Dear members and friends of Restoration,
Restoration exists as a community of people being restored by Jesus and bringing hope to the world. That’s our mission; that speaks to our identity and purpose. Our methods of helping people be restored by Jesus and partnering together to bring hope to the world need to continually adapt to reach our ever-changing cities and culture. How, when, and where we gather are methods that can change. This letter is to inform you that we are actively pursuing a lease agreement with Mt. Olivet Church at 14201 Cedar Avenue in Apple Valley starting in July. Please keep reading for background and information on listening meetings.
Background for this decision:
For several years we have been feeling the squeeze at the Hayes Senior Center as well as our Ministry Center at Granada shopping center. While we technically still have room at Hayes Senior Center, we have been consistently between 70-80% of full capacity, which in church terms, is full. We have seen families of four, five, or six struggle to find a place to sit as our service begins. In addition to this, we have parking challenges several Sundays per year with basketball, hockey, or volleyball tournaments. We also have yet to hear from the city on when Hayes will reopen for rental groups like us. At our Ministry Center, people often struggle to find parking for prayer meetings, leadership meetings, student gatherings, and worship team practices. The past four years, our expanding kids and student ministries have had to adapt their methods to work around the space challenges of the Ministry Center. Restoration Kids has maxed out the space every year for special events and even our all-church events are challenging to hold there. Our student ministry uses the entire 3000 square feet of space on Wednesday nights.
For the past several years we have been casually looking for a more permanent home. Last year, the Leadership Team ‘hired’ a commercial real estate agent (who is also a pastor) to help us find a location that would enable us to expand and grow. While permanent locations have been hard to find, or too expensive when found, Mount Olivet Assembly of God church (The Mount) was brought to us about a month ago. Some of you know that we briefly looked at The Mount early in 2018 because they have multiple buildings and one sits empty on Sunday mornings. At that time they did not want a church to rent space on Sunday mornings, and we would have had to keep our Ministry Center lease. The Mount has gone through some staff transitions since then and uses less space than they did in 2018. Now they are able to offer us both weekday ministry space and 24/7 office space, as well as Sunday morning gathering space. We believe this is a small, smart, spirit-led step towards a more permanent home that benefits both Restoration and The Mount.
Please continue reading the frequently asked questions below and sign up for a listening session HERE if you have any questions, concerns, or want to offer input for our Vision Meeting and vote June 28.
With hope,
Rob Jacobson
Why is this a smart, spirit-led move for Restoration at this time?
- More space allows us to grow, even double (adults and children) from our current size.
- Parking!
- Allows our offices/ministry center and Sunday gathering space to be at the same location.
- Gives us financial margin. Costs less for office space and utilities.
- Only 1 mile from Westview Elementary School and current Sunday location; only ½ mile from current Ministry Center.
- Higher visibility location on Cedar Ave.
- Reduces set up, volunteer load, and wear and tear of equipment. We will not need to load and unload the trailer.
- Allows us to have multiple ministries or groups in the Ministry Center space at the same time.
- Offers us a restart/fresh start/relaunch.
- Allows us to safely gather and socially distance with much higher numbers than we could do at the Senior Center.
- Allows us to gather on our own timeline, rather than waiting for a city building.
- Assists The Mount church financially and allows for possible joint kingdom opportunities.
- Allows us to move at the end of our lease at Granada without financial obligation or penalty.
- Allows us to contract cleaning services with The Mount, rather than relying on current staff or recruiting, training, scheduling volunteers to clean.
What challenges does this move create
This could minimize or change our church identity.
While renting from another church does present identity challenges, we have been working on a new website, new branding and signage and will be able to put our banner up on Cedar Avenue during our weekend gatherings which has more traffic flow than County Road 42. With the addition of live streaming, we have been increasing our digital and social presence, which strengthens our church identity.
We can’t fit all the kids ministry in one building.
We will restart our vibrant, in-person kids ministry when COVID-19/social distancing restrictions are lifted. At that time, our infants, toddlers, and preschoolers will stay in the Family Life Center while our kids in grades K-5 will have their classes in the building where our offices are located. We will have radios to communicate between the two buildings. We will also have a security protocol for that space and we will not offer food during our kids classes, which eliminates food allergy situations for kids.
The office space isn’t ideal for the staff.
This is true, however it’s also true the current ministry center office space isn’t ideal for staff. We have storage and spacing challenges. While we could spend some money to remedy those changes for our staff at our current location, the issues of space, limited number of concurrent ministries able to meet, and the lack of parking all remain challenges.
Wouldn’t it be confusing to have two churches meeting at the same location?
It could be, however this location has three parking lots and two road entrances as well as two separate buildings, so we think with clear signage we will be able to navigate this.
Other Questions
When would we move? Early to mid-July
When would we start services? August or September
How does the staff feel about this move? Positive
Please sign up to attend a town hall meeting. There is a signup HERE.
Tuesday, June 16 @ 6:30 at the Ericksons’ home
Wednesday, June 17 @ 6:30pm at the Braatens’ home
Sunday, June 21 @ 11am on Zoom