12-17-24

Good evening my Heart Family,

About a year ago I started to think about the idea of converting our sanctuary into a multipurpose room. It's innovative, fresh and I believe it will help us grow as people can sit down together at tables for church or any other event vs being locked in a row staring at the back of someone's head. Where did pews for church come from anyway? I don't see them in the Bible so I think it's okay to change seating in the Sanctuary.

Anyway, just out of curiosity, I Googled "History of the church pew" and found this: Wooden pews as we know them today first became widespread in Europe in the 1500s following the Protestant Reformation. Before that, church floors were usually kept bare because the congregation stood during services. Some churches kept moveable, backless stone benches around the walls for the elderly to sit on. May 12, 2020

Enlarging Childrens Church and Women's Ministry:

It's obvious the children's ministry is growing. Converting the sanctuary into a multipurpose room would allow for Children's church to use the fellowship hall, really making it their own as far as painting, decorations and the way Patty wants to use the tables and chairs without having to rearrange everything for our church lunches / breakfasts.

Additionally, Yngris loves the whole idea as the women's ministry continues to grow, having 40+ in attendance at the last meeting. It was after that last woman's breakfast, I shared the idea I just described with Julie. She shared this vision with some other friends and one of them has generously committed $4,000 to see it happen! I shared the same with our board and now we're in the process of making this a reality.

The next steps and furniture options:

So, after our meeting last Sunday we decided to meet again right after men's breakfast this Saturday December 21, 2024 to further discuss, plan the layout and the purchase of tables and chairs. See the link below with descriptions and links to the furniture. Note, currently we're just looking at the top church chair followed by three round folding tables. We may add other tall coffee tables and high chairs later.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zl0oSux6MmeT3-MgkfyFhey5sV2Z-JaBmVHXpAtGppo/edit?usp=sharing

Mike suggested round tables that can be folded which can serve various configurations. They look like they are quality tables. Dave has volunteered to enter the furniture into a computer program with exact measurements to see how it would look. We discussed the size of the tables. I had initially suggested all 72" round white plastic tables but I'm okay going with a combination of both 72" round tables that seats 8-10 people fully open and 60" round tables that seats 6-8 people fully opened.

How to plan the budget and prepare for new growth:

I think the way to make it easy to get an accurate budget is to layout the tables and chairs with the goal of seating between 50-60 people using a combination of 72" & 60" tables and chairs. I would not advise planning with a lower amount of seating as that will defeat the primary purpose of converting the sanctuary to be used as a multipurpose room for worship, breakfasts, seminars, movie and fun nights, birthday celebrations, etc...People will also be free to bring a coffee into the sanctuary and a bagel.

I think it would be a mistake to do this project half way only to do it again removing more pews and buying more tables and chairs. Better to get it done the first time with at least a little room for growth and with the ladies having 40+ last breakfast I don't think it will be long before they go beyond that number in attendance. It's for this reason I suggest at least between 50-60 which allows for some wiggle room in where the tables and chairs are placed in the sanctuary.

My vision for how it would look is removing all the pews from the middle section of the sanctuary and as many as needed on both sides to accommodate this amount of chairs and tables. I'm thinking this will leave several pews on each side in the back so people that desire a pew will easily be able to slip in and some of our members that like to sit in the back pews will not feel disenfranchised, lol...but I do think that after sitting in the new chairs I would not be surprised if suddenly all the pews were abandoned. I think it comes down to personal preference.

That said, I sure look forward to meeting this Saturday after the men's breakfast, right around 10:30 am. If you attend HHCC you're invited to attend this meeting to know what we're planning, ask questions and make suggestions before the board officially votes on the plan and budget for this project. I'm very excited about what the Lord is doing at HHCC and believe converting our sanctuary for multiple purposes is a positive and innovative step in the right direction that will help us grow as a church family.

Hope you can join us briefly this Saturday. Let's make church great again!

Have a blessed night in God's love and presence!

Pastor Nick Boork & Yngris