"Unless the LORD builds the house, they labour in vain that build it..." Psalm 127:1
October 2009, We have halted our current building planning activities listed below in order to "RETHINK" and identify our true vision and mission requirements. We are also reassessing our real needs with regard to our congregation and our community's spiritual needs.
2002: We evaluated what it would take for us to expand our worship capabilities along with improving our community service and mission capabilities. Our current church was completed in 1915. At that time it was "state-of-the-art" and considered one of the finest in West Virginia. However, technology and time has taken its toll and the building has several structural, heating, cooling, and plumbing problems along with not having any church owned parking. Therefore, we are collecting estimates as to what it would cost to solve the current problems as compared to what it would cost to build a new facility. Members of our congregation are providing their ideas, recommendations, thoughts, preferences, wishes, concerns, etc., as to what they would like to see done. Whatever the outcome, we do know that the time has come for us to eliminate the problems and improve our capabilities to better serve our members and the community.
A Building Committee was formed (September 2002) to study our needs and collect, consolidate, and evaluate our options. The committee has collected a large amount of various types ts and inpinformation along with cost estimates for renovation of our current facilities and for building new facilities. The committee members also visted several churchs in West Virginia to collect ideas. They are now well into the planning activities with costs of what it would take to renovate the current church, build a complete new facility, and/or implement some combination of old and new.
To consolidate the thoughts for a complete new worship center, the Building Committee members selected architect, Silling Associates, Inc., to provide a set of initial building plans. They have provided us with a set of plans for the new worship center (if that is our Spiritually guided path) which includes more and improved classrooms, office space, current technology, and recreation fields along with a sanctuary with twice the seating capability.
We will keep you up to date as we go through this exciting growth phase, so check back to this section of our web site often!
The committee explored six building sites within a one mile radius of spencer. The one selected and purchased (May 2004 - approximately 237 acres) is located (7 tenths of a mile) just south of Spencer at 301 Charleston (SR 119) Road.
During 2008; January, May, July, and September, we rented heavy equipment from Houchin Rental and Sales, Inc., had it hauled to the site by Laughlin Construction, to start site preparation. In February, GSI Consultants did a storm water construction recommendation plan and acquired our storm water permit which allowed us to start our site development. Tim Elmore donated his skills as a heavy equipment operator along with his time run some of the rented equipment for us. Tim along with Bells Contracting Service (who we hired to do excavator work) graded the site in preparation for the building, parking lots, athletic fields, along with an access road into the center of the property. Note, currently a 4 wheel drive vehicle or hiking is recommended if you would like to go up the hill to view the property from the center.
During the site preparation time, we hired several other contractors at various times as needed to complete some of the land clearing and site preparation activities during May and September 2008. The leveled areas for a building were final graded and finished with hydro-seeding by CSI in September. The areas were mulched by the Methodist Men and other church members to prevent erosion.
In May 2008, we purchased a storage container from Parsons Trucking so that we could store supplies and equipment at the site. Our Boy Scouts (Troop 437) volunteered to paint the container. They ran into some time constraints (took a lot longer than they planned) getting the old lettering off and will finish the painting during the fall of 2009.
In July 2009, we added a picnic pavilion with the help of the Methodist Men and others. Our Methodist Youth completed painting the pavilion in September. The men also added picnic tables and we are planning several events in the near future (one, a Church Picnic - September 20, 2009) to use the new pavilion. See photos of our various build day activities in the photo gallery below.
