A MILESTONE

Today is a bittersweet day in the life of our church family. It was our last day of operating out of the office & meeting space, known as “The Life Center”, out of which we have operated since opening our doors 4 ½ years ago. While we always knew this was going to be temporary space, we still will miss the place.

Since we moved into The Life Center, whenever people would ask me where we were located, I would always say, “We’re just north of the Johnson County library”. That sounded better than “We’re right next door to the liquor store.” Of course, that didn’t work so well one day when I received a call from the pizza delivery driver, who was 15 minutes late delivering a pizza for a luncheon meeting.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “where are you located?”
“Just north of the library,” I responded.
“In Spring Hill?” he questioned me.
“That’s right,” I said, “just north of the Johnson County Library.”
“I don’t know where that is,” he replied.
“Well, we’re just south of the liquor store.”
“Oh, Hometown Liquor? I know right where you are.”
He was there in 3 minutes.

We’ve had a lot of good times in this place. Senior adult fellowships. Youth meetings. Life Group huddles. New members’ classes. Elders’ meetings.

Every week for 4 ½ years, we’ve officed out of here. It started out with just me. Then Joanna Meek came on board as a part time assistant. Pastor Dennis soon joined the staff. When Joanna took on a new assignment (as mother) she also took on a new role (as Financial Assistant), and LeAnn Retherford became our assistant. When LeAnn left last year, a very familiar face replaced her, as my wife Kim took the job.

We’re really excited about our new office space in Spring Hill Plaza. It’s almost double the size of our present office, and it will be nice having space that won’t double as a serving line for luncheons.

The new youth center is also a great space. It’s 3 times larger than the meeting space in the old Life Center, and I think our young people and youth sponsors are really looking forward to putting it to good use.

This, of course, is just a part of what we plan to be our new campus when we convert the old grocery store & day care into a worship center and classroom space.

And all of this will facilitate our ability to minister in a more effective way to our community. These are steps in the right direction for our church family.

But still we’ll miss the old Life Center, our first “home” in Spring Hill.