RENOVATION OF THE WORSHIP CENTER UPDATE #3

TWO MONTHS AWAY We are approximately 2 months away from the renovation of the Worship center. I have been writing articles to share the vision and purpose. This will actually be the second major Worship Center/Sanctuary renovation in my 30 years here at JIBC. The first one took place almost 15 years ago. We moved away from the more traditional 1960’s gothic and dark worship center to more bright, welcoming warmer colors and fabrics. It was more of the trend in the 1980’s. We are now moving to a warm and welcoming style that reflects the 21st century and who we are as a church family.
THE LEADERSHIP TEAM APPROACH I am grateful for the team put together to lead in this project. It began with me moving the possibility of renovation forward. It moved to a Renovation Team listed in the first renovation article. That team then reported their findings and suggestions to the entire staff and Elders. We met with various church members seeking their input and ideas. We called in consultants with Church Interiors, Inc and others to help in the process. Then we presented the plans, as we had them, for the approval of the Church Leaders/Ministry Management Team.
WHAT IF IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE CHURCH? The only real question we have heard is concerning updating the pews with high quality chairs. I realize there is a love in many of us for the pews. But the pews really do not make us look like church…you do. Pews or chairs are just seating devises. Church seating in the 13th century started with stone slabs. They quickly updated to wooden benches with no backs. Stone, wooden benches, pews or chairs…the function was seating. It is not the pew that makes us look like a church…it is you. You and I are the church, the Body of Christ. The Worship Center is just the place we gather. The renovation will be warm, comfortable and inviting. The chairs will give us a little more versatility in that they can be moved, rearranged for weddings or larger crowds and, if need be, cleared out in case of a Hurricane Hugo type disasters. We are planning to keep and reupholster the pews in the balconies. We already have a sister church family in St. Stephens that had their entire worship center destroyed. They would like to have the pews and we think that would be a wonderful use for them.
THE GOAL The Renovation and Leadership Team is committed to continuing our warm and inviting place of worship. We want to reflect more of who we are…a more casual, comfortable church family. Changing the carpet and paint gave us the motivation and opportunity to address many issues in the worship center; carpet, paint, fixing cracks, better protecting the stain glass windows, addressing light, completing unfinished work from the last renovation, improving the balcony line of sight, etc. Praise God we are in the position to consider such a renovation. While some are just holding on…by God’s grace we are moving forward. To God be the glory.
Pastor Tom