The following is adapted from a letter to the Core 2024.
Hi Ren Core!
At this point, I’m assuming all of you know that we will be moving from 184 Broad Street to a new location (10 Tripps Lane) sometime this year. There are several new Core members so some of you may not know all the details. I’ll try to give you some context before I give an update.
If you’ve been tracking with things over the last year, you can skip this paragraph. The building we are presently in is being sold. We rent it from another church (Grace Harbor). We’ve been in the space almost a decade. When we heard the building was for sale (maybe a year ago) we started shopping around for buildings to rent in the city. There was really nothing that was suitable and affordable. We considered just going back to meeting in a school and sat with that for several months. But over time it wasn’t sitting well. It didn’t feel right. So we started shopping around again. This time we extended our search to include areas just outside the city (East Providence and Cranston). We discovered that rent is much more affordable. We landed upon a 7500 square foot warehouse space in East Providence (Riverside). It’s $11 per square foot. Concrete floors. High industrial ceilings. New bathrooms. New kitchen. Plenty of parking. Easy off and on highway. On bus route. About 7 minutes from our current location (without bridge traffic). The owners are a non profit org called Pace who serve the elderly. We reached out to express interest in the space. We toured the space and felt it would be perfect. There were two other groups interested in the space who apparently had a lot more more than us. So for a few weeks we didn’t think it was going to happen. We prayed a lot. Those other groups mysteriously disappeared. So we began the process of negotiating the terms of the lease with Pace a little over a month ago.
That brings us to the update. The negotiations with Pace have been wonderful. They have been very reasonable and accommodating to us. We asked them to give us 3 months of free rent to give us time to build out the space without paying double rent. They agreed. This is a nice blessing. Their contractors are presently finishing the bathrooms and kitchen and getting the rest of the space cleaned up. They are prepping and sealing the concrete floors. It looks like they’ll need 1-2 months to finish up. Once they finish, then we’ll get in and start the demolition and build out. My guess is that we’ll start sometime in May. So maybe May-June-July renovation? Hold that loosely though. It could be later. But it’s probable that we could be fully moved in and meeting there by this fall.
We’ve been working on layout designs and recently met on site with our architect (Gail Carley) who is helping us. Some of the work that will need to be done includes demolition, framing, drywall hanging, electrical, painting, hvac reconfiguring, sprinkler reconfiguring, and carpentry. To keep the renovation as affordable as possible we will try to do as much work as possible with volunteers.
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This Sunday, I’ll be officially announcing the Spring Offering to begin raising funds for the new space. Usually, when raising funds, it’s good to have a concrete number to aim for (you can picture the typical thermometer visual). I’ve done so many renovations over the years, however, that I’m hesitant to give a concrete number, at least quite yet. We have to see how skilled and how willing our volunteer force is. We have to price out materials. We have to get estimates for work we cannot do ourselves (like electrical, for example). As you know, both materials and labor have increased dramatically since the pandemic. 15 years ago we renovated a 6800 square foot warehouse space for under 50K. I’m guessing we’ll need at least double that. I could be wrong. It could be less. It could be more.
We have exactly 100 Core members. Doing the math, if each individual at Ren gave an average of $1000 to the Spring Offering we’d raise 100K. I’m not saying each member should give $1000. For some, that’s way too much. For others, that’s too little. I’m encouraging every one of us to give sacrificially and generously according to our means. Each can figure it out with the Lord. I’m confident that if everyone gives in a way that hurts a little (sacrificial giving)—we’ll have enough. The key to this happening is that everyone does something. Collective generosity wins the day, every time. Tiff and I have been saving up and plan to make our donation on Easter Sunday. Maybe you can do that as well. Or, if it works better, you can spread out your donation over a few months. That’s fine too. For some, you might even save up during March, April, and May and then make your donation in June. That’s okay too. Do whatever works best. Thank you in advance for playing your part in collective generosity. We truly cannot do this without everyone playing their part.
Each donation will be represented by a flower posted on the stage wall. The paper flowers will have the numerical amount of each gift as a display of our collective generosity. In case you are wondering, nobody’s name will be posted. Donations are anonymous. But it’s fun and inspiring to see all the individual donations represented. And we’ll, of course, post the total of where we are at each week. If you give online you’ll notice a drop down box “Spring Offering.” If you give through Venmo just add a note, Spring Offering. If you write a check or give cash in an envelope just mark it “Spring Offering.
Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have. Thanks for being part of what God is doing at Ren in this exciting season of change!
”Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isaiah 42:9).
Pastor Scott