A Roof at Last

Well the building is starting to come together, we now have a nearly finished roof. The inside is also changing, the first fix for the electrics has taken place and a brave bunch of people from St John's installed the cabling for the PA system and Data cables.

The month of January is going to be very busy, with the roof being completed, the windows being installed, the floor being laid in the family center and the plaster boarding of the roof in the worship area.

The view from inside

As you can see, most of the internal walls are complete and 6 church members have spent a happy few days doing manly things with cat 5 cables. This will give flexible use of IT, telephony and visual comms in all the rooms in the building.

The next step is to finish the roof - hopefully by Christmas.

Roof ready for tiling

Not a lot seems to have happened but the roof covering has started to be fitted and the scaffolding has been removed from the inside, and moved to the worship area. The other side of the roof will be started in the next few days.

Roof Timbers

What a difference a couple of days make. On Friday all that could be seen were the wall plates, but come Wednesday afternoon nearly all the roof timbers are up over the family centre.

The roof timbers are in place

The finished walls are just visible under the covering, whilst the roof timbers can be seen going into place over the non-steel frame section. Praise God for fine weather and the good progress made.

The back wall is finished!

The bricks have reached full height on the back wall as the bricklayers progress at a fantastic rate. The building is really beginning to take shape!

Bricks and Mortar

After the screed and the steel frame came the bricks! Officially we are now just two days ahead of schedule because of a delay in the council approving the specific bricks we are using. But the speed of the brick-layers means that we may well be a week ahead again by the end of this week – the walls are going up at a fantastic rate.

The Church Building Project Team are being bombarded with decisions such as colour schemes for window frames and toilet cubicles, and where we want plug sockets and light switches. There is a lot of information and at times we struggle with the responsibility of knowing whatever we decide, the church has to live with it for years to come – please pray for us.

Internal walls

Great excitement as we began to see the internal layout set out in blockwork as the internal walls were constructed.

The Financial Situation

The past month has been a
miraculous time at St John’s. In the last update at the beginning of October the finances stated that we had raised £260,645. As we stand today we have now raised over £350,000. This means that over £90,000 has been received within the last month – praise the Lord! And thank you to you if you have given generously in the last few weeks.
At the moment we will run out of available cash to pay the builders at the beginning of February.

Two weeks ahead of schedule!

The builders are currently two week’s ahead of schedule! Have you ever heard of a building project being ahead of schedule? We give thanks to God for the good weather that has enabled the crucial stage of digging and filling the foundations to progress easily, for the steady building progress without complications, and for Ralph May’s positive attitude and relationship with everyone from the church.

Current position: The foundations have been completed, and the steel frame for worship space and entrance area is in place - it looks like a massive frame tent at the moment. The frame only covers half of the final building size as the children's classrooms, corridor, meeting rooms and toilet don't require a steel frame.

Next steps:
The concrete floor and drainage services will be laid week beginning 14th October.
Week beginning 28th October the outside brick and block work will start to be built.

How it all began...

“Now it seems real – now I know it is actually going to happen” is how one member of St John’s put it to me after seeing the shell of the new church building on the Coventry Road site. And I know exactly what she meant. The old building was demolished at the end of August 2007 and the site cleared, ready to start.

The plans

After much thought, planning and prayer, the floorplans were finalised. Although, as a "design and build" option was chosen these plans can be subject to minor modifications as we build. The multi-purpose worship space will accommodate 250 and can be used for meetings, parties and functions. There is classroom and meeting room space for playgroup, youth groups and children's activities, as well as space for counselling and individuals.

The old St John's Building

Built circa 1952, the building had reached the end of its useful life. The church was faced with a decision - keep repairing it piece by piece, or be bold and rebuild. It was also too small (praise the Lord) for the growing congregation (@100 adults and 30 children), and the children's work was housed in a series of old portakabins.

Thus, in 2003, it was decided to explore options for rebuilding. An architect was commissioned and plans came back with a cost of over £1Million. How was a congregation with no great financial resources and only 100 people to raise this kind of money?

Once again the we prayed and carried on fund raising. With some scaling back and with the help of a Christian builder, costs were re-calculated at £615,000.

Still we prayed and still we gave. Sacrificial giving brought the total in the bank to £250,000. And by the summer of 2007, we had a loan agreed from Leicester diocese, plus pledges from the congregation of over £120,000. Applications for grants were made and grant-holders began to support our project too.

And so, in the summer of 2007, the decision was made to step out in faith and trust in God that the rest of the money would come in. Contracts were signed and we were on our way.