About a year ago I wrote a blog post about this topic which you can read here: Are We Moving Into Another Building?

We have now put a search for a building on "active" mode. But what are we looking for? 

In many ways, we still have a lot to figure out. 

About a month ago Stan & Nancy Miszczenski visited a new church plant that was launching out of a leased retail space. It was somewhat small, but they were utilizing it in a big way to be a presence in the community. They held an exercise class out of it on Saturdays, an open mic coffee house on Wednesdays (not a Christian one), and a few other things that served more than just the church family. 

Nancy recently forwarded me the info on an available space in Brick, and then Jerry Schiavo and I went and checked out the space. It has potential. There are other spaces we will look at. 

If you know of any, you can direct them to Jerry, Dave D'Amico and Jack Miskin who are operating as the building team. If you would like to help them, talk to Jack Miskin (jlmiskin@yahoo.com). 

But here is something we must all be on the same page about so that we can be praying: 

We are not looking for a church home. 

Biblically speaking, it's hard to argue that the church should have a home in this world. Rather, the church is the body of Christ, who is on a mission in this world. And when someone goes on a mission into enemy territory, they hardly ever have a "home" there. In fact, it would raise suspicions if a soldier wanted to make a home in enemy territory. 

Therefore, instead of looking for a church home, we want a building to be a Missional Outpost in our area. 

This is not to say we don't want to take a load off the set-up team, who are there at 7:30 / 8am every Sunday morning and stay until 1pm. Of course we want to take a load off them. 

This is not to say we don't want a place where we can hold trainings and parties for our church family. It would be great not to have to rent the school on extra days, or search for diner halls and other church buildings. 

This is not to say we don't want classrooms for the kids that are already set-up each week and have a sense of personality for them. We definitely want them to feel like they are coming to a familiar space that belongs to them. 

But all that must fall under the umbrella of Missional Outpost, not at the expense of it. 

So be praying. Pray for wisdom in that direction. Pray for provision. Pray for unity through our church on this endeavor. 

Thanks True Life!