It has been awesome to see the growth of ReCAST Church over the past several months. I have blogged a couple of times on the space issues we are currently facing in our current facilities. The leadership has been working to pull together short-term, mid-range, and long-term solutions in order to maximize our current facility. As much as we have been able to accomplish in short to mid-range planning, it has become obvious that we need to prepare to make a transition to a different venue that will allow for growth.
In this process we have looked at building a new facility, trying to find one to renovate, considering the potential to lease more space, planting another church, adding more services at our current location, and seeing if we can use the public school. One thing is a common concern in all of these possibilities: I fear that this transition could become the point where we focus more on facility and less on the church as the people!
We have had the benefit and blessing of being in a store front for the first four years. We have enjoyed the challenges and closeness of a tight facility. One glance at our building and it is obvious that it is not the facility that has drawn people together. ReCAST has been about people from day one. We are all about growing people in faith, community, and service.
As the Pastor of Vision and Teaching at ReCAST it seems to me that things are falling into place to make building a genuine option. Obviously, I am not in anyway opposed to having a nice facility for our church to meet in. But I am committed to doing whatever I can to make sure that ReCAST in the future, building or not, is centered on people and not programs. Our name is our core values, and I look forward to seeing the ways that God will help us Reproduce our church in other communities, how he will grow our impact in our Community, how we will continue to forge Authentic relationships, how the concept of Simplicity keeps guiding us, and how the Truth brings us deeper into unity with God and with one another!
(The picture attached to this blog is a photo of ReCAST Church when they were putting in the women’s bathrooms!)
We were part of a building program in NY. The main thing I remember is that we ended up using two architects, and went with the second, because his design actually met the needs of the church in terms of rooms, space, etc. So my first and foremost suggestion would be to think through carefully what it is you want to accomplish in your church and try to ensure that your building will help you do that.
And I dislike the word “programs”. I prefer “ministries”. I know your church is shying away from “programs”, and I understand why and am certainly not arguing that you should change that. However, the reason I like the word ministries better is because to me that word implies that the focus is on people, not on doing something for the sake of doing it.
I love what is happening at ReCAST! and I’ll be watching with interest to see what comes along next.
Continue to seek God in all decisions and he will open doors. The fruits that have been displayed are evidence to the fact that you’ve been following God’s directions. I’m excited to see what is in store for ReCAST.
The focus on people is why I like ReCast Church so much! It would be kind of cool though to build a cathedral in downtown Mattawan. Just a suggestion 🙂
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