'Building work is spiritual work'
Representatives from around the diocese gathered on Thursday evening 6 March for Building for the Future - an event for churches preparing to embark on a building project for renovations, extensions or new facilities.
The Church is indeed ‘more than a building’ and well-designed church spaces support worship, outreach and community engagement and are vital to mission.
It was a very practical and encouraging evening with contributions from leaders who have experience of going through the process. We were also powerfully reminded that building work is spiritual work and that vision, prayer and people are central.
Bishop David began with a short devotional and said that whatever the task might be, it is key that whatever we do and how we do it gives God pleasure and glory.
With reference to Nehemiah, Diocesan Fundraising Officer, Keith Gardiner spoke about the importance of establishing a vision for the work a church is going to undertake as well as having an action plan and a funding strategy.
'Make big, small'
The former rector of Annalong, Revd Geoff Hamilton, gave a very honest account of managing a £995k building project that was initially expected to cost £100k. Faced with such a huge task, the parish ‘made big, small’ and divided the work into achievable stages.
Geoff said that he had wanted to see God’s transformation of the people and not just the building. “This had to be more than a building project and God moved when we moved into the hall,” he said. Acknowledging the many challenges of building he encouraged us that “God is present in the dust and rubble of a project. Hold on to that tightly."
Shankill Parish Lurgan also had unexpected expense when remediations to the spire and one section of the church led to the discovery that the entire roof had to be replaced. All of this work has been completed without taking out loans and the church is now ‘Reimagining Shankill”, not just physically but spiritually, and preparing to embark upon a £4 million renovation and reordering project.
Fundraising
The rector, Archdeacon Mark Harvey, spoke about the importance and practicalities of Gift Days which were and are vital to their fundraising efforts. “Plan, pray, prepare your church by teaching and preaching, and persist - keep doing what God has called you as a church to do,” he said.
Mrs Hilary McClay gave excellent guidance on how to apply to external funders and also emphasised that everything we do needs to be covered in prayer. She shared several experiences of God moving dramatically to supply funds for large projects in Willowfield Church when they pushed forward on tasks that seemed impossible.
Permissions
Before the panel discussion, Diocesan Secretary Roy Lawther gave advice on seeking permissions to repair, reorder or renovate/refurbish buildings that are vested in the RCB. Roy is available to parishes to help them through the process.
Bishop David summed up the evening, and led a brief time of corporate prayer.
The diocese will hold another information evening on 1 April called Connecting With Your People Using ChurchSuite. More details at THIS LINK.
