I grew up in east Tennessee where you built first then got the permit. This experience has been one that I will never forget. For you that don’t know…we started our journey in the fall of 2007. Little did I know all that would be involved. I have listed a few of the steps that the staff and trustees have had to cross to get to this day. Sit back…grab a coffee…and enjoy the ride.

• Days, weeks and months of prayer and planning
• Multiple off site visits to other churches
• Hours of conceptual drawings
• Hiring the Architect (John Dean)
• Initial Architect meetings 6-8
• Overall Architect meetings 20+
• Approving the plan…several weeks for final concept approval
• Hiring the Engineering Firm (MBV)
• More Meetings (Staff, Trustee, John Dean, MBV)
• By this time we have spent $50 K and it is only the middle of 2008
• Permits begin…my favorite $3,200 for the county to tell us how many cars drive by our church each day.
• Permits and fee’s now total around $18 K
• Holidays….Thanksgiving, Christmas break, Happy New Year! Everything slowed down.
• January we unveil prints to you our church family…we are so excited!
• More meetings…20+ trips to John Dean’s office in the past 8 months
• Lots of prayer…ready to break ground
• Permits, permits, permits… How can there be so many permits? There are permits for permits…
• Finalizing a General Contractor (Chilberg)
• Full team meeting in February (Staff, Trustee, Chilberg, MBV, John Dean)
• Ground breaking preparation…informational pieces (mailers, info booklet, and handouts)
• Finalizing budgets, securing a tent, and so much, much more.
• County approves our site plan
• Groundbreaking April 19th
• More Permits
• More Permits
• Tragedy strikes (Chilberg loses an employee of 15 years) George was our cost estimator.
• Lakeside does Georges funeral (We were extremely honored)
• Chilberg picking up the pieces and sorting through all the work that George had prepared.
• And that brings us to today May 14^th

These are just a few of the details that we have been part of to get us to this day. In the next few weeks full construction should be under way. We are humbled and excited for what God has in store. Thanks for taking the journey with us. For more updates check back each week.

Pastor Joe

Audio Engineering

Even though we are still many months from completion, we spent almost an hour on the phone this week with our audio engineer. He has begun to take the architectural drawings for our room and run them through computer simulations in order to configure the optimal sound system and acoustic treatment for our project.

This new system is going greatly improve the quality of our sound and expand the capacity of our worship and drama programs. In addition, we will have live recording capabilities and potential to host outside artists.

We are very exciting about the opportunity to continue to bring excellence to our weekly worship gatherings.

For any audiophiles out there, check out what we think may be our new speaker array.

What a Day!

Our ground breaking was truly awesome. I've had so many people comment to me about how beautiful of a day it was.

Earlier that morning, as people began show up and things were being setup, I found myself thinking about what a privilege it is to be a part of a new building project. I could tell that many others felt the same way. I heard it in their remarks, I saw it on their faces, I watched it in their actions. To be a part of something bigger than ourselves is always humbling and exciting.

Bottom line - thank you each for making our groundbreaking day so special and for committing to be a part of this journey. We are building a building, and more importantly building lives.

Oh, by the way, I was a little saddened about one thing. I noticed that Steve Chilberg took the key to that hugh loader with him...rats!

Alan T. Neiman
Lead Pastor