off to wait on the children’s addition at this time. After further conversations with Chris (our Children’s Pastor) and Russ (our Youth Pastor), this seemed to be confirmed. While the financial ramifications of building less seemed to fall in line with the money pledged, it also became clear that our ministries may benefit more if this addition is postponed. I will attempt to explain: When the Children’s Ministry is able to utilize the entire south end of the building (including the current Youth room), it will have enough space for its programing needs. The south end of the building would truly be a “Children’s Wing.” Our original plan involved converting our current worship center into a home for our Youth Ministry in Phase 2. We have sensed the need to get the Youth Ministry into its permanent space more quickly than we will be able to build Phase 2. Therefore, we are recommending a Phase 1.5 to be completed as soon as possible that involves adding space for Youth Ministry onto the north end of the building. This will be designed to meet the needs of Youth Ministry and will not have to wait until Phase 2. As a result, both Youth and Children’s Ministry would have adequate, quality space sooner than originally planned.

Keeping all this in mind, we started to rethink the current worship center. Since Youth will have a permanent solution on the north end of the building, all the renovations we make to the current worship center will now be permanent. We are working on a plan with a permanent location for a baptistery along with additional storage space. Sufficient storage space was one of the most often mentioned needs in the building task force report. The more permanent nature of the worship center expansion has also caused us to rethink the audio-visual-lighting (AVL) package. With no clear timeline for Phase 2, we may be calling our current worship center home for a significant number of years. When Phase 2 is needed, we will likely be able to transfer some of the equipment to the new sanctuary in the future. We do not want to compromise worship now for a future that is unknown. This has in turn increased the budgetary needs for AVL.

As we look at our campus as a whole, waiting a few years to add a Youth wing to the north (rather than having to add a Children’s Wing now and a Youth wing later) seems to be the most efficient use of our resources. We do not have the funds to do this right now unless we receive a large, unexpected gift in the coming months. There is no doubt in my mind that the next few years we are going to have some challenges in the children’s wing due to lack of space. I wish I had a ready solution to these situations, but I do not. I do trust that God will reveal the solutions as He has done throughout this Making Room project.

I want to thank you all for your patience in waiting for these plans to become reality. You will see the budget and plans for Phase 1 at the congregational meeting on February 27th. Please be praying for this process as the coming weeks will be full of meetings and decisions.
– Matt Floersch

From day one, the building committee heard the same advice time and time again – build a strong team, a group of professionals who share your vision, and get them engaged early in the process. We’ve done our best to follow this advice – and I believe we have an all-star team assembled. I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the team:

Clark — Matt Samuelson from Clark was perhaps the first team member to join us. Clark specializes in church consultation and facility design. Matt was instrumental in helping us take a big picture view of who we are, where we are heading, and what type of facilities we need to follow God’s leading.

Mantel Teter — Brian Rathsam from Mantel Teter has been our key link to the world of architecture. I actually met both Brian and David Evans from M/T in Atlanta almost two years ago, at the Worship Facility Expo. Brian has been both extremely helpful, and patient as our project has gone through many changes along the way!

Summit Integrated Systems — Summit is handling our AVL (audio, video, lighting) design and consultation. They are the most recent addition to the team, but have already provided valuable guidance as we think about how the worship center should look, feel, and sound.

SMH Consultants — Jeff Hancock with SMH has a great deal of local experience as an engineer, having worked previously at the City of Manhattan, and now as Vice President at SMH. SMH will be handling our site layout, parking lot design, surveying, and storm water management design. SHM has also been working with the Valleywood neighborhood to the east to correct their water drainage issues.

Henderson Engineers, Inc– Both Brian Sanders (mechanical engineer) and Dean Chandler (electrical engineer) are working closely with Brian from M/T to handle the mechanical/electrical/plumbing design details of our plans as we move forward on construction documents.

BHS Construction — Wayne Sloan and Patrick Shutter and a great construction crew at BHS will be the team turning our concept into reality. Both Wayne and Patrick are working with us even now to help fine tune cost projections, recommend materials and construction methods, and find the most efficient way to actually build a building.

We’ve recently added the final messages to the Making Room sermon page.  Additionally, we have added some artist renderings of what our new Phase 1 spaces will look like.  We’d love to hear what you think about them.  Let us know if you have any questions.

I mentioned in my sermon on Oct 2nd (Is Giving for Everyone?) that I have no problem tithing.  We do and have done so joyfully for many years.  I don’t struggle to give our tithe because in my mind it is totally settled that that 10% belongs to God.  A day later as I was driving somewhere in town I sensed God impressing on my heart that what is true of that 10% is also true of the other 90%.  It belongs to God.  And so that is where God is working in my life.  He is helping me hold that other 90% with an open hand.

The Making Room Update Blog will be a great place for you to get real time updates on the project.  Check back soon to read about a variety of things from everyone involved in the project!