Construction Update

What exciting news for the Building Grace Project! This past Tuesday, our Simplified Board unanimously approved the revised plans and budget and handed them back to the Building Team to begin the process. Here are some new concept drawings of what the revised Phase 1 and Master Plan of the church will look like.

As a reminder, the main reason for these revisions was our continued growth in attendance. With the original design, we were likely going to be too small from day one in our Phase 1 worship space. As we began the redesign and changed one thing, it created a domino effect that led to additional changes and new ideas about how to make Phase 1 look more like what we had originally envisioned. And so, here we are — and here we go!

We increased the square footage by about 10%, and the budget increased accordingly by about 10% as well. But God has continued to bless Grace in so many ways, putting us in a position to make all of that happen.

I know there are probably a lot of questions, and we want to be available to answer any of them. So, we will have a time after worship THIS Sunday, April 12th, to dig into the details if you would like to join us.
The biggest question — which I will try to answer for you here — is: When does the building start? When do we see site work begin?

Well, the way they determine that date is by first getting all the engineering and detailed drawings from the architects, since up to now everything has only been conceptual. Once those are complete, they will order the steel framing. When they know the steel delivery date, they then back it up by 6–8 weeks to determine when to begin site work.

They do this so that the site work doesn’t finish and then sit dormant for weeks while waiting on the steel. Rather, once they start, they want to keep rolling until completion. So, it is all about timing.
Based on how long the architects believe they will need to complete the detailed drawings and then order the steel, it looks like site work could begin in mid-August. I know we all wish that could happen sooner, but I’d ask that you remember Bob Cody’s legacy video we watched this past Sunday: “We can worship anywhere... we can worship under a tree as long as we are gathering as believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.”

God has been so good to us during this season of waiting, and I’m excited to see what else He does before we actually move into a church building of our own. So, plan to join us this Sunday morning during and after worship for more questions and answers.

But we are excited to say the ball is now rolling once again.