For several months now, our deacons and facility committee have been prayerfully considering how to address some of the current physical needs of our campus, make improvements to our facilities, while also keeping on eye on whatever the future may hold for our church. We discovered that most of our ideas for renovation were contingent on a host of other factors, all related to the bigger picture for future gospel ministry here at ECC. Having completed an extensive decision analysis regarding possible improvements to our facilities, the result is the ECC Sanctuary Renovation Project.
This project is scheduled to begin on Saturday, February 22nd and will consist of several much-needed improvements to our church’s main auditorium where we gather for corporate worship each week. While a building or “sanctuary” is certainly not needed for the church of Jesus Christ to worship (the people of God are his temple, the dwelling place of his Spirit), our church building is a blessing in many ways, and we desire our sanctuary to be designed in such a way as to facilitate and not hinder our corporate worship gatherings. These renovations have been discussed for several years now, and we are excited to finally see them come to fruition, thanks to God’s grace and the faithful generosity of our church.
As you can imagine, this will be impacting our regular Lord’s Day activities for several weeks. Here is what you need to know if you plan on joining us for worship during this project.:
Beginning Sunday, February 23rd, all worship services and classes will temporarily be held in our gymnasium and school building. Our worship service at 10:30am, as well as our Line by Line Sunday class at 9:30am, will be meeting in the gym. Our ECC Kids classes and Nursery will be located on the first floor of our school building, which is conveniently connected to and accessible from the gym. We are working to ensure the safety and functionality of these temporary classrooms, continuing our children’s ministry programming as usual. Locations will be clearly marked and directions will be available for parents.
Lord willing, we will resume our Lord’s Day worship in our newly renovated sanctuary on Easter Sunday, April 12th, 2020.
There are many exciting things in store for 2020. In addition to the sanctuary renovation project we are making preparations to launch several new ministries and will be working toward further utilization of our gym and school buildings. Pray that these projects and ministries will not only be realized but will bring glory to our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Mitch Bedzyk serves as a pastor Emmanuel Community Church, overseeing music and Sunday Classes. He received his Master of Theological Studies from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and works in IT for the NY Office of Mental Health. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children: Kya, Khalli, Oliver, Amelia, and Micah. In his spare time he enjoys reading, coffee, guitar, being an MLS fanatic and playing fantasy soccer.
