We are praising God for our updated worship centre, which officially opened for in-person gatherings on the weekend of November 28/29. To view the dedication prayers of the worship centre, view the video at the bottom of this webpage. If you didn’t get a chance to see the new facility yet, watch the video below to see Gentry and Kent walk us through the changes on opening weekend. Alternatively, we have provided answers to some questions if you scroll further down.
Questions and Answers
1. What were the reasons for the renovations that have happened in the worship centre?
There were three main reasons we renovated.
- Preparation for the upcoming central campus addition which will be attached to the worship centre on the west side.
- Resolving some issues to bring the 18-year-old worship centre up to new building code standards.
- All of this gave us the opportunity to resolve some barriers and make some enhancements that will improve our gathering and worship experience in here, and improve the video feed to our campuses, and the online congregation.
2. What preparations needed to be added to accommodate the expansion project?
The roof structure for the new addition will intersect the roof on the West side of the Worship Centre. This required some extensive welding to strengthen the roof trusses/beam along this side of the worship centre.
3. What kind of building code standard issues did we need to address?
Because the building is 18 years old, building code standards have changed. For example, the front portion of the stage was built with wood and did not have a sprinkler system. To comply with new Building code requirements, we needed to rebuild the stage with steel and concrete. We also needed to weld the beam that runs the length of the worship centre. Additionally, the lighting grid above the stage required rehanging to comply with current building code standards.
Finally, to do all of the above, we needed to remove weight – approximately 20K lbs of drywall was removed from the catwalk. After the drywall and welding work, we needed to paint the ceiling, and decided on a darker colour to create a closer warmer feel in the space.
4. What were the costs of the renovation?
The majority of the costs were paid from our BUILD more room for God fund as they related to getting the existing facility ready for the expansion and bringing the facility up to current building codes. A smaller amount was paid from our Sustaining Capital fund which is used to keep existing facilities up to date.
5. What kind of upgrades did the worship centre require and why?
There were 4 main opportunities to address barriers to the gathering experience and to extend the longevity of our worship centre into the future.
Those four opportunities were:
- Improving lighting for events of various sizes.
- Improving sight lines and visibility from all campuses – we wanted every seat to be a good seat.
- Increasing usability for tech and other ministries
- Creating consistency in the spirit of One Church in Many Locations. The new design of the worship centre is very similar to what you will see in the new Northwest Campus.
To learn more about the details of how our upgrades addressed these four areas of need, please view the video tour at the top of this page!
6. What about COVID-19? Is this worship centre safe given the new gathering restrictions? Why would CSC open the worship centre at this time?
Our worship centre holds up to 2,400 people, and presently we are seeing an average of 300-400 people in attendance. Current guidance from AHS is that occupancy is limited to 30%, which is approximately 720 people. There is lots of room in this space to provide optimal space for social distancing.
The Bible calls us to love our neighbour. And our neighbours are diverse, so we as Christ followers must have diverse responses to the different ways God calls us to love our neighbours during a pandemic. Many of our neighbours are struggling with mental health issues, loneliness and the need for connection. For you, and for them, we have provided the option to gather in person in one of the largest, safest indoor venues in the City for gathering in adherence to AHS standards.
Many of our neighbours who are immune compromised or prefer the safety of doing church at home with their families. For them we continue to provide online streaming of our services, and many of our worship centre upgrades have optimized visibility for the streaming experience as well.
7. How are we bringing God into our plans and decisions with respect to BUILD projects like this?
Our leaders are always seeking God for His will in each season of our journey to BUILD more room for Him. When COVID-19 first hit, we prayerfully decided to undertake our projects in phases, in keeping with our best projections as to how much money will be available to complete the project. Please be praying as our Board will be meeting in early 2021 to make decisions about our project timelines and goals in light of financial realities.
The first thing we did with the re-opening of the upgraded worship centre is dedicate the space to God, petitioning Him to infuse our worship with a sense of unity & mission, joy & thanksgiving and the presence of the Holy Spirit!
View the dedication of our upgraded worship centre in this video below: