Bethany Covenant Church

BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING

May 31, 2005

PRESENT: Luke Converse (Building Committee Chairman), Pam Blything, Lynn Converse, Dale

Fisher, Joy Frame, Ed Hatters, Bill Klaus, Pastor Stacey Littlefield, Gail Means

ABSENT: Tom Johnson, Jim Kristoff (Church Chairman)

GUEST: Jeni Martin

Pastor Littlefield opened the meeting in prayer.

Luke asked members to share anything they felt God may have revealed to them as a result of their prayers. Gail gave Luke a list of Bethany ministries and possible ways they would be supported by our expanded facility. Lynn felt God telling her we need to build but probably for not more than 500 people. Bill felt he has heard: (a) we need to build a new facility onto our present one rather than just renovate our existing space; (b) congregational prayer is vital; (c) we are at a crossroads for ourselves and the Lyndhurst community; (d) he suggests we hold several congregational town hall type meetings to get a clear picture of where God (and not a contractor) is leading us. Joy has felt that whatever we do, we must keep our vision motto (“Building Community in Christ”) as our goal. She feels we need to stay in this community at this location, with a facility large enough to support outreach but not so large that we would lose our sense of community.

“SACRED SPACE”: Stacey and Luke prepared a document entitled “Sacred Space” [attached] to help us direct our vision and will be given to architects/designers to aid them in understanding what we hope to accomplish. It was handed out to committee members to read and comment.

Comments:

We are building to enable ministry. Our facility should be flexible and able to support future ministries.
The current space has to fit into the Sacred Space vision.
This vision takes us in a different direction than our Long Range Plan, so we will have to address that in future meetings.
This document should be made available to our congregation: post on BCC web site (Building Committee link), make hard copies available (along with minutes). While the web site does not allow for feed-back, people can e-mail Luke if they wish to comment.
We as a committee need to communicate to the congregation our vision of what it means to “Build Community in Christ” and allow them time to assess and digest this.
This committee can only make recommendations – first to Council for their approval, then to the congregation. Before we hold any town hall type meetings we will want to obtain preliminary designs and quotes to support both Long Range expansion and new building plans. We will ask Council for guidance on when and how frequently to hold congregational meetings.
If we put an addition on the back of the church, it won’t be as visible to the community that Bethany is growing. But whether or not it is immediately obvious that we have expanded, we still offer the same curb appeal.
Be sure to incorporate newer audio/visual technology into any design.

Jeni Martin was invited to the meeting to share her experience with a church expansion in her former church. Her observations were:

Prayer is of primary, not secondary, importance. Prayer was not always foundational in their process.
They did a good job of communicating with the congregation via Sunday bulletins, etc.
God should be the main focus and then building community in Christ.
It would be a mistake to over-emphasize the need for money – in sermons, newsletters, bulletins, mailings, etc. Too much emphasis on money will turn some people off.

Luke asked us to provide names of anyone else we know who may have insight to aid our building process.

PARKING LOT PAVING ESTIMATES:

17 spaces on northwest corner (needs variance): $19,000
21 spaces west side, between basketball hoop and former parsonage wall

(also needs variance): $23,000

40 spaces, southeast side, between our lot and school (no variance): $30,000

The Building Committee will recommend to Council we proceed with Option C, 40 spaces.

ARCHITECT:

The design-build firm of Krumroy-Cozad Construction Corporation submitted a proposal for preliminary design drawings. They have built approximately 200 churches. Additionally, we will contact Jim Miller of Con-Tech Architects to submit a like proposal.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Visit area churches: members of the committee are encouraged to visit other churches with layouts we might find interesting, including Cedar Hill Baptist, Willoughby Hills Friends, Calvary Assembly and Cornerstone. NOTE: Luke, Ed and Stacey visited a church in Middleburg Heights with an octagonal-shaped sanctuary.
Property & Finance: contact Jim Miller to submit a design proposal.
Gail: place notice in bulletin re availability of minutes on web and hard copies.
Luke: prepare a report of our findings/recommendations for Council.

NEXT MEETING: None set. Will probably not meet again before June Council meeting.

Luke adjourned the meeting with prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Means