Capital Campaign

 

Friends – this Sunday we hope you will join us in worship as we celebrate the generosity and commitment of this amazing congregation to our capital campaign.  I remain in awe of what you all enable.  So many have made pledges to ensure that this remain a place where people can be held and transformed by Gods’ love, so this can be a place to welcome others, so this can be a place to equip people to go out and live the love and justice of the gospel through their lives.

 

And, I have a attached a few pictures that remind us of the needs of this building – I am grateful to those who stepped in and got this plan in action. 

                      

It allowed us to worship in the sanctuary on Sunday and have the food pantry open this morning (so much can happen when you start work before  6 am).  I have attached a few pictures to show you what it was like.

 

In peace - Joan

 

Over the course of three centuries, our church and vestry buildings have served and welcomed its congregation, the community and the many organizations that use and meet within its spaces.  But much time has passed; these buildings have structural deficiencies, handicap accessibility issues and internal traffic flow problems.  

In order to address these issues, on October 18, 2009, we voted to proceed with our capital campaign Building Community, Community Building.  We had a campaign organizational meeting on October 26^th and, ironically, 26 of us have been meeting weekly ever since.

We hope to repair the church foundation, re-shingle the roofs, repair the vestry floor, replace the sanctuary floor, fix and paint the exterior siding, replace the old steam heat system with a new heating system, create handicap accessible bathrooms, flip the orientation of the sanctuary, buy new pew cushions to address the mold issue, create a nursery and a new multi use room, connect this new multi use room to the vestry and establish a new corridor to the vestry, bypassing the kitchen.

By meeting the Capital Campaign’s stretch goal of $500,000, we can do all of these things, bring about tremendous space utilization improvements and establish a mission fund which will allow us to do that which we are called upon to do - help others.   Wow!

When is this going to happen?

Every member and friend of Main Street Congregational Church will be visited by the end of February and in early March we will have Celebration Sunday.  Soon after, our Building Committee will begin soliciting bids for the work and construction should commence before summer.

The Building Community, Community Building Campaign offers each of us the opportunity to make a real difference.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to make a significant gift which, God willing, will come with it, the chance to see the impact of our generosity.  The enormity of this completed work and the benefits it will have for our community will likely strike us like nothing we have ever done or will ever do again.  It will be an amazing day!

Please pray, think and consider what you want to do for Building Community, Community Building.  This might be the most powerful moment in your life.   You may contact us at 978-388-0982 or email us at capitalcampaign@main-street-church.org.

 

In Peace,

Stephen Horhota and David Frick