Scraplog

Construction Has Begun

Let the hammers fall and the nails, uh, nail! Construction has finally started on the church building. For the last year Calvary Cleveland has been leasing an empty building but hasn’t done anything with it. But that all changed on October 3rd when we finally started our remodel project.

One thing I love about this building is its location. It’s located just off the interstate at exit 25. That makes it convenient for just about anybody in town because it’s not too far south or too far north. Directions are easy to give because you literally make one turn off of a main road (25th/Georgetown) and the next turn you need to make is into our parking lot.

I also love the size of the building. We’re leasing about 4200 square feet which isn’t too big for our group now and it allows us room to grow for a while. As the architect and I worked together on a set of plans we thought it best to limit the total occupancy to 299 people. By staying under 300 people we were able to keep our plans at the local level. If we had to take our plans to the state the whole process would have become very expensive and it would have required us to install fire sprinklers, another large expense we wanted to avoid. So, 299 people in 4200 square feet fits just right.

Starting a church building project in my third year as a pastor was never my intention but a little tweaking was needed to make the building as functional as possible. We’re adding two bathrooms (handicap accessible), two classrooms and a small sanctuary space. When construction is finished we’ll be using a little over half of the building and the other part will be designated a large storage area. That area will eventually become our sanctuary when we’re ready for the final phase of the construction plans.

Over the last year the Lord has really stretched my faith and has caused me to trust Him one step at a time. Along the way there were plenty of chances to back away from this building but the Lord would always point me to a Scripture that put me in remembrance of His faithfulness. This whole process is more than I can handle on my own but it’s nothing for the Lord to accomplish. I’m looking forward to the day when we open the doors and the people recognize that God made it happen.

I’ll try to keep posting pictures to our Flickr account to document the process and I’ve posted the floor plan below. The first picture is the building before construction started, the second shows the work we’re doing now and the third picture is the long term plans.