Nineteen years ago, our church bought a piece of property from AISD. We have called it the HELP Center. It housed the non-profit by that name. It helped thousands of people get access to many government programs designed to lift people up and give them a chance. Last week, the last employees of the HELP Center moved to their new location on North Palestine. We are so proud of their efforts, their new location and their continued work in our community.
On March 1 we will take possession of the building and start the process of discerning what is next for the space. We are beginning to believe that God might use it as perfect timing to help us deal with some of the complications of closing the sanctuary for 10 months and relocating worship to the ROC.
As we approach the April 17 move out date, we want to inform the church about decisions that will be required to accomplish the Refresh project.
Adult Bible Fellowship Group Locations. We now know that we will be moving a portion of our adult Bible Fellowship Groups into the ROC during the construction phase. This will help us protect a guiding value adopted in our church as we built the CORE and renovated the Chapel building: Provide ground level BFG space for those with mobility impairment. Final decisions will be made in the next few weeks in meetings with class leaders. We estimate that 6 adult classes will move to the ROC.
Youth Bible Fellowship Group Locations. The youth BFG will be displaced entirely. We have two ideas that are being considered. A. Moving them to the Fellowship Hall and surrounding Classes. B. Doing some minor wall deconstruction in the HELP Center and moving them to that building.
Worship in the ROC. We will come to the church on Wednesday February 22 with a proposal to add a stage area to the ROC that will serve us during the renovations, and then will serve the Youth as they have outgrown the Refuge for Wednesday night worship. If we don’t add this space, then we will probably loose the gym for regular use on Mondays and Fridays of each week for the ten months.
Academy Exploration. On Thursday, February 9, the Leadership Team voted to empower the Athens Christian Academy Board to do a full analysis of the HELP Center as a possible future home to some or part of ACA.
I was asking myself what I had done this week, and I realized that the Refresh project had pushed out almost everything else, so it seemed a good idea to give you some updates.
Kyle
Hello, World!