Sandals' New Building

Sandals Church if finally getting its own building in Riverside. We're all super excited about it and members need to do their best to fundraise or give over and above their usual tithe, if they tithe at all. Today we had a leaders meeting where small group leaders were invited to listen to Pastor Matt talk a little bit more about the building and what we're planning. It was amazing to me because they showed a video (which they looped at the end) of a computerized look at what the building will hopefully look like. He put costs and size into perspective. Sandals church has been homeless for 11 1/2 years. CBU has been gracious enough to extend out lease till June, yes June 2010-7 1/2 months from now. Sandals needs a home base for missions. A place where people cannot be turned away because of lack of space. We will no longer need to rent out space every day of the week from Magnolia Ave Baptist Church or anywhere else during the week (including Sunday worship serves in the gymnasium). I got even more excited when I saw this video. It makes it more of a reality to me even though I've already been in the new location and had a look at all the different areas and I've seen the plans. Sandals needs money for the building but it's all been budgeted. Matt put it in perspective when he said this building is about the same size as the Grove's building in Orange Crest but we're doing it at about a third of the cost. We're hoping to do it between 15 and 17 million dollars compared to the Grove's 45 million. That's a lot of money but it could be much more. I think Sandals is doing it's best to be good stewards of what is God's. We were given one option, to make it more clear, it was discounted half price. How obvious is it that this is where we're supposed to be? Why are there still people who aren't excited about this opportunity? Why do people question motives and processes? After seeing the video I wanted to cry (cause I've been super emotional lately, but also) because I realize that this is gonna be our new home. When the video was played a second time, it was played to Switchfoot's song "This is Home" and it was perfect. The view of the sanctuary really got me that this is home. Matt said the contractor they picked does an excellent job with natural woods, which is timeless. You can see the use of natural woods in the video. It's not excellent quality because it's a video of a video but you can get the idea. This is what I'm excited about. Home.