SIGNS | AT BULL STREET

While we've been waiting to close and take title to the property that will be the intergalactic headquarters for DOWNTOWN CHURCH, things are happening like:

• A fancy sign with renderings of the renovated building was posted.
• The final design work is being completed.
• People are still making 3-5 year pledges towards the renovation cost.
• The new building got a name - Central Energy Facility - the same name it has now.

As we keep crossing milestones, we'll start doing more than posting updates. For a church that's always lived out of closets, trailers, and storage units, this transition will challenge our identity. It will force us to consider different ways of being a church in the city as a primary excuse for keeping it simple will no longer work. It will encourage growth to a greater extent, and at a more rapid pace, than we've witnessed so far. The church isn't a building but when you add 17,000 square feet to your footprint, you start leaving behind marks.

Instead of ignoring these inevitable challenges to our perceived identity, we will talk out loud about how the new Central Energy Facility is exciting and scary at the same time. We'll acknowledge how much we don't know about the future, and do it without frightening ourselves into a temporary state of church paralysis (it's easy to respond to good ideas by saying "let's wait until after the building get's done").

There is something about the sign that made the move to BullStreet more real. Now you can actually see it happening, one building covering up another, and our name isn't on the side of a trailer or the front door of rented office space.