What's the point?

A few years ago, when the Community Life Center was just a dream, we released a series of videos to help you envision what a new facility would mean.  Today, I wanted to share with you again one of those videos.  

We don't build this for ourselves, but so that our entire community may come to know Christ and grow in faith.  To do that will take some sacrifice.  The sacrificing won’t end when the building is paid for.  It will instead shift from giving money to giving of time and talent.  It won’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile is.  The impact that we can make on the community and the growth of those who serve will be well worth it.  If you are interested in being a part of something special, start here.  I look forward to serving alongside you.

A Vision for Community Life Worship

If you do not currently attend the Community Room Worship Services then you may be surprised to know that every Sunday is a packed house. During the second service you will find a room where every single seat is occupied most Sundays. That is a fantastic problem to have but it is still a problem. If you want to bring a friend you had better get there early and reserve a seat for them. The first 2 Sundays in January we had over 250 people in the second service! To put that number into perspective for you, the Community Room has only 220 chairs. We would love to add more seating but the room is packed from front to back. So where did those extra 30 people sit? In the Gathering Room in overflow seating watching the service on a TV monitor. So to say that we are excited about additional space in the CLC is an understatement.

Once the CLC opens we will move our worship services into the gymnasium space. We will continue to hold worship services at both 9AM and 10:30AM. Lee Hartman is in the process of engineering a state of the art sound and lighting system with a curved video screen that is 35 feet wide and 9 feet tall. New technology is great but what we are really excited about is just having an open chair to invite our community to come and worship with us. To know that when we invite our friends, neighbors and co-workers that there will be not only a seat but a place for them within our church family. 

A Vision for Sunday Mornings

God is at work in the Roanoke Valley. He seeks and saves the lost through believers open to join with Him. Bonsack has been a part of this work for over 100 years. The Community Life Center (CLC) is a tool God can use to continue to accomplish His purpose. Sunday Morning Bible Study (Sunday School) is a big part of how we have reached out to our community. However, many adult classes are crowded, which is uninviting to guests. For the past five years, the lack of vacant classrooms has impeded our ability to start new groups. The CLC will provide much needed space, but will we be ready? When the CLC opens, we anticipate many guests and we need to be ready to receive them with new classes. So what does this mean to members? Well, we can start classes but they only succeed when the church is ready with a kingdom perspective. Existing classes may be moved, chairs may be swapped, and friends may leave your class to become part of a new one. God’s love for the lost is our motivation for remaining flexible, embracing change, stepping out of our comfort zones, and helping to start new classes. Please pray that we are prepared to be part of His work of changing lives for eternity. 

Space to Gather

One of the needs that we are attempting to meet with the Community Life Center is to have an open space where people can congregate without feeling claustrophobic.  Currently the hallways are very narrow and there is not much space outside either the Sanctuary or Community Room to fellowship.  The atrium will not only solve this problem but add a new dynamic to the church. 

The atrium is the two story welcome center at the front of the CLC.  It will be the new hub of the church.  Not only will it be the way to access the fellowship hall, gym, coffee shop, and the current building but it is a place designed for fellowship.  The entire front wall is a huge glass window that will afford a great view of Read Mountain and allow natural light to filter into the church.  There is a large grand staircase that will allow access between floors.  There will be seating arrayed throughout both floors of the atrium so that you can enjoy conversations with friends both old and new or settle in with your computer and a cup of coffee.  There will also be adequate space to stand around and mingle after the services on Sunday morning are concluded.

In addition to being a space that will allow for movement throughout the building and fellowship, the atrium will also contain the new information and connection center.  This center will be located just inside the main entrance and will provide information about the various classes and activities that are happening at Bonsack.  It will also be a place where people can get plugged in to the various groups and classes.  It will make it much easier for guests and members alike to navigate Sunday Morning. 

The atrium is a space unlike any that we currently have at Bonsack and will help unite our body as one fellowship and enable us to better welcome new members into our church.

Imagine a place.

Imagine a place where people of all ages fellowship and share stories over a cup of coffee or a latte.  Imagine a place where children can experience the God given gift of play together; where they run and laugh and smile.  Imagine a place where senior adults can exercise their bodies on a walking track and their creativity in a crafts event.  Imagine a place where adults can stay healthy through exercise and play sports together.  Imagine a place where families can spend time together with other families doing things they love.  Imagine a place where concerts ring out.  Imagine a place where great dinners are savored and memories are shared.  Imagine a place where praises are raised to God in worship every Sunday morning.  Imagine a place where there is room for everyone to fellowship together in a common space after the services.  Imagine a place where people from the community can come to feel loved and important.  Imagine a place where God is the center of all of these events.  Imagine a place where a church is drawn deeper into fellowship with its members and the community is positively impacted.  Imagine a place.

For the last few years you have been asked to imagine a place.  This place is the Community Life Center.  It will be an incredible new part of Bonsack Baptist Church.  It will allow us to grow and expand current ministries while opening new and exciting avenues for ministry and worship.  The imaginings in the previous paragraph are just some of the myriad of possibilities that will be open to us when the CLC comes online.  As that day approaches I wanted to take a moment to share some of the larger mission and vision of the CLC.  The vision is, “At the Bonsack Baptist Church Community Life Center we want to bring the people of the Roanoke Valley into an authentic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ and allow people to experience God in a variety of ways.”  What that means is that we want all of the people in our area to be able to know what it means to be a disciple of Christ; older people, younger people, church people, non-church people.  We want all of them to be able to experience what it means to be loved by the Creator and to grow in that relationship.  The mission is, “The Community Life Center is a resource for building Christian Community through worship, fellowship, recreation, and education with the goal of enabling Bonsack Baptist Church to better fulfill its mission of ‘sharing Christ and building believers.’”  The mission brings the vision to life.  The CLC and its ministries are to be a resource for the greater mission and vision of the church.  It will be through worship, fellowship, recreation, and education that the people of our congregation and our community will grow together and grow towards Christ.

For this to happen it we will need the church to embrace the vision and the mission.  I am confident from the nearly three months that I have been living and serving among you that you will.  This church has a great heart and a great passion for ministry.  I look forward to seeing what we can do together with our great new resource.  As completion draws nearer to completion I want you to imagine not just a place, but your place.  In the coming weeks this blog will contain descriptions of the various areas of the CLC as well as what those areas will potentially be used for and what ministries may be embodied in the spaces of the CLC.  The CLC will be a place for all of us so I want you to imagine your place in it.