August 26 Building Update 018
“EquipLABS – Day 2”
When I left the church office late on Monday, Pastor Jenn and James Galloway were getting ready to take the Equip Studio team of architects out to dinner before the team retired to their hotel rooms to continue working on the design. I was supposed to go with them but due to the absolutely horrible weather, I decided it was best to make the long trek home (West Ashley) in the pouring rain and flooded roads while there was still daylight. It was a good decision!
It had been a tough afternoon session with the EquipLABS and everyone was tired and a little deflated. The ministry requirements of the church weren’t translating and matching-up well into a design that was compatible with the project budget and the compromises seemed “gut”wrenching, and difficult to process in the heat of the moment. We all knew the EquipLABS was a process and that process needed to play out.
Pastor Jenn, James, and Jonathan Edens along with his team of architects discussed the project over dinner, which resulted in the following email from Pastor Jenn at 5:56 am yesterday morning:
“I believe we still have a lot of work to do today. Yesterday got us to the critical tension point of where our timeline and budget meet land and construction costs. Today we need to get creative and mine for more options to bring the two closer together. I’m definitely not ready to move forward with the sizes and spaces that came with the first draft. I felt better after talking it through at dinner with Jonathan and his team because they also feel as though there are more options for us to explore.” -Jenn Williams
I think we all knew deep down when we left the church office Monday in a sky filled with dark and menacing clouds that the building project hung in the balance of what would happen on Day 2. Jonathan and his team of crack architects worked until midnight on a new design.
When I left home for Day-2, I wasn’t quite sure what the day would bring. When I got to the church office a few minutes early, I had this sense of peace like everything was going to be all right, and after talking to Jenn and James, I felt that they had the same sense, too. I think sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking we have control of a given situation when actually it’s God working his will the whole time.
As Jonathan presented his team’s new design for our building, I immediately noticed this was different, and the more it was explained, developed and refined during the day the better and better it got. This wasn’t just good, it was great! As the church staff, one by one began to give their input and the design was tweaked, I realized this isthe future home of Ashley Ridge Church taking shape and form before our very eyes!
As Jonathan and his team worked, flushing out the building design and developed the Master Plan, the more I watched in amazement. Once they knew they had our approval and confidence, they worked with such speed and efficiency. It was fun to just sit there and watch, which Matt Halter and I did for two hours.
I left the church office yesterday with great excitement, and shortly received the below text from Garrett Reuber, AR Financial Team Leader. Garrett came for the Building Design and Master Plan presentation at 1:30 pm. He sent this at 4:37 pm:
“After today, I have never been more excited about the future. To see a very realistic and simplistic design come together for the now, coupled with concrete plans of how to expand as we grow is 100% something to think the ENTIRE church will be able to get behind. The Staff provided invaluable input for an incredible design and interacted with Equip while Jenn looked on like a proud Mom. It was awesome. There is no doubt, going to be challenges and very real hurdles that need to be gotten over (many of them financial), but my goodness-this really isn’t just pie in the sky dream. It will happen. ”TOGETHER” is the way.” -Garrett Reuber
If you would like to make a contribution to the General Fund or Building Surge, you can do so here.
Derrick Horres, Project Leader