Movin’ On

If you’ve passed by the Quarry office lately, you may have noticed that things have been moved around a bit.  Actually, there are boxes everywhere.  You can barely get in the front door.  It is amazing how much stuff Mandy has been able to keep organized in our back room.  If you haven’t heard, we are on the move.

The office that we have been in since April of 2004 just can’t hold us any more.  We are literally bursting at the seams!  We have been looking for new office space for a while now but nothing seemed to click.  Either we didn’t have peace about the move or the step was a little bigger than we could take.  A few months back, Danny Pena closed his office products business.  It was a difficult decision but he felt God’s leading.  Right away he came back to the Elder board and encouraged us to pray about the building.  After months of prayer and discussions with the owner, we have decided to take an appropriate, God-inspired step and make the buidling on the norhwest corner of New Street and Broadway our “ministry center” for the next two years.

While the building doesn’t complete the dream that we proposed during the “Be the Revolution” campaign, it moves us in the right direction.  Remember the quote from “What About Bob?”  “Baby steps Bob.  Start by taking baby steps.”  Great advice and while that is not my typical M.O., I believe this is the the step that God is leading us to take.  Here are just a few reasons why this makes a ton of sense for us as a church:

• More space – we (five paid staff, two 10-20 hour volunteer/should be paid staff, and all the stuff the goes along with the day to day operations of church life) have been compressed into 800 square feet.  This doesn’t give any of us much wiggle room or space to have confidential conversations.  The up side of that is that I know exactly what’s going in the lives of my staff.  The down side is the up side.  With the new office, each pastoral staff member will have their own office (with a door and everything)!  Mandy and Arlyce will have ample space to be more effective than ever.  And  we can welcome a plethora (sweet word) of volunteers that can churn out more Kingdom building ministry stuff.  Nice!
• Our first youth center – almost one third of the building will be designated as a youth center.  This will be a great space for our kids to just hang out or during organized events, to meet in a kick’en facility.  Plans are in place for a video projection unit, a stage with permanent sound equipment (this will double as worship team practice space) and some stand alone games (ping pong, foosball and the like).  The preliminary name for the space is “The Garage.”  Not bad huh?
• Storage for trailer(s) and stuff – for the past 4 years we have stored our trailer wherever we could find space.  Sometimes we had to hunt to find it because we lost track of where it ended up.  Dave Phipps has a few good stories.  Ask him about the saga of our July 3rd service.  It’s good stuff.  All that comes to an end with the new office.  There is a detached garage that will hold our current trailer and lots of ministry odds and ends.  While storage is always a premium, we will have room to spare – for a while any way.
• Professional Appearance - one of the great struggles we have as a church is that people think we are a fly by night operation.  We are the church that meets in a school.  I like the rep but don’t appreciation that baggage that it brings along.  We want people to know that we are serious about loving God and loving people.  We are here for the long haul.  This office will be a place that each of us can be proud of.  When it is completed (it is currently under construction), it will be fresh, inviting and professional.  I’ll let you know when we have our open house.  It will be a great celebration.
• Great Meeting Space – One third of the building is actually a usable apartment.  There are two bedrooms that will be used as storage and office space.  The apartment also has a wonderful living room with a fireplace and sliding glass door that leads to a quaint outdoor patio.  This living will hold many meetings of all different types and sizes in the days to come – something that was reserved for people’s homes or Caribou in the past.
• Location, location, location – well over 10,000 cars pass by our new offices daily.  We have been challenged with how to effectively communicate with our community since our inception.  With the new office we can post attractive banners about upcoming sermon series, new ministry ventures or anything else that will draw more people to the God we serve.  I can’t fully express how excited I am about this opportunity.  The Quarry is coming out of it’s cocoon.  It will be so nice to spread our wings and fly!

I just want to say “Way to go Quarry!”  It’s because of your failthfulness that we are able to continue to move forward.  Being a part of God’s Kingdom revolution isn’t easy but it is so stink’en good!