This meeting ended sometime around 1 am, and again a lot of it had to deal with the renovation project.

We looked at the current structure of this project – the use of the executive committee and wanted to see if it was 1)  good structure 2) needs improving and how 3) change the whole thing up.

We also talked about the different options again (probably for the 1000th time – it sure feels that way).  BUT in the end an experienced member stated this, our design should be  based on the program book we complied. 

This program book went through many hands and was revised several times to try to reflect church life – its current needs, how the church currently functions and how it expects to function in the future.    With that we came up with this design.   We looked at church function and future vision and designed from there. 

But we are going to review it again to make sure it does meet the function of this church with the minimalist cost.   

Just a side note, a FYI- EC and the architects has had many meeting in which we did not talk about design but just about church programming.  We studied
 1) fellowship attendance and how many small groups are in the fellowships
2) church service attendance
3) Children sunday classes and how many rooms they used
4) youth fellowships how many rooms they use
5) English classes 
and a whole lot more.  I don’t think we have left any stone unturned.  We had excel sheets of all the space usages and times.  We did not only study how many rooms/spaces is needed but  also what times they are needed.  From there the architects designed.  Once they designed the 9 story building we put that against the program and checked to see if it meet the needs of this church.   

Right now we are trying to arrange a meeting with the architects to review the different options again. 

I have heard criticisms that we did not give equal weight to different options.  I have heard we have not given enough time to study the different options (talking about double height sanctuary).  I would beg to differ,  we have spent many times and hours looking at different options and reviewed it to see if it can work with our needs.  In the end, it still appears people don’t necessary believe we looked at all the options.  In the beginning, all the options has equal weight, but once we look at the program book, EC does believe that one design (or option) can meet the church’s need and therefore we should put more weight to it and study it further.  That’s where we are now, but due to some congregation member’s concerns, we will look at all the options of the sanctuary again.

There is a steering committee (SC) meeting tonight, March 8th.  Don’t know exactly how long it’s gonna be.  Our last SC meeting we finished church business at 8:30 then went to 1am talking about renovations.  We are trying to juggle between how much we can renovate with 1) how much money we have , 2) how much we project to have  and 3) how much we hope to have.  There are realistic numbers we need to look at BUT at the same time we don’t doubt that God can do the impossible, so please pray for discernment and wisdom for the SC.

Thanks

I’ve been thinking, I don’t know if people realize how much of a miracle is happening in front of their eyes.  Our Church is in desperate need of added land, and we all know land in Chinatown can very expensive.  I went along with the Cannan project team-several years ago- when they were looking for a new site in the Chinatown area and learned how hard it is to find space and have the funds to purchase it.

Right now, the timing is right that we can possibly gain some extra space and see the impossible possible.  I heard in the past (like over 15-20 years ago) it would be next to impossible to get that lightwell space, and well who knows about the future!  But the timing seems pretty good now.

That’s just my insomniac thought for tonight/morning (at 2:40am)

I also just finish writing a response to a member of OCM about some of his/her concerns.  It was about 2 pages long.  Hopefully we can continue in dialogue and move this project forward.

Finally I am tired and ready to sleep.

A little history of how we got here

In early 2004 building committee was asked to pursue a renovation project.

Early 2005 – A team of OCM brothers and sisters (building committee) interviewed architects and eventually hired CRI (Cetra Ruddy Inc.).

In 2006, CRI along with the building committee sent out a questionnaire to OCM department heads to fill out.  Then CRI and the building committee met with fellowship staffs, different department heads, and church staff to see the inner workings of the church and to get their input.  A program book was developed detailing church functioning.   CRI used that program book along with the conversations they had with church staff and leaders to develop to drawings that was presented in the 45 anniversary on OCT 2006.

Thanksgiving DAY  2006 – this was when a new committee was started – Renovation committee which consisted of 20+ men and woman who were past steering committee members and professionals of the trade.

This committee much looked at the feasibility study and tried to improve upon it.

Spring 2008 – Executive committee  (EC) was formed and this would be the group would oversee the renovation project process and assess the direction for the church, report to SC, and so forth.  This group would also coordinate efforts to between the various church leaders and various entities of the renovation project (whether professionals or different internal groups).

Around that time, with the collaboration of the renovation committee and pastoral staff, we reviewed and edited the program book to update it to our current situation.  A final version was approved.

Summer 2008 – At that time we decided to see if CRI would truly be a good fit for us or not.  SO we decided to revisit this whole process and look at it with fresh eyes and interview different architects.

The Owners rep group (OR) developed a request for proposal (RFP) to be sent out to over 10 architect firms, and I believe we received 10 back.  From that 10 EC and OR discussed which ones we thought would work well with OCM.  We narrow it down to 6.  From there we interviewed, then narrow it to 2 and interviewed again and then interviewed the finalist with the steering committee.  It turned out we still believed that CRI would be the best fit for our church.  By this time it was approx Fall of 2008.

We then interviewed 2 lawyers to review the contract for the architects

Fall 2008, immediately after the Architect selection was over, we started to look for a construction manager to help us on cost estimates and the feasibility of the designs the architects would design.

Again, OR developed a wonderful RFP to send out the potential construction managers.  We sent out 19 RFP, and we received 13 proposals back.

EC and OR reviewed the all the proposals, which was no easy task (they were pretty thick) and narrow it down to 6 companies.

We interviewed the 6 companies and performed a 2^nd interview with 3 companies.  Then we had an interview with the finalist with the steering committee.  This ended around Spring 2009.

It has been confirmed, March 4th, EC (executive committee) and SC (steering committee) will be meeting that day, Please pray for us as we further discuss the direction of this project and how to communicate better.

 

Here are 2 pictures of a bird’s eye view of the lightwell space and one frontal view of the lightwell.

In the bird’s eye view, you see the silver slab – that is the roof of the video room.

If you all still have trouble picturing the lightwell space let me know

So we are at a point where we are revisiting the designs and seeing which direction we want to go.  YES, this is probably the 100th time doing this, but to the credit of those who wants this done, they really care for this church and wants to make the correct decision.

However, through all this I wanted to share that personally there has been many peaks and valleys.  One of the peaks was when we meet with the City and they gave us a positive indication we may be able to get the variance space.  Though we are not there yet, HOPE does amazing things to the psyche.  Then we have the valleys, where at this moment, I feel I am at now.  However some of the difficulties and frustrations I face have brought me to re-read some portions of God’s word and to talk and pray with some other leaders at OCM.   Maybe these low moments is necessary to  bring me closer to God and His people.  Why else would God allow me or anybody else to go through these times.

Many hours has been put into this project.  I have learned many technical aspects of this project but this is not a brick and mortar project.  It’s spiritual in nature and therefore it ought to be completed through prayer, listening to God and submitting to HIM.  Please pray that we will do that.

EC and SC was suppose to have a meeting today the 22nd to discuss structure of the renovation project team and discuss and review how we can better communicate better.  BUT it was canceled, and some thought it was going to be on the 23rd but it was pushed to next Tuesday.  Well it appears we will meet next Thursday, March 4th.

EC (Executive committee) is having a phone meeting tonight at 10:30PM to review and go over (again) the criteria for the renovation and what we are looking for. 

Then we are planning to have a meeting with the Steering committee meeting to discuss these matters (possibly have the meeting on Monday)

We had an EC meeting tonight, and we are talking about what SC has asked of us and we will try and meet with SC to have better lines of communication with them.

SC wanted us to exhaust all options with the sanctuary design.