It took a little longer than we'd hoped, and there were some tricky twists and turns along the way, but on Monday this week we exchanged contracts with the sellers of Church Gate. Praise God!
Completion is set for Friday 17th May, at which point we will have the keys for Church Gate, along with planning permission to turn it from an office block into a multi-use building for our church. If you're unsure what Church Gate is all about then please click here to read about our plans or click here to find out about the costs and challenges involved.
Of course, owning the building is just the start to our Church Gate adventure - we now have lots of work to do to make the building useable, and turn our plans into reality.
What happens now?
There are several steps ahead for us once we get the keys:
First: we will be holding various 'stakeholder' meetings inside Church Gate, with each of the different user groups, to talk about our plans for inside and outside the building. It's currently something of a blank canvas but, to quote Proverbs 11v14, "victory is won through many advisers."
Second: in June this year we will hold open days for people from Welcome Church to come and look around Church Gate and see what we've taken on, and also to give opportunity for more people to comment on the plans. For reasons of safety you will need to book a time slot to attend an open day, and they will be for adults (16 years+) only. Details for booking a slot will be available soon. I hope you're as excited to look around as I was.
Third: we will consult with professional advisors to help us plan how to turn our ideas into reality. Ideally we hope to use some of the same people who worked with us on the last building project and did such a great job.
Fourth: we will hold Gift Days at the end of June and the start of July to help us towards our financial goal of raising at least £2 million for the project over two years. So far £1.3m has been given or pledged so we are will on the way but we still have some more ground to cover together.
More information
During May we will be giving out a new booklet about Church Gate with all the details people need to know, so do be on the look out for this (it's currently with the printers). When you get your copy please read it carefully and prayerfully and, if you have any questions, please just ask.
Philippians 1v4-6 says,
"I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
It's a great thing for us to be in partnership together for the gospel as a church and, like Paul, I'm confident that He who began this good work in us will now carry it on to completion. So, as we come to look around the building, let's look around it prayerfully, with our spiritual eyes and ears open to what God wants to do in the lives of children and young people through Church Gate, and also what He will do through us to help those in need in our town - not least through our planned Community Grocery.
Our big goal in all of this is to see many lives transformed through Jesus; this is all about the gospel. It's now time to press forward into this adventure together!
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