Growing Together Campaign

In the spring of 2010, we conducted a capital campaign to raise funds for several building projects around our church and received pledges for over $425,000. We’ve already completed the first three projects – installing a new energy-efficient boiler, renovating the kitchen, and replacing the steeple. In the next year or so, we hope to complete the final project: portico outside our front doors, and an expanded gathering space and welcome center. Below, you’ll find reports from our Building Committee as well as updates and photos from the work in progress.

Interested in helping out or want more information about the campaign? Email info@fccgreensboro.org.

Growing Together

 Posted by on April 25, 2012
Apr 252012
 

Sunday night, at the Growing Together campaign dinner, I was looking at some of the pictures from last summer’s steeple raising party. Remember that day? We had all gathered in the parking lot to watch the giant crane hoist the new steeple – with the old cross on top – up to the very top of our roof. It’s funny how we come in and out under that steeple every day now, and hardly think a thing about it (though someone did notice how shiny it sill looks!) One of my favorite pictures from that day last August is the one where we’re all standing in front of the new steeple before it got lifted up. Ed Wagoner is there, and Lib Murray, who were around when the first steeple went up. There were folks who’ve been around the church for decades and members who just joined last year. My daughter was there (my son was, too, technically, though he had not yet made an appearance on the scene), and several other kids. Looking at that picture, I was reminded—not for the first time—just how blessed we are to be part of this faith community.

As you know, we’re now in the second phase of the Growing Together campaign, and we’re all being asked to extend our commitments or make a new gift so we can finish the final project: a new portico outside the front door and a renovated entrance and gathering space outside the sanctuary. Our entryway needs a facelift. It is, frankly, a little dated. (Another church member used the word “historic” to describe our entryway, which was kind of her.) Thandiwe said Sunday that when you walk in our front door, you don’t really get a sense of who we are: a generous, loving, laughing, friendly, multi-generational, creative, enthusiastic, compassionate, hard-working, dedicated group of people doing our best to love one another as God has loved us.

The $225,000 we need to raise is no small amount of money. But we can do this. I know that we can, because I’ve been witness to your generosity before. I’ve been witness to this congregation doing things we never thought we could do. I’ve seen how you care about each other and care about this church.

I hope you’ll join me and my family in making a pledge to this phase of the campaign. I can only imagine the party we’ll have when the work is done.

Congregational Meeting – Mar 25

 Posted by on March 21, 2012
Mar 212012
 

There will be a congregational meeting on Sunday, March 25,  at 9:45. At that meeting, the congregation will be asked to consider a recommendation from the Building Committee and the Board to extend the Growing Together campaign to raise an additional $225,000 and to take out a loan to complete the portico and gathering space projects. If you have questions about all this, please contact a member of the Building Committee: Cliff Greaves, Leslie Gooding, Ricky Young, Mike Norwood, or Jim Tebow.

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going: find our  Capital Campaign summary recap (through January 2012) here.

Capital Campaign Info Sessions and Meeting – Mar 11, 18 and 25

 Posted by on March 7, 2012
Mar 072012
 

***Updated to include our campaign summary recap.***

We will be holding congregational education sessions in the Fellowship Hall at 9:45am on March 11 and 18 to share some important information about our capital campaign. These education sessions will bring everyone up to date on the Portico/Welcoming/Gathering Space project details, including the associated costs based on a recent quote provided by our building contractor, R P Murray Construction Co. We will also present a proposal which will include taking out a loan and extending the current capital campaign to fund these projects.

Essentially, we will be proposing a second phase of the current capital campaign and asking all of us to extend our pledges so that we can cover the costs (beyond the current funds on hand) of these projects. This will demonstrate to the bank, and to all members of this congregation, that we are willing to support funding for worthy projects/programs beyond the basic operational funding required by the annual budget, thus allowing the bank, and us, to commit to the loan. Following the education sessions, a congregational meeting will be held on March 25 at 9:45am to make a decision on how we will move forward.

Find our  Capital Campaign summary recap (through January 2012) here.

Read the full letter from the building committee here.

More information about our campaign is here.

Steeple Raising – Aug 30, 2011

 Posted by on September 7, 2011
Sep 072011
 

Piedmont Fiberglass installed our new steeple on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. The morning was used to set up the cranes, and place the transition on the brick tower and then anchor it in place.  The majority of the installation of the steeple sections took place in the afternoon and evening.
We celebrated with a steeple raising hot dog supper, on the far side of the parking lot. Church members and friends were invited to come have dinner and watch the new steeple being installed.

Everyone who attended signed a plaque that was installed inside the steeple.

Please see below for a quick video, photos and a news report of this day.

Click here to see our story on News 14 Carolina.

Steeple Raising Supper – August 30

 Posted by on August 15, 2011
Aug 152011
 

Piedmont Fiberglass, manufacturer of our new steeple, has just informed us that they will be installing the steeple on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. The cranes that will be used to do the lifting of the steeple in place, as well as the steeple section components will show up that morning. The morning will be used to set up the cranes, and place the transition on the brick tower and then anchor it in place. The majority of the installation of the steeple sections will take place in the afternoon and evening and it is entirely possible, assuming things are going well, the entire job will be complete by night fall.

So, rather than a ‘steeple raising lunch’ we have decided to have a steeple raising hot dog supper (with all the trimmings), on the far side of the parking lot, beginning at 5:30pm. All church members, and former ministers, are invited to come have dinner and watch the new steeple being installed. This will be an exciting time, and fun for all! Yes, children are invited too as they will enjoy watching the cranes work as well as a good old hot dog. So, everyone, please make your plans to come and be a part of this very significant, but rare, event in the life of our church!

Note: Parking will have to be across Market St. or on Overlook or Madison as the trucks and cranes will be using most of our parking lot.

Here is the church, here is the steeple…

 Posted by on June 22, 2011
Jun 222011
 

I have to admit it: I’ve spent a good portion of the last few days standing in the church parking lot, staring upward.

They’ve taken the steeple down. The first day or so, it came down bit by bit, as workers tore off pieces of wood to free up the inner steel structure. Yesterday, the cross was lifted carefully off (it stands now in the foyer of the church, hopefully to be lifted back up to the top of the new steeple when it’s installed later this summer). This morning, the real fun began. At about 8:30, the giant crane lifted off the very top spire and laid it gently on the ground. Then the other pieces of the base were hoisted up and into the air. Now, they’re being dismantled in the parking lot, and the top of the church looks, well, just plain weird. Hatless, someone said. Or like we got a bad haircut. Mostly, it feels like a piece of ourselves is missing.

I found myself feeling a little sad as I watched it come down, piece by piece. For more than fifty years, that steeple has stood watch on the top of our building. Lib Murray remembers coming over with her kids and watching it go up. Now, we’re watching it come down, and it feels like the end of an era.

Times change, though. Things come and go, buildings wear out and need to be replaced. Later this summer, we’ll celebrate when the new steeple goes up, and someday, we’ll be telling our grandchildren that we were here when it happened. I’m glad to be part of a church that understands the need for letting things go to make room for new things.

None of this is about the steeple itself, of course. As we’ve said again and again as we’ve planned this project, the steeple isn’t important in and of itself. The church doesn’t exist to have a building. The church exists to serve the world. The building is a resource that helps us do that. The steeple points us up to the glory of God so that we can be led out in service to our neighbors and our world.

Come by and see it sometime. We look a little funny, but we’re still the same old church.

Steeple Project

 Posted by on June 15, 2011
Jun 152011
 

The steeple project begins on June 20, 2011 with J H Batten, Inc. showing up on the job to start steeple demolition. A completion date, along with an appropriate dedication ceremony and celebration will be announced soon.  Thanks to all for your support and patience as we have worked to get to this point.  Pray that all will go well through the project and that it will be complete in a short time.

Cliff Greaves
Building Committee Chairman

 

Building Dedication

 Posted by on November 22, 2010
Nov 222010
 

Last Sunday, we dedicated our newly renovated kitchen and new boiler system, asking God’s blessing on these projects that we might use our building to the glory of God. The building committee offered these words:

A reading from Psalm 84:

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself
Where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.

As these projects come to their completion, we give thanks for all who made it possible:

The generosity of this congregation, who gave above and beyond to fund these projects.
The hard work of the contractors, electricians, plumbers, pipe-fitters, who made it all come together.

We give thanks for:

The commitment of volunteers who gave their time and their talents.
The flexibility of all who use this space, who stepped over boxes and copper pipes and rescheduled meetings.

We are confident that:

The meals served in this kitchen will feed our bodies and our spirits.
The celebrations we hold here will help us mark the seasons and the passage of time.
The laughter and singing that rise from this room will delight the ears and fill the heart.
The heat that comes from these pipes will fill the rooms of this building where we worship, learn, and pray.

And so we dedicate these rooms and these facilities to the glory of God, that we may gather here in God’s presence and go out from here to be part of God’s work in the world.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, the skies and the highest heavens cannot contain you, much less buildings made by human hands. Yet you dwell on this earth among us and make yourself known in sacred space and time.

So we ask your blessing today on this sacred space – this building where we gather in your name. Bless the kitchen, where meals will feed your people, and bless the boiler, which will keep us warm.

Grant peace to all who gather here, peace to those who enter, and to those who go out. Grant peace to those who love this house, and who love the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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