Building Project Update Meeting

Our Senior Pastor Simon Benham joined us in Farnborough for our recent update building meeting. Scroll down to read some reflections of his, both from the evening itself, and for us as a community.

It was a privilege on Wednesday night to be at the gathering to update people on the progress of the Farnborough building project. Sonia, Calum and Kelly did an excellent job of reminding us of why we’re doing this project and what has happened so far, and then updating us on the future plans. For anyone who missed the meeting there is a recording, which you can find here.

As I listened to Sonia, Calum and Kelly I sensed that as we move forward, we need to respond in three different ways:

Filled with gratitude

God has already done so much which we can be grateful for:

·       The provision of the building, which in itself was a miracle. This includes getting change of use on it to use it as a place of worship

·       The ministry which is already happening in the building, including Sundays, the Food Pantry, youth gatherings, small groups, prayer meetings, worship nights, Light parties, Christmas events and more

·       The financial provision we have seen, with the mortgage being reduced from a million pounds to under £90,000 and over £257,000 of giving towards the renovation of the building

·       The team who are moving the building project forward including Calum Field who is overseeing it all, Ralph Allen who is working for free as our architect, Amy Horne and the team she leads applying for grants and Paul James and his team who are continuously doing practical work to improves the building.

·       The lives we have seen changed, and the growth we are seeing, especially amongst our children and teenagers

Flexible

As we move forward, we need to be flexible. Plans will change as we learn more about the building, as our needs become clearer and as we seek to discern what God is doing. We heard on Wednesday about the plans to bring forward some of phase three of the project in order to create space for the growing number of teenagers we have. Plans will continue to evolve and we need to learn to go with the changes, rather than getting stuck in thinking that it all has to happen one way.

Full of Faith

Ultimately this is a faith project. It is going to take a miracle of provision and favour if we are going to see it through to completion, but we serve a God of miracles. Let’s resist any temptation to become cynical, sceptical or jaded about the project. Instead, we need to keep our eyes fixed on him and our hope rooted in him.

I was privileged to be around for the back end of the building of our Kerith Centre building in Bracknell. We saw God do amazing things there, and it is so exciting to be back in a season where God is moving in similar ways.

Thank you to Simon for those reflections and reminders. As he shared with us last night, we are in this together, as a team. So if you have prophetic words, ideas, questions - we always welcome you getting in touch with us. Together we are building something really special here in Farnborough and we are so grateful that we get to do this together, and with God’s guidance.