Facility and Storage

Of all of the amazing doors that God opened over the past few months, this had to be one of the best. One day Jason dropped by the Skinner Center at Peabody Park to see if they would allow us to rent their facilities once a month. The director told him that they would rent it for $100 each Sunday. That's $100 for four hours and for as many rooms as we needed! Amazing! He called me immediately, I dropped what I was doing and came over, and we signed the paperwork.

We met there for the first time on Sunday evening, September 9, and it worked out great. We had the infants in one room, the toddlers in another, and the adults in the main room. There's also a gym that we'll probably use at some point

There was also had the issue of storage to deal with. The first church plant that I was a part of was in Nashville, and I remember every Sunday morning meeting at 7:45 at the pastor's house to load up the equipment. After a couple of years of that we ended up getting office space, so then we started meeting at the office at 7:45 to load up the equipment. I really didn't like doing that.

We decided that the best option was to purchase a trailer. That way it wouldn't be in one of the pastor's homes (which would thrill our wives). It also meant that we would be able to drive the trailer right up to the door of the room we were meeting in and unload. The negatives to this were the upfront cost of the trailer (at least $2000), the question of where to store the trailer, and the fact that the sound equipment would not be in a climate-controlled environment.

When we initially signed the papers at the Skinner Center we asked about storage, and they said they really didn't have space for us. That's when we started pursuing the trailer. One evening, though, we went to take a look at the facility to begin planning how we were going to set up the room. Right before leaving, I decided to ask the assistant director once more about the possibility of renting some space. At this point she thought that might work out.

To make a long story a bit shorter, we ended up being able to rent a good sized closet for $60/month. Now we pretty much just have to take about 20 steps holding a speaker. Not bad!

Update: A few weeks ago we went back to the director to ask him about the possibility of meeting there every week beginning in February. After talking to his supervisor, they agreed to do this for $3,600.00. That’s $3,600.00 for the entire year, and for those of you who didn’t excel in math, that’s an amazing deal. This also includes storage for the year. We’ve been amazed by God’s provision for us!