Sneak Peek Inside Church

Probably the third time I'm writing on this subject, the new Presbyterian Church being built on Longboat Key, and probably not the last time either. It's a work in progress, but progress is occurring and I had my camera at the ready.

Today we filled three busloads of parishioners and traveled from our current location in an office building to have a before Easter sneak peek inside. The building is not done, of course, but so many members are snow-birds, and will leave after Easter Sunday, so now was the best time to show people where their money and their prayers were going.

Perhaps a little history is in order - I mentioned the office building, which is the current location of our congregation, which broke off from a non-denominational church located perhaps a quarter-mile from where our new building is rising on two acres of land. The office building has been our home for the better part of three years, and before that was a smaller facility rented from the town. The church was growing from the initial twenty or so families, and they knew they'd need to find a bigger place to worship. So they sought out land, and planned their own church building upon it. That land was purchased outright with the cash contribution of about half a dozen families, and the church itself is being self financed over a five year period from pledges and investment securities issued by a corporation created to issue debt. In essence, the church members buying the debt will be paying themselves a four percent dividend over the period their dollars ($25,000 minimum investment) are in use. This is an island of very smart people, who've found a way to avoid giving mortgage banks a profit, and putting their money into the hands of the Lord to do his work.

The church will seat 279 in the sanctuary, have 144 seats in the fellowship hall, and 10 in the kitchen, so the Fire Marshall is giving us an occupancy load of 433 people. This past several weeks, we've had approximately 250 in services, but of course Easter is coming and that brings Presbyterians back to church in large numbers - they are called C&E worshipers (Christmas & Easter), but they do tend to plump the offering dish. At the high point of the church, the tower over the chancel (where the pastor stands) is 41.6 feet, and the first floor has 15,000 square feet. There is a second floor, where the sound booth is located, as well as other rooms, and adds another 2,000 square feet.

Ultimately, a building on the adjacent lot which was part of the original 2.6 million dollar purchase price for the four lots (one improved, three vacant) will become church offices and a second floor 3 bedroom parsonage. It will be repainted to match the new church and will have a replacement roof of hurricane resistant cement tiles, and the new church will be able to withstand winds in excess of 140 MPH. It will be one of the safest buildings on the island. And that's only fitting, to find shelter in a storm in the house of the Lord.

In 2005, I was forced to leave the island due to the threat of Hurricane Charley. I stayed on the island through Hurricanes Frances, Jean, and Ivan. Next big storm, I'm going to church.

The New Church Rises

Several months ago, I took some pictures of the empty lot where our new church would rise, and never published anything (or if I did, I cannot find it now). Today, my wife was enlisted to supply her painting skills at the 6400 building, which was on the one finished lot out of the four lots where Christ Church of Longboat Key - Presbyterian (official name) had set out to build our barrier islands newest house of worship. She had volunteered to help revitalize the pink building several times in the past, but today she got the call at 9 AM to come pitch in. So off to the garage to find her painting tools, which she kept even though our new condo was freshly painted three months ago, and into her little car she went. Ripley, the best photographers assistant in the beagle world, joined me later to visit and see the progress made.

The new church will seat 300, which may well be necessary come Christmas 2011 and Easter 2012. We Presbyterians are exceptionally faithful on "C & E" as some call it. This past week, attendance was just over 200 in the seats, and many of our "snowbird" associate members are still up north, stuck in the snow. Church attendance seems to swell as children and grandchildren often visit sunny Florida during the winter months, and make the perfunctory appearance with family on Sunday.

The old building was what could have been described as a "live/work" unit, but the entire three lots purchased were commercially zoned, adjacent to a single family homes neighborhood, and further east on General Harris street (where the new church will face) there is a home business (flower shop/sign shop) and the Town of Longboat Key's Public Works building and yard. The upstairs of the pink building is a three bedroom apartment, where two years ago we had Thanksgiving dinner with perhaps 50 others in the congregation. It will ultimately become the parsonage for whatever minister might follow our current retired minister. We've had two retired ministers shepherding a flock of retired pensioners, by and large. While the new building will feature a nursery in addition to the offices of the pastor, and meeting rooms downstairs, our youth movement consists mostly of 50 year old early retirees. In its most recent prior life, there were four separate small shops/office located on the lower level, where a beauty shop, an architect, and a Realtor rented space. They're gone now, and interior doors have been installed, several non-load bearing walls removed, and the inside space all connected together. A tower on the corner closest to Gulf of Mexico Drive and General Harris will identify the campus as that of a church, and ultimately the pink building will be painted the same as the church to tie them together.

Oh, I think my dear wife is inspecting her work, not looking upward to heaven to pray for the soul of her husband, thou the Lord knows I could use his help sometimes.