Repairs, renovations, or redevelopment?

After today's worship service, we gathered in the lower hall to talk about our facility: the use of our facility and the future of our facility. In my view, it was a fruitful discussion. While not always explicit the conversation circled around elements important to any big adventure: purpose and resources and current realities.

These items need careful consideration before we take any steps forward.

We need to be clear about our facilities' purpose. It was clear that supporting our weekly worship is very important at St. Andrew's. It was also clear that our church values having the surrounding community use the facility. So what elements of any repairs or improvements would benefit both our worship of God and our hospitality to the surrounding community?

We also need to be wise with our resources. Any new project will be expensive and we certainly need to live within our means. But money is maybe not our most precious commodity. At St. Andrew's we seem to have two distinct communities: older retirees and younger families. Both communities have limited time and energy for extra projects. What repairs or improvements might be more easily accomplished without draining the remaining energy of these two groups?

At the same time, we need to be aware of the current realities. When the wind started blowing during our worship last Sunday I began thinking about the integrity of the sanctuary. If we don't attend to rotting window-panes we may be kicked out of our own facility while emergency repairs are made (think of the Sagebrush theatre).

I wonder what sort of prioritized list of projects we might come up with if we made supporting our worship and hosting our community our two priorities, and that we pursued them with a concern to minimize the expenditure of our time and energy all the while recognizing the current realities of our facility?

We might decide that while it would be nice to have a spacious new foyer that we would be happy with a refreshed entryway and more comfortable seating.

What sort of projects can you imagine?