Monday, August 8, 2011

Drumroll, please!

Andy sent out emails, tweets, and FB messages last week encouraging everyone to get to church on Sunday because he had a big announcement to make. So, what in the world was all the hype about?

South Bay Church has a long(er) term facility!

This process of looking for a facility for South Bay has taken a full year of diligent pursuit. We have come so close on a couple other deals, but I believe God was protecting us from those so that He could provide us with this one! 

Finding a building that would work for us was so much trickier than we anticipated. Here's a few reasons why:
  • Location- we didn't want to move more than a few miles from our current meeting location for this initial move
  • Zoning- California has very strict zoning laws which drastically limits the buildings available for church use
  • Landlords- a lot of landlords don't want to work with a church for various reasons
  • Size of building
  • Price
  • Layout of the building and what renovations would be necessary for our purposes had to be considered
Taking all these factors into consideration, we are VERY pleased with the facility God has provided for us!

The building is about 4 miles from our current meeting locations near the intersection of I-880 and Brokaw (which, obviously, is a huge intersection/highly trafficked area). We are beginning the process of getting the necessary permits from the city in order to meet there, which can take 3-4 months. Then we will do some renovations to the building and hope to move in sometime in the beginning of 2012!

Having a longer-term lease (5 years with options to extend) is a huge step for us as a church. This will allow us to offer a more excellent experience for our Bay Kids ministry. We will dramatically increase the number of people we can seat in a service, allowing us to continue to reach more people with the hope of the Gospel. Also, we will no longer need to invest so much time and energy into set up and take down each week (at least until we start another location!). :-)

South Bay, get ready! Because I think God is about to blow our minds with what He's going to do in our midst this next year. The fall has historically been a season of tremendous growth for us and the momentum of a new facility will only accentuate that. God is expanding our capacity, not for our personal benefit, but because He desires more people to know Him, love Him, and worship Him. Let's keep our focus on the main thing through this exciting time.

It is all about leading more and more people to say "Yes!" to God.

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