Upgraded Spaces!!!!

I’m just saying…I need to find some people to work with who won’t frivolously toy with my emotions. Jim Waldo came into my office this morning with a concerned look on his face. He sat down and said: “we got an alert from the bank this morning.” My countenance fell and I said something like “are you kidding me.” Every other time Jim and I have had conversations start that way, it has not been good news. He let me stew a while and then said: “that’s how I felt when I first saw the email…then I remembered I had set the account to send me an alert when our balance went over a specified threshold, so I could set some funds aside for Mission and Building Maintenance.” If he wasn’t a Marine I probably would have hurled myself across the desk and grabbed him around his not-so-scrawny neck. The blessing is that, while many, many churches are struggling financially in these difficult economic times, we continue to grow healthier with each passing week. We are not out-of-the-woods yet, and we're definitely not over-funded - but thanks to better management and your sacrifices - things are improving. Thank you for your partnership in the work God is doing here.

Speaking of what God is doing… let me give you a heads-up on some of the plans we have in place for the weeks leading up to Easter.

As you know, our growth has caused some space issues for our ministries. More debt is not in our future, so we have to begin to utilize the space we already have as creatively as possible. In the coming weeks there will be a few renovations and space reallocations happening in our church.

First, we are going to frame in two new offices on the north end of the Chestnut Room. My office will move into one of those new spaces. This move will have our staff offices located together. This can be done inexpensively utilizing the people and resources we already have in place. The plan is to complete this project before our workday on March 14th.

Second, the nursery will be relocated to my current office. This will allow all of our childrens ministry spac to be self-contained. This will provide greater security and a better connection between different aspects of our childrens ministry.

Third, the Chestnut Room will be decorated to be a more kid-friendly space for Heartland and utilized less as a multi-purpose room. It seems wrong to deprive our kids of a fun and exciting space because we might have two wedding receptions in that room each year. We chose to make that room an investment in our children.

Fourth, the Fellowship Hall will decorated and dedicated to our teens. We are going to upgrade the technology and create a welcoming space relevant to our teens and their friends to gather and learn about God.

Fifth, the our large current nursery will be set aside as a classroom and meeting space for adults. Any adult gatherings too large for that room will use our multi-purpose auditorium.

Sixth, we plan to make short-term improvements to our parking area.

Tons of work ahead, but without a ton of expense. These improvements will locate our office, student, and adult spaces in different sections of the building – allowing us to better utilize the space God has already provided.

If you would like to help with the upgrades in any of these areas, please contact the church office (410.742.5601) or the ministry leader overseeing the project. We really need everybody to pitch on our Work Day, March 14th. These are our plans, our prayer is to have them completed before Easter. Please jump in.

New Office Spaces Thom Keeton bluekeeton@comcast.net
Children’s Ministry Melissa Dasher bizemomx5@comcast.net
Youth Ministry Ken Dasher daddash@netzero.net
Adult Spaces Church Office churchoffice@heart4community.org
Parking Lot Upgrades Dave Pfingst pfinky29@hotmail.com