June 22 Building Update 053
“Two Years w/ Ashley Ridge”
It has been two years since Pam, Pollyanna (our little 6 lbs. Maltese) and I first connected with Ashley Ridge Church via YouTube! Little did I/we know the chain of events that would be set in motion by watching that first worship service from the comfort of our living room chairs? But, then again, we all have a story to tell!
Being involved in the building project and creating a permanent “home base” for Ashley Ridge Church is one of the most challenging and important endeavors I have ever had the honor and privilege to be associated with. I can promise you I will do everything in my power to make this new facility a reality.
While I can influence the action and lead the effort, I can’t make it happen. It is the people that make-up Ashley Ridge Church that hold the future of the ministry in their hands. An ambitious and costly a project as building a 22,600 square foot worship and ministry facility will require extensive financial support from the congregation and community. And, in an era of ever increasing costs in building material and labor, it becomes even more challenging.
Can we do it? Yes we can! In the short two years of observing and participating in Ashley Ridge Church, the one word that I think best describes the church is resilience:
“an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”
Note: The verb for resilience is “resile” (ree-zil), as in “the people best suited for today’s world of non-stop change are able to resile.” The word resile has existed as a legitimate word for thousands of years. It is derived from the Latin word “resilíre,” meaning “to leap back.”
In the age of COVID-19 and the many challenges that have come with the past year+, organizations that have survived and even thrived were the the ones that had the ability to adapt and change to meet the demands placed upon them. Ashley Ridge Church is one of those organizations that has adapted, changed and risen to the occasion, and I believe will do so again and again!
If you would like to make a contribution to the General Fund or Building Fund, you can do so here.
Derrick Horres, AR Building Project Leader