Every home renovation to an older building is a challenge and our church home has just gone through a lengthy addition/renovation process. Our church had an opportunity to purchase a building next door to our current location and renovate the building to house our growing numbers. There was a good amount of prayer, sleepless nights for members and pastors rehabbing until 3AM, and many small groups and indiviuals coming together to donate tons of volunteer hours throughout the process.
At the end when final inspections were needed – one of our leaders Jon said these words:
“We’ve been working our tails off to get Hope East done. Yet, amidst all of this, there are still significant dominoes outside our control that have to fall in order for us to actually open on Thanksgiving.”
I am so thankful for this church and THANKFUL TO GOD that we were able to OPEN ON THANKSGIVING!! I know it is the desire of our church to be a resource in the community of Minneapolis and I am excited to see how this space will be used to bless our city! I went to our first Sunday morning service today and my favorite part of the sermon was when Steve (lead pastor) stressed that the building itself is not a church – the church is a family and families are not defined by the house they live in. A great way to describe how not to get too focused on this cool building that we forget the things that are more important. . .in other words. . .quoting Steve. . . so we have a new building “weeell laa de frickin’ da”. .. thank you Saturday Night Live, I laugh every time.
Would love to hear your favorite part of the sermon if you were there!
I snapped a few pictures and wanted to share them with you. This church home has blessed me in so many ways!
If you are interested, take a look at the last update before the grand opening to get a feel for how things operate at HOPE!
Hope is also on Facebook – for more info – check it out!
https://www.facebook.com/hopeccdotcom
Awesome, Liz! So wonderful to see such an enthusiastic congregation.
Great pictures. Thanks for posting Liz!