We're Moving!

We’re moving! Not too far, but we’re moving! After searching more than a year for a new worship space, we’re excited to announce that Christ Fellowship Church will begin worshiping, Lord willing, at Rosewood Hall in Homewood on January 26th, 2014. Let me give you a few details, walk you through the benefits of the move, and leave you with a pastoral word on this event in the life of our church.

The Details

Rosewood Hall is located in downtown Homewood (Soho area) on the first floor of the Homewood City Hall building (2850 19th St S, Homewood, AL 35209), across from Jack’s Restaurant and Demetri’s BBQ. Essentially, the space is one large room that can be divided into three smaller (but still large) rooms. We plan to use two of the rooms for our worship service and close off the other room for the children. We’ll further divide the children’s room with portable dividers to create different classrooms for the kids. We’ll also have access to a separate room entirely for a nursery! You can check out the layout here. And if you’d like to see a few pictures, you can click here, here, here, and here (just ignore the special effects lighting, those globe-things hanging from the ceiling, the limo, and the dance floor). We’ll still be setting up and tearing down each Sunday, although the set-up will be quite different. We won’t be setting up a stage and chairs (Rosewood will handle that), but we will still set up children’s space, sound equipment, etc.

The Benefits

We believe this to be an answer to prayer for our church in so many ways! Among these:

• Rosewood will provide us with adequate space for children and worship. We’ve had the latter at Irontribe (so many thanks to them for letting us meet there for almost two years!!!), but lacked the former in some ways. We believe this is will be a definite upgrade for our children. To be clear, we’re not looking for Disney-like experience here. We just want to teach our kids about Jesus. We trust this new space will allow us to do that more effectively.
• The new location has plenty of room for worship and growth as a church. We want to maintain one worship service, and this new space allows for that in terms of seats and parking.
• Location! Rosewood Hall is centrally located to our current membership and provides a venue that is accessible and visible to many in our community. No move is best for everyone in our church. Some will, of course, be a bit further away. But only “a bit”! The move just over the mountain should make little difference for commutes to church and some positive difference for many who are not part of a church. I hope you take advantage of this move for the sake of the gospel by inviting people to our new location!
• We are also excited about some of the ministry possibilities this new location affords. For example, we anticipate being able to eat together more regularly on Sunday nights (once a month). We are also in the process of planning some adult equipping classes that would meet before the Sunday morning worship service. We simply haven’t had room to do that in our current setup, but we believe that we will at Rosewood. Stay tuned on this!
• Finally, we are thankful for the flexibility this space provides us in our still (relatively) young church’s existence. By renting at a price within our proposed budget, we are able to maintain our current giving priorities. Furthermore, if our situation changes (more people, for example), the contract we’ve signed provides us with the flexibility to respond accordingly. The folks at Rosewood have been really generous and accommodating.

The Takeaway

As I mentioned in worship last Sunday, I would ask you as a member of Christ Fellowship Church to avoid thinking of this in strictly geographical terms. In others words, don’t conceive of this primarily as a change of location but as an answer to prayer. Surely that is what God wants us to remember! We specifically prayed and fasted last month. The very next week, this door began opening. The skeptical eye sees coincidence. The believing eye sees God. We prayed, and God answered. Specifically, we prayed for provision, and we believe we have it. We prayed for church unity, we believe we have it. We prayed for clarity, and we believe we have it. We prayed for greater opportunity to reach people, adequate children’s space, enough worship space and parking to go along with those, and we believe we have those things. In short, we asked God to help us better fulfill the mission He’s given us—worshiping and witnessing as a community of faith—and He’s provided. Let that be your takeaway. Let that be a lesson in your spiritual life. There will come a time, perhaps now or very shortly, when you will face a crisis, need some guidance, or simply have a request that God change someone’s heart, all of which are out of your league. Remember this simple lesson: God answers the prayers of His people.

To Him be honor and glory, both now and forever. Amen.