Connections has a Ministry Centre!

Today we leased property for a Ministry Centre!

I'm pretty pumped up about it.
Now, if you want to know the skinny, keep on reading...

First: The address- 1895 Blue Heron Drive.
Here's a link to the address.

It took a year, but we finally found a good space (approx. 2000 sq. ft.),
in a good location (across from Canadian Tire),
for a "good-enough" lease (approx. $1,500 per month),
with the first 60 days free (because we'll need to put some work into the place),
without a long term commitment (only 18 months to start).

So after much prayer and many visits, our Stewardship Team and other ministry team leaders were in 100% agreement to make this happen! 

Why this location?  Connections launched, less than three years ago, with a clear vision to reach the growing North London edge.  We were committed to keeping our vision.

Second: Why are we calling a "Ministry Centre"?
We want this space to become the centre of operations for Connections.
Worship will still happen Sunday's at Silver City and Connection Groups meeting in homes will always be essential.
But now we have a place to be a part of the community.
This will allow us centralize the organization and administration of our mission.

Third: What will happen at the Ministry Centre?
That remains to be seen!  We've never had a space of our own, and we're excited to see how this resource can be used with and for our community.  But we do have a few ideas:

• It will be a place for work to happen.  
• It will be a place for staff to have an office!  (Not having an office has actually prevented us from moving forward with staffing.)
• It will be a place for groups to meet.  Like a youth group- how cool will that be!
• It will be a place for our musicians to practice.
• It will be a place to offer classes to help Christians grow in their faith.
• It will be a place to drop in.
• It will be a place to serve the community, like with our Paper-Product distribution.
• We'll have the joy of discovering all sorts of new ways to be in the community and use this Centre.

Fourth: What happens now?
We take possession November 15th.
We can formulate a plan in the next month.
We'll be setting dates to do work: Tentatively set for November 13, 20, 27, and December 3 for stuff like framing, dry-walling and painting.
We'll also send out a list of items we'll be looking for.  Things like good office furniture, a big screen TV, etc.

Finally,
Thanks to everyone who gave to this project.  We reached our goal of $10,000 to help cover start-up costs.  By the time we hit January 2011 we need to have the church budget up by $2000 per month. 
We mention that now so that you can be prayerfully planning your budget, and your giving to Connections, in 2011.

If you've read this far, you're probably as excited about this Ministry Centre as I am!