The Office is Moving!

Dear Friends,

Every Sunday morning when I leave the house, I say to my son, Micah, “I’ll see you at worship.”  I don’t say, “I’ll see you at church.”  Why?  What’s the difference?  The difference is that the church is not a building.  The church is the people who gather in a school or diner or bowling alley to worship.  A building is just a tool for the church to use for ministry.  Micah is part of the church.  So am I.  So are you.  So I tell him that I’ll see him at worship.

One of the benefits of SCC not owning a building (to worship or work in) at this time is that we are flexible.  We can be creative when it comes to how we organize ministry and reach out into our community.  In the next several months we’re going to be changing up how we use two buildings: the office and the parsonage.  The timeline is still evolving, but sometime in early summer, we will not be renewing our lease for the office.  We will be moving my office and Susan’s office to the parsonage.  We will be using some of the space in the basement of the parsonage for a work room and storage.  Volunteers will come to the parsonage during normal office hours to do the things they currently do at the office.  The rest of the staff will then work out of their homes and the community.

You may be wondering whether you can stop by the office when it is in the parsonage.  During normal office hours, you are welcome to stop by to see Susan or do whatever work you need to do at the office.  To meet with staff, you will need to communicate with them directly.  Or you may wonder about what will happen to groups that meet at the office.  There is currently one small group that meets at the office, but it is finishing up at the end of this semester and not continuing.  Otherwise, all the rest of our small groups meet in the community or at homes.  Few teams meet at the office (the Lead Team and Team Leaders meet at Holt UMC), but the ones that do will also meet in homes or in the community.

So why this change?  There are several good reasons to do this:

1. Our current office location is confusing to the community.  Most people think of a church as a “building” and think that our office is our church.  I have heard over and over again that the community associates SCC with our office.  Of course, it never looks like much is going on at our office, so this does not create a positive feeling about our church in the community.  We will be including signage with this move that will make it clear to the community that the office is moving to another location.
2. Sarah and I have for most of our married life practiced the Christian discipline of hospitality.  We have almost always had other people living with us.  Recently we had a guest move out after getting back on her feet.  This led Sarah and me to ask, “What’s next?”  It seemed appropriate that we would offer hospitality to the church office for a time period.  This is a possibility because of all the work and resources that were put into finishing the basement of the parsonage.  We doubled the square footage of the parsonage by finishing the basement and bringing it into line with conference parsonage standards.  Our family is not currently using all this space, and we are happy to share it with the church.  This will also lead to several areas of financial savings in the form of one set of utility bills (electric, gas, internet, phones, etc.) for the parsonage rather than two for the parsonage and office.
3. It has become apparent to me over the last four years of building relationships with other church planters and new churches, that making the community your office is the best way to build relationships with the community and share God’s love with the community.  Too often a building or office leads to a staff spending all their time in the office with other staff and not out in the community building relationships.  Over the past two or three years our staff has been migrating out of the office and into the community more and more.  I am currently in the office only about a half a day a week.  Otherwise, I work in coffee shops, libraries, on campus, restaurants, or my home.  This is becoming truer of all our staff.  It is also showing fruit as we have more opportunities to invite people to SCC.
4. Another reason church plants and new churches don’t have office space is because it is better to spend money on ministry rather than administration.  Over the past year we have added to our staff.  We currently employ a part-time youth minister, Gretchen Williams.  This hire along with a great team of unpaid volunteers has led to more families attending SCC and getting involved and more students participating in StuREV.  At the same time, our giving has gone down and our budget is very tight.  To retain our current staff at our current giving level, we have decided to free up the resources in the office so that the money we use to pay rent and utilities can be used for ministry instead.
5. This change is not an end solution.  It is a transition solution while we continue to look for a building or other creative ways to use buildings for ministry.  We imagine the office being in the parsonage for around two years.  This puts us in the position of anticipating more change in the future.  Buildings change.  The church is not a building.  The church is you and me and all your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family who will be part of the church in the future.

There are several ways you can help with this move:

1.  Jason Kelley is leading the actual logistics of moving the office.  If you are willing to help with the physical labor of moving, contact Jason (jasondkelley@sbcglobal.net).
2. We store a lot of supplies for our medical missions to Nicaragua at the office.  We will be looking for a new home to store these supplies.  If you have space that you are willing to share with this mission, contact Teresa Miller (millerflash@sbcglobal.net).
3. We will be moving everything we need out of the office and then throwing a garage sale that will be open to the church and the community.  If you’re interested in helping with this or buying anything that we will not be taking with us, contact Susan Kelley (susankelley@sycamorecreekchurch.org).
4. Continue to invite people to join us for worship at one of our two locations.  When you talk with your friends, make sure to point out that our church meets at a different location than our office.
5. Pray for this transition and for all involved.

It is likely that you have some questions about this move.  Feel free to communicate with me in whatever way works best for you (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org, 394-6100, or via Facebook).  You may also ask any one of the Team Leaders listed below.  I look forward to seeing how God will use our church and this transition to reach even more people with the love of Jesus Christ.

Peace,

Pastor Tom & The Team Leaders
Patricia Alderman (Member at Large)
Mark Aupperlee (Small Groups)
Chuck Bird (Finance and Facilities)
Paula Donaldson (Hospitality)
Jason Kelley (Media & Space Team)
Susan Kelley (Office)
Jeremy Kratky (Worship)
Kristin Kratky (StuREV)
Shelley Mull (Membership)
Thomas Oates (Space Team)
Erin Wasinger (Kids Creek)
Julie Soltis (Kids Creek)
Bob Trout (Staff Pastor Relations)
Dotty Wilinski (Missions)
Gretchen Williams (StuREV, Kids Creek and Church in a Diner