Celebrating the dream - church hall changes unveiled

Some days in this job are a joy - and Saturday was one of those moments. At my first church council at Cleobury when I arrived just over 4 years ago people were downcast about an under used hall with several thousand pounds of maintenance needed - was spending what we don't have on a hall that is not used justified? Over the years a link with the local youth project (born out the parish church but run independently now) and welcoming them into the hall opened doors for funding to cover the vital maintenance to the roof and windows.  Then fundraising and another grant replaced the fraying grey carpet with years of spills with part carpet tiles and a non-slip 'messy friendly' section.  We were happy with that.

Electricity is the biggest running cost - being off the gas network, and not used enough for storage heaters, the on-demand electric heating is pricey. But the church site, and the angles of the hall roof might have been designed for solar panels.  And so I suggested, nudged, encouraged the congregation and they agreed to their minister's mad idea and amid conversations where they decided that there was a long term future for the church being there despite limited numbers at the moment voted to take out loans to install solar PV.

No cats harmed by being swung here!

The original entrance and kitchen

Avoiding grants for that work we have loans with a pay back time half of the break even date for the panels, so have a challenging fundraising target beyond running costs every year.  Not a time to consider any more projects for a while - then the email arrived, would we let the local housing association renew our kitchen in support of the youth project's work?  Who says no to a new kitchen? After a year of paperwork and planning South Shropshire Housing Association sent a team in to not just provide new kitchen units but to build new walls as we enlarged the kitchen into a workable space.  All in aid of developing a regular youth drop in - The Hub, but with benefits for all hall users and possible future mission and community use.

A kitchen is one thing but the old cooker wouldn't suit the new finish and so it was back to funders for support for the church and the youth project for kitting out the kitchen, cafe seating, pool table, changes to lighting and an integrated speaker system (the youth leader is a trained electrician so knew what he wanted and the contacts for deals, as well as spending a lot of time in the very low loft cavity putting them in!)

After a late summer of building work, and the slow process of volunteer painting the finished look was unveiled to the community on Saturday 2nd Nov, and The Hub officially launched.  The usual youth nights being added to with 3 after school sessions, one with homework support. The youth leader also works with the local school and there will be integrated referral and support.

Now the next step for us as the church is to sift through the cloud of ideas about how to use the shiny new kitchen and the refreshed hall when it is not needed for The Hub in creative ways with other christians in the town to serve our community and share God's love.

Saturday though was simply a day of celebration (the left over tweaks forgotten for the day) and I caught a few pictures when I arrived first before the crowds arrived and I was too busy for photography!

Yes, a good day - a dream reaching reality, and now the real work begins!