 Our last Sunday in the theatre will be February 28th and our first Sunday in the new space will be March 6th. We have just entered a formal agreement to with Faith Lutheran Church. A church just 2 blocks away from the theatre we have been meeting in since our beginning, 8 1/2 years ago. This is a really nice facility and the current church has 4 small congregations (English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean). They were needing the financial means to sustain ministry in this area and we are looking for a place to call home. The ability to have 24/7 space. Space for offices, prayer meetings, outreach, counseling, discipleship and ministry in general.
The plan is for their church family to use the sanctuary for their worship services and for us to use their gym. It is a nice gym and they have already done some sound padding to help the acoustics in the room. But we will need to install a sound system, add to the acoustical treatments, add lighting and get creative with video. We had a sound engineer come in and give us professional advice and a quote to get the job done. As you might imagine he quoted us for $60,000 for everything. Wow - just a little church to get this done. So we went back and worked on his plan and we were able to cut that down to. $34,000. We are working to figure this out as we have $10,000 that the church has raised to make these purchases. Some of these items can wait and some we will build on. But there are two areas that are costly, but would make a huge difference.
1. Pipe & Drapes - We are looking to put up sectional curtains that will help break up the gym. Front area - worship Center. Back area - Fellowship Hall. The back is where people will be coming in and we are wanting this area to feel very welcoming and not gym like. We realized that having a 120 chairs in the front and leaving a huge space behind makes the area look odd and unwelcoming. But these pipe & drapes are costly just over $5,000. They can be broken down quickly and set up quickly. But they have a cost to them.
2. Lighting is also the largest expense and though on the surface it appears we can get by without it. It would make a huge difference from being in a gym to creating a worship center environment. From side lighting to stage lighting. This comes with a $20,000 price tag as the rigging and lights are all expensive to purchase and to install from the ceiling and such. Could you pray with us that God would meet this need. There are going to be many expenses to get into this building and to make it our home. But this worship space is our greatest priority.
The gym has a full service kitchen attached and we look forward to fellowship meals and outreach meals and functions like a dessert theatre that can be done from this facility.
We will be converting one of their rooms into a nursery for our babies and there is outside work to be done along with painting and of course a new sign. We are working hard to make it obvious we are worshiping at this space without overtaking Faith Lutheran.
Pray for us as we work to communicate to our community that we are moving and this will be the opportunity for many, who have been considering joining us, to now come and learn to follow Jesus.
There is a lot to be done in the next few weeks. We are thankful for the Auburn GBC who are working on bringing up a team to help us with our big move on February 28th. And the churches in Washington State who are looking to put a team together the March 12th weekend to help us clean up the outside. Pray for these teams and for our church family as there is more to be done than we even realize.
But we are excited to find a place to call home and to do ministry from all week long.
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