Hello Ren Friends and Family!
Please take the time to read through the following carefully. There’s a lot of important updates to understand and pray for.
First off, this Sunday, December 22 is our Christmas service. The Ren kids will be doing a song and we’ll be singing Christmas carols together. I will be preaching on the story of the angels appearing to the shepherd at night—my favorite Christmas narrative! I’ll give you details in a moment, but this Christmas service will be at 184 Broad St. Invite a friend!
For a lot of reasons we decided not to do a Christmas Eve service this year. We’ve simply been so consumed trying to get the new building ready that we’ve not had the bandwidth to pull off a Christmas Eve service with our usual excellence.
Remember—there is no service on the last Sunday in December (Dec 29th). This is one tradition we are keeping this season. It’ll provide a much needed break for all of our staff and leaders and volunteers. That means after this Sunday (Dec 22nd) we won’t gather all together until Sunday January 5th. That’s a two week pause.
Will we be in the new space at 10 Tripps Lane by Sunday, January 5th?
We hope so! Here’s the update. Two days ago when the electrician called in the fire safety specialist to program the fire panel we found out that all the fire devices in our space are not compatible with the main fire panel. They are two different brands. In other words, all the fire devices (including the new ones that our electrician installed) need to be exchanged for devices that are compatible with the main system. The good news is that our landlord (PACE) is taking full responsibility and having their electricians resolve the problem as quickly as possible. I’m still waiting to hear back on the estimated timeframe to get this done. We cannot obtain a certificate of occupancy without passing the fire inspection. So we have to wait.
On another note, we passed the electrical inspections this morning. So that’s a huge step forward. Our electricians worked on and off for about 5 months to do the work. This is a major accomplishment to check off our list. Praise God!
Rich (our general contractor) is meeting with the building inspector tomorrow to walk him through and to see if there is perhaps anything we missed. If he tells us to address a few things, we’ll have time to do that since the electricians will be working on the fire systems for the next 2-3 weeks.
So … we are looking at maybe the first or second Sunday in January as our first gathering at 10 Tripps Lane. It’s not definite but is a realistic hope. Be praying!
I was sharing last Sunday that I’ve been praying this way: Lord, it would be so great to get into the new space before Christmas. That would be such a relief. But if that’s not Your will then that’s okay. I trust that if it doesn’t happen before Christmas that after Christmas is better for reasons You know in Your infinite wisdom. I trust the Lord answered this prayer. And I can see how it will be better to open later rather than sooner. It’ll allow us to really tend to the details, get things set up, do sound checks, work out the kinks, and have a more robust grand opening when everyone is back from holiday travels. Our Heavenly Father always knows best. We can rest in that. It’s okay to be a little disappointed, but let’s pray that the wonder and joy of Christmas greatly surpasses any excitement we have about a building. Selah.
Hope to see you this Sunday!
Pastor Scott