(Pictures taken by my father-in-law, Jerry Lordan.)
Showing posts with label Construction. Show all posts
New Altar For Girdwood Chapel
Our friends from Ellisville, Mississippi ("Zeb Manning's Team" as we call them around here), have been up to work on Girdwood Chapel SEVEN times now. We have been blessed to have them up here and blessed to get to know so many of their workers over the year. As a special treat, this year we asked if they would be willing to design an altar out of one of the support beams for the church. This was a beam that we pulled into the church in the winter of 2005 and then had to cut. This is a section of that beam...representing the support, the foundation of our church. It has a story around it.
And now we have an altar made from that beam.
Thanks be to God.
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| Altar being constructed in the Narthex/Gathering Room. |
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| Altar drying in the mechanical room. |
The Year Past -- My 2010. What Defined Me? What Shaped Me?
Image via WikipediaAs I look back, these are the things that have defined and shaped me over the past calendar year:
Moving into the new church building. -- I continue to say to our congregation that I don't want the building (or our economic state upon completion) to define us, but as their pastor I have invested much of myself into its completion. Very few things in my life will compare with our consecration (in October) and our first official worship on Christmas Eve.
Performing my sister's marriage in May. -- It was awesome to be in a place in our relationship that this was meaningful for each of us. Plus, I think her husband's awesome and it was great to see family and friends and meet new friends as well.
A trip to Indiana in the summer. -- "Back home again in Indiana." While I might just stay in Alaska forever, there are some beautiful parts and beautiful people in Indiana.
Blogging. -- I started this thing in the spring, determined to "post regularly" which would be a change from the three or four other times I thought I had earnestly taken up blogging. This time I stuck with it and, while this has given me a place to post some non-religious things I think are cool or meaningful, it has been a good move for me religiously. I've expanded some of my influences, perhaps reading more on the evangelical side while maintaining some of my social values. I'll be interested in seeing what it is I find important in the coming year.
Social Networking (by this, I pretty much mean Facebook). -- What a "time suck." But, at the same time it has renewed relationships with persons I had not heard from in years and has become a vital part of my correspondence with persons.
A tragic November.--Deaths in our church community and our extended family. This month tested some of my pastoral identification and made me question many issues about death and suicide. It was a hard month with lots of emotional and spiritual involvement from me. I was burdened by it and eager to move into, and immerse myself in, December and the progression towards Christmas.
The stress of my wife's job and education.-- This past year we felt the brunt of what it's like to have the mother of the house employed full-time and taking classes to pursue her teaching degree. It meant putting the little ones into daycare for another day each week. It meant having to compartmentalize my own work at times to free her up to meet deadlines. It has also meant that I'll probably need to hold off on pursuing a Doctor of Ministry until she's done with her classes. I don't think our family could take that. There are long term benefits here, but over the next year it will continue to shape us as a family.
Two plays in the fall. -- I was in "Once Upon a Mattress" and in a Murder Mystery for the Hotel Alyeska over Halloween. I enjoyed both of these but there were a couple of weeks in October where I was in rehearsals for four hours a day on weekdays. However, all of this is forgotten with the thrill of a performance.
The growth of my children and their accomplishments. -- A lot of what I do and who I am revolves around my family, shuttling them places, celebrating with them, worrying about them, teasing them, trying to have them grow in faith and love. Confirmation class with my two older girls is part of this.
Sermon series. -- Particularly these three: 1) One on UnChristian (by David Kinaman), exploring the perception of Christianity in by those outside of the church and the reasons for the perceptions, 2) Adam Hamilton's 24 Hours that Changed the World, and 3) Start: Becoming A Good Samaritan, which continued to push our church in a more missional direction.
Self-Reflection. -- This blog. The deaths in November. Focusing on mission and ministry as we live into our new worship space. My pastoral role. Prayer time. Sermon series. I think I've grown a lot over the last few years. While I see myself, at times, as a 20-something, brash pastor, I'm really not that person. I'm a lot more mature and responsible in real life than the "loose cannon" I sometimes am in my head. I've given myself a lot to think about this year.
This may not be a complete list and I might have left off something of note. I'm sure that someone will bring any glaring omissions to my attention. But I think these topics pretty much sum up a lot of my 2010.
"Ceremonial First Flush" of the NEW Girdwood Chapel Toilet
We had no ribbon cutting. We had no festivities or special music. We had no crowd. It was Christmas Eve and our first toilet got installed just shortly before worship was to begin.
All along, we (I, Pastor Jim) have been saying that Candy B_____ should have "First Flush." She's a founding member of the church. She's been our organist for most of the 60 years the church has been in ministry. She deserved to have "First Flush."
She did…and was kind enough to pose for the momentous picture.
It will be nice to have a flush toilet in the church. Finally we can say "goodbye" to our Port-A-Potty.
Almost Cried
All the lights were on.
The heat was on.
No one was there.
Just stood in the area where the pulpit will go.
Just stood there.
Looked at all the work.
Thought of all the people.
Thought of all the time.
Thought of all the money.
Thought of the worship and the prayer and the praise and the love and the grace.
I was thankful.
I am humbled.
I almost cried.
That's a big deal for me.
I Will Never EVER use Travelocity Again
Consider this a PSA.
We have some wonderful electricians who flew up from Indiana to do work for us. Great!
They had reservations through Travelocity and were able to get here a week ago. Great!
They were scheduled to leave today, but because there was still work to be done, they wanted to stay until Monday. So, we tried to change the flight. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
First, one of the electricians tried to change the flight. He was quoted $600 per person or $1200 total.
That seemed unreasonably high. So, I called Travelocity and I could see very clearly that there was another flight on Monday with a price of $334 per person if we just paid the full fare. Couldn't Travelocity at least match that?
I tend to be a pretty rational person and calm and I can be saccharine sweet and kind even when I'm stewing inside (it's a gift). The call was handled in India and, while I don't really have a problem with that, the various persons I talked to were occasionally hard to understand and required some repetition from both parties. The first person I talked to took all of the information. Then I was transferred. Then that person took all the information. And then she had to get on the phone with Continental Airlines for 40 minutes to see if they'd honor the price I was finding online. I have no idea what it was that was really going on, but it took FOREVER. And she came back saying it looked like it would not be much more than $150 per person.
There was great rejoicing on my part.
Then...
The phone...
Accidentally hung up...
There was great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Although one person did laugh wholehearted at my misfortune and, I'm sure, to blow off some of the pent up anxiety and frustration at the whole ordeal.)
I called back, fearing that I'd be on for another hour as the whole process would be repeated. It took a shorter time. The flight was confirmed. It was just going to be $154 per person. Great! (It took a long time to get to that next "Great!") Credit card information was given. E-mail addresses were confirmed. "Thank yous" were said and we all went to bed.
However, in the middle of the night, an e-mail was sent saying they couldn't process the flight. WHAT!!!!
So, our electrician got back on the phone with Travelocity for another hour, all the time saying he had a confirmation number and could show (on another travel site) the flight he wanted and the price that was there and couldn't figure out why the good folks at the Travelocity service center couldn't just get them on the flight they said they WOULD and apparently HAD DONE not 6 hours earlier.
An hour later it seems to have been resolved.
There is no "long story short" here. It's a "long story long."
I'm sure there are many people who have had good Travelocity experience. I am not one of them. I will never use Travelocity again.
So there!
And...There Goes Another Day
We've been building this church of ours for...what...6 years now...SIX YEARS. It's been delay after delay. It's been building with volunteers. It's been building as we have money (or if we don't have access to money, if we have access to borrowed money). It has been consuming. And I've been up front with the congregation that it's taken a toll on me. And I know it's taken a toll on them. It's been a long process. There's no doubt about it. It has been spiritually, and physically, and emotionally, and financially draining. There will be great rejoicing when we're able to use the space...and that time is getting closer. Maybe...just maybe...we can be in it for Christmas Eve. We're praying for it. And we're working towards it.
We have had a lot of people who have put a lot of their time and energy into this place. In fact, we have two electricians up from Indiana who are donating their time and energy to us for about a week. They've done a lot. Our financial person has done a lot. We have a Building Committee Chairperson who has done a lot. I'm not alone here and what I'm going to say here could be said by any of them.
One of the problems with this construction process is how much time it takes away from the things I really want to be doing...or the things that, in the moment, actually sound more important than getting this church finished. Today was one of those days. I knew I was going to have to go into Anchorage to pick up electrical supplies and light fixtures and wire, etc. And, it made much more sense to have me go in and not have the electricians lose a day on the job just going around and getting supplies. So, I spent about an hour at the site in the AM and left for Anchorage at 11 AM, with a supplies list and a couple of places to go. Of course, I would have a couple of personal errands to run (including grocery shopping at Costco) because it doesn't make sense not to take care of those when I'm already 40 miles away from home in the big city of Anchorage.
And everything took longer that expected. I had to make two different trips to the electrical company's warehouse. I had to wait 35 minutes as someone got e $6 of wire from a back storeroom. I searched at Lowe's and The Home Depot for lamp chain and back to Lowe's again. I couldn't find regular 100 watt incandescent bulbs at Costco and had to make another stop. I pulled into the church with supplies at 6 PM, with just a half hour before teaching a class tonight.
It was a SEVEN hour trip to Anchorage, preceded by and HOUR of work at the church construction site making decisions and getting a list together.
And, so as I sit down at 10 PM to reflect, I realize there's a whole lot I didn't get to today. The newsletter I really need to be working on will have to wait another day. My expenses are used to waiting. I have people I really needed to meet with to "check in" and see how they're doing. And, right now, I don't feel like doing much "serious" work. It's been a long day.
I got the supplies, but I can't help feeling..."and...there went another day."
Part of the problem with this church construction is that there have been a lot of days like this. And, hopefully, the memory of all the work and all that time I spent in lines or on phones or trying to make decisions that I was woefully unprepared to make or hammering nails or worrying about money...hopefully, that will all seem worthwhile as, each week we get to live into that new space.
But, for now, I shall put off until tomorrow the stuff I was sure I had to get done today. Most of that stuff will wait. The supplies today could not.
Interdependency / Quote from Henri Nouwen
Image by WolfS♡ul via FlickrWe NEED so many other people. It's frustrating. Interdependency can be a big ol' pain in rumpus. It's enough to make me look longingly at Simon and Garfunkel's "I am a Rock" song:
I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
The following quote is from Henri Nouwen from Walk with Jesus and came to me by way of Dash House. It's probably something I need when I feel like things would just be better if I could take care of it all myself.
I feel within me a strong desire to live life on my own. In fact, my society praises the self-made people who are in control of their destinies, set their own goals, fulfill their own aspirations, and build their own kingdoms. It is very hard for me to truly believe that spiritual maturity is a willingness to let others guide me…
And still, every time I am willing to break out of my false needs for self-sufficiency and dare to ask for help, a new community emerges – a fellowship of the weak – strong in the trust that together we can be a people of hope in a broken world…To receive help, support, guidance, affections, and care may well be a greater call than that of giving all these things because in receiving I reveal the gift to the givers and a new life together can begin.
Take a deep breath. Recognize that what we have is A FELLOWSHIP OF THE WEAK.
"Should We Have Constructed This Church at All?" -- A Look at N.T. Wright
This new building was a dream of the congregation's before I got here. They'd been planning for a new building since even before their last pastor, their first full-time pastor, showed up in 1996. After I got here they'd already pushed back plans to begin construction twice, each time having to turn away work teams from the lower-48 that were very eager to help with the construction. The congregation had been planning to build with the good folk of the local Catholic congregation on some property together, but kept getting delayed as they worked on issues with the property.
Well, why was a congregation that averaged only about 35 people so eager to construct a building? Was their ministry really, in a any way, intimately tied to a "brick and mortar" facility? Couldn't most of their ministries take place outside of a church building?
These are good questions. And I'm not really sure how to answer them for the time before I was here as a pastor. My guess is that a lot of the construction talk was, perhaps, a little premature. However, even though they only had about 35 in attendance, they shared the small 30-foot by 30-foot building with the local Catholic congregation, effectively doubling the size of the congregation that was worshipping in that very tiny (some call it "quaint") building. Plus, I think we need to understand that the present focus on "house churches" wasn't quite as strong.
These are good questions. And I'm not really sure how to answer them for the time before I was here as a pastor. My guess is that a lot of the construction talk was, perhaps, a little premature. However, even though they only had about 35 in attendance, they shared the small 30-foot by 30-foot building with the local Catholic congregation, effectively doubling the size of the congregation that was worshipping in that very tiny (some call it "quaint") building. Plus, I think we need to understand that the present focus on "house churches" wasn't quite as strong.
However, a couple of years after I got here, we started averaging above 50 in worship and we had to add a second service to accommodate the growth. This is because, with an average of 50 in worship, we were having some Sundays at 60...which stressing our space. That was a problem. Also, we were having trouble meeting the educational needs of the congregation as we were beginning to have Sunday School in three different facilities: children at the Chapel, youth off-site at a restaurant, and adults at a member's home. We were finding that the ministries we wanted to be involved in were having trouble because of the lack of space. Moreover, not having a restroom limited the number of user groups that wanted to use our small space.
We looked around at other options in the community--the school, rental property--but couldn't find anything. The monthly rents seemed just too high for what we'd be getting out of the deal. There was no "community center" (as there is now) and there was no "Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church" building (as there is now). We didn't seem to have any options. And so, we started planning for a new facility and, probably 8 years after that time, we're still trying to get into the new space.
I feel, in a way, that I have to make excuses for why we're building a new facility. I know that the amount of time we've been taking on this construction has worn down, emotionally and energy-wise, our congregation. And I know that we're going to be dealing with the debt to pay it off for some time. And, furthermore, I know that a lot of new ministries and churches are finding that they really don't need "brick and mortar" buildings to engage in ministries and build relationships. And, perhaps, if we'd been a brand-spanking new ministry, we would have found that we could have evolved on a more "house church" model. But we were a church that had been around for 50 years...now 60...and already had identified with a church facility. That facility was just too small for it. And, after all, we knew that the building was not an end in and of itself but was a "tool" -- a tool to build and foster community and a place from which to send people out in ministry in the world. I think we've been clear about that all along.
I recently received some help in my reflection on this on buildings and ministries through an interview with N.T. Wright in "Faith and Leadership" called "N.T. Wright: Working on a Building."
We looked around at other options in the community--the school, rental property--but couldn't find anything. The monthly rents seemed just too high for what we'd be getting out of the deal. There was no "community center" (as there is now) and there was no "Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church" building (as there is now). We didn't seem to have any options. And so, we started planning for a new facility and, probably 8 years after that time, we're still trying to get into the new space.
I feel, in a way, that I have to make excuses for why we're building a new facility. I know that the amount of time we've been taking on this construction has worn down, emotionally and energy-wise, our congregation. And I know that we're going to be dealing with the debt to pay it off for some time. And, furthermore, I know that a lot of new ministries and churches are finding that they really don't need "brick and mortar" buildings to engage in ministries and build relationships. And, perhaps, if we'd been a brand-spanking new ministry, we would have found that we could have evolved on a more "house church" model. But we were a church that had been around for 50 years...now 60...and already had identified with a church facility. That facility was just too small for it. And, after all, we knew that the building was not an end in and of itself but was a "tool" -- a tool to build and foster community and a place from which to send people out in ministry in the world. I think we've been clear about that all along.
I recently received some help in my reflection on this on buildings and ministries through an interview with N.T. Wright in "Faith and Leadership" called "N.T. Wright: Working on a Building."
Although he was Bishop of Durham in the Church of England for seven years, N.T. Wright doesn’t think about the church in terms of institutions. He thinks in terms of community.
“The institution is like the scaffolding that you need to be working on the building,” Wright said. “The scaffolding isn’t the reality.”
The General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body, for example, is basically like plumbing, Wright said: “When you go into a friend’s house, you don’t expect to see the plumbing, but you need to know that it’s working, because if it’s not, fairly soon there’ll be a bad smell in the house.”
That is, the church’s institutions have to work well, or things can go wrong. People can get hurt, Wright said. Church leaders may sometimes feel like they’re working on scaffolding all day rather than living in the house, but “somebody has got to do that stuff so that the mission of the church can go forward.”What we are building is part of the institution. We're building a structure, a part of the institutional church. And it's a beautiful part of it. Thanks be to God, we're going to have a beautiful facility--the walls, the roof-line, the office space, and, (thank you, Jesus!) the bathrooms. But that structure is there merely to shape the underlying reality which is a church body that is growing closer to God and each other in community.
That building we're building, that debt we're taking on, all of the energy that we're putting forward...well...it's all so the mission of the church can go forward. We're not building a building, even though it may look that way. We're supporting and expanding a ministry. We're not constructing walls. We're building a place to construct disciples. And while I do hope, unlike Wright's metaphor for the institutional church, that people "see" our plumbing and the heavy timbers in the sanctuary and our beautiful front entrance, I hope what they come here for is the life of community that springs up from this place.
So, should we have constructed a church building at all? Yes. For this ministry. For this town.
In the Sanctuary, All Alone, After the Consecration
But today was the day we were Consecrating our New Building -- Our building that still doesn't have heat or running water or many lights. But today, with our Bishop and Superintendent and Director of Connectional Ministries present, along with folks from the community, we were setting it apart for "holy purposes."
I don't know how many people were at our building consecration today. I didn't count.
"What's this About Church Buildings?"
It’s these thoughts that come into my head as I read the following:
Christians did not begin to build church buildings until about AD 200. This fact suggests that, whatever else church buildings are good for, they are not essential for numerical growth or spiritual depth. The early church possessed both these qualities, and the church’s greatest period of vitality and growth until recent times was during the first two centuries AD. In other words the church grew fastest when it did not have the help—or hindrance—of church buildings.
That quote is from Howard Snyder’s book, The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age, as recorded in Mike Slaughter’s book, CHANGE THE WORLD: Recovering the MESSAGE and MISSION or JESUS.
I don’t believe this is a call to abandon our building, although, as I think about it, perhaps we could have done things a little differently along the way. Perhaps we could have put in only the bathroom needed for the present size. While it is a beautiful building, perhaps we could have gone with a much simpler architectural design. Perhaps we could have waited one more year to begin the process of building so we could have gotten more funds on hand. I'm sure there are always questions with any building project--whether it's your church or your business or your home. But, now, I think the above sentiment is a call to reexamine how we’ll be using the facility. Our purpose as “fishers of people” is not to get the “biggest net” in the water but, use the church as a mission outpost to get “many nets” in the water. We need to see our building as a place to empower folks to go out in the community and bring the gospel message to those around them…and around us. The building is not the goal of ministry but a tool for ministry.
I think that’s a fundamentally different way of looking at building use.
