Rebuild Lakeshore

We have begun work on the Mercy House. Our friends from Crossroads Community Church of Naperville, IL funded the foundation. Volunteers from East Hartselle Baptist Church, Hartselle, AL and Central Baptist Church, Decatur, AL along with college students from Georgia set the pilings and concreted them in. Lord willing, the lumber and trusses from St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor MI, will arrive on Saturday and volunteers next week from Alabama and Ohio will frame it up.

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This past Thursday evening, May 21, we went before the Hancock County Planning and Zoning Board with two site plans for proposed buildings on our church property and to request and extension for our temporary structures while construction continues.

1. The Lakeshore Mercy House

The first site plan presented to the board showed our next building we plan to construct. Affectionately referred to as “The Mercy House,” this building will serve our ongoing and expanding mercy ministry. We already have a thriving ministry to our community through providing food, clothing, household items and other tangible help to those in need. We want to expand this ministry to also include things like financial management seminars, drug and alcohol addiction intervention and mitigation, biblical counseling, and other things.

The 2080 square foot building will need to sit approximately 11 feet off the ground in compliance with the new flood zone regulations. This construction allows for the inclosure of the bottom section to be used for storage of the items distributed through the ministry. The main level will include a small kitchenette, restroom, closet space, and one large multipurpose room. The building will be located across the street from the church at the corner of Lakeshore Road and Third Street.

The Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved our site plan for the Mercy House. Lord willing, we will obtain a permit next week and begin setting the pilings the first week in June. If you would like to contribute financially to this project, you can send donations to Lakeshore Baptist Church PO Box 293 Lakeshore MS 39558 designated for “The Lakeshore Mercy House.”

2. The Main Church Complex

The second site plan presented to the Planning and Zoning Board showed the layout of our main church property. I praise the Lord for architect Jeff Escott, of Livermore CA, who took my crude drawings and turned them into an impressive color rendering. See: Lakeshore Baptist Church Site Plan (pdf)

For those familiar with our property, you can see our existing office on the far right. We plan to remove the metal building currently being used for our worship space and replace it with a parking lot. The fellowship hall will sit in front of the current “distribution center” housed in the two quonset huts. Removing the huts will allow us to reclaim our existing cemetery. The main church building, including the sanctuary will run along Second Street, in place of our camp kitchen.

The board also unanimously approved this plan. We will now move forward will all the particulars of designing these buildings. They too will need to sit approximately 11 feet off the ground. I envision inclosing the bottom sections so that the structures look more like two story buildings rather than structures awkwardly sitting atop stilts. Connecting the two buildings on the upper level will provide easy access between the two.

Please pray for us as we hammer out the details of these buildings. As many of you reading this know, after the storm we opted not to rebuild immediately, instead turning our attention to the needs of our community. As we ministered help an hope in the name of Jesus Christ, we focused our efforts on placing others before ourselves. At the same time we wanted to wait for the appropriate time where we could devote the attention, forethought, prayer and planning that we believe that God’s building design deserves. Keep up with us as these exciting plans develop.

3. Our Temporary Structures

Earlier this week we were refused a place on the docket to request an extension of our permit for the temporary structures on our church property. If you recall, in the January meeting the board gave us until May 31 to remove all temporary structures. Since then we have begun building a bunk house and have the above site plan ready to move forward for our other facilities. In the meantime, we need to keep our temporary buildings while we construct our permanent ones.

A quick conference with the Planning and Zoning Commission lawyer produced a legal mechanism where she allowed us to request the extension in the meeting. (Praise the Lord for Attorney Rachel Perniciaro.) The board voted 3-2 against us, but this ruling opened the door to an appeal to the Board of Supervisors. We have 10 days to make this appeal and have already begun the ground work. We pray these actions will give us enough breathing room to not miss a beat in the ongoing relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts to the glory of God.

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Yesterday the guys from Green Valley Baptist Church, Birmingham AL, put in a long day drilling the holes and setting the 10 X 10 pilings for the new bunk house.

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Yesterday, by faith, Lakeshore Baptist Church voted to construct a permanent bunk house to continue hosting volunteers. We pray that this first step in our master plan will, in part, make our zoning board happy. We hope to keep our existing quarters for a little longer as well. The structure will also ensure that we can continue hosting mission teams for a long time to come.

The building will sleep 38 people in two rooms with adjacent restrooms and showers. Sitting on sturdy pilings 9′ above ground the structure will exceed the new flood plain regulations. Lord willing, we plan to break ground in the next few weeks.

We need your help to finance this project. For $200 you can sponsor one of the 38 beds and have your name installed on a recognition plaque placed in the rooms. For $1,500 a church can sponsor one of the 20 exterior 8′X8′ pilings. A plaque with your church name, city, and state will adorn the respective post. This sponsorship program will not only finance the project, but also serve as a wonderful testimony to God’s provision of brothers and sisters in Christ from across the country who have stood along side of us in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts to the glory of God.

Download and print this Sponsorship Form (pdf) and send in your contribution or pledge today.

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To help us stay balanced in the design of the new church buildings, in our first meeting, I used Vitruvius‘ “Three Laws of Architecture” as an outline to discuss several issues that we want to take into account as we move forward. A first century BC architect, Vitruvius penned the classic “Ten Books on Architecture” and I’ve been enjoying reading this work. Lakeshore Baptist Church wants to design and create spaces that are functional, durable and beautiful.

1. utilitas- utility and functionality: In order to design buildings that functionally serve our needs and facilitate our stated purpose we need to intentionally think through what we plan to use these buildings for and how our theology and practice should dictate certain design features. We recognize that the buildings we construct should allow for growth as we seek to proclaim the gospel to our community and use the buildings for our missional expansion. We also want to take into consideration our next generation’s use of these buildings and give them a gift of functional facilities. This process includes taking into consideration handy cap accessibility, parking requirements, flow of people between spaces, size of educational rooms etc. The Church Architecture department of Lifeway Christian Resources provides a helpful “Rules of Thumb” pdf document for some of these dimensional factors.

2. firmitas - durability and strength: Living in a hurricane prone coastal region requires building with flood mitigation and wind resistance in mind. These values should be seen in both actual construction and appearance. As Lakeshore Baptist Church serves as an anchor in the community, we want to reflect that strength in strong buildings that honestly depict stability, steadfastness, and endurance.

In considering several construction strategies, its seems to us that ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms) might prove our best option. Not only are they rated for 250+ mile hour winds, this construction method also gives the added advantage of extremely high insulation value which would save on energy costs, termite deterrence (termites usually don’t eat concrete) and sound proofing (if you have been to Lakeshore you know about the traffic and train). We plan to do some cost factor research before we make our final decision on materials, but we have agreed, in principle, we want something built to last.

3. venustas - beauty and delight: Above all else we want to design and erect these buildings to the glory of God. While that includes building functional and durable buildings, it also mandates esthetic considerations. “Thou shalt not create ugliness.” In other words, our white hot passion to see God glorified, ought to drive the physical appearance of the buildings and the spaces they create. We know that authentic worship can take place on the slab of a destroyed church building, under a tent, or in a garage looking metal quonset hut, but as we plan and design a structure for the people of God to worship the awe-inspiring creator of the universe we want to carefully consider craftsmanship, proportion, symmetry, sacred geometry, order, harmony, verticality, materials, textures, natural forms, color, and all things related to creating space conducive to worship.

I also found a recent Church Architecture study from Lifeway very interesting. Ed Stetzer, and his research staff surprisingly found that the unchurched prefer beautiful traditional looking church buildings over the contemporary trend of purely utilitarian structures. If that’s true, building a beautiful traditional looking facility will complement our evangelistic strategy and our strong desire to proclaim the gospel to everyone in our community for the glory of God.

As we move forward in the design process we want to keep all three of these “laws of architecture” in mind. Doing so will help us stay balanced and provide buildings that are useful, durable, and beautiful. If you would like to contribute to this project you can send donations to Lakeshore Baptist Church - Po Box 293 - Lakeshore MS 39558, designated for “New Church Buildings.” On behalf of our church, our community, and our future generations, I want to thank you so much for your interest and generous support through these rebuilding efforts.

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In our first meeting regarding the new church buildings, we revisited the brainstorming and wish list session we had 2 years ago when we first considered erecting the permanent buildings. At that time we determined that we still had too much work out in the community remaining and decided to put the church building project on the back burner for a while longer. In that meeting however, we did compose a helpful list of desired elements for the new building. In no particular order we said we would like to see:

• Traditional look and feel (looks like a church, not a warehouse or storefront)
• Ample seating
• Pews; not chairs
• Spacious rooms for Sunday School
• Children’s Church Room
• Clean nursery
• Cry room
• Plenty of storage - closets etc
• Large fellowship hall and kitchen
• Baptistery and changing rooms
• Piano
• Office space / Pastor’s Study
• Handicap accessible
• Wind resistance and flood mitigation
• All one building or covered walkways between buildings.
• Covered driveway
• Well marked and logical entrances
• Sound proof sanctuary (muffle train and traffic)
• Sturdy - Built to last
• Plenty of parking for members and visitors
• Leave a legacy to the next generation
• Restrooms
• Sustainable (green architecture)
  

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(Lakeshore Baptist Church buildings, before and after hurricane Katrina.)

On December third, Lakeshore Baptist Church held a congregational meeting to begin plans to construct her all new church facilities. The meeting proved very beneficial and enthusiasm for the project ran high. Everyone seemed very excited to move forward with this project. We remain committed to hosting volunteers, working in the community in our relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts, expanding our mercy ministry, as we simultaneously make plans to reestablish our facilities.

I began the meeting with a brief history of Lakeshore Baptist Church and her buildings, when they were built, what they were used for, and how they were destroyed. We read Exodus 31:1-11, God’s instruction on building the tabernacle, and Psalm 127:1 “unless the Lord builds the house, the workman labor in vain.”

Over the next few days I plan to blog about the remainder of the meting for those interested in keeping up with our progress. I’ve created a “church building” category on the blog and plan to begin posting on issues related to our developing plans. Keep logging on to our site and keep us in prayer as we move forward to the glory of God.

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We finally closed on another piece of the land puzzle. Since the storm we have purchased four parcels of adjacent land. Last year our pre-storm neighbor, who owned the property where the current camp kitchen sits, agreed to sell to us. Because of issues pertaining to his Mississippi grant he needed to wait on closing. This past Friday we completed the transaction on this forth piece. The diagram above shows our current land holdings.

This acquisition opens up enough property to begin making plans for our new church facilities while still hosting, housing, and feeding the volunteer efforts. With this new property footprint, we do still have the sensitive issue of existing grave sites that we want to respectfully incorporate into development planning. We would love to obtain the other two sections of land on the chart above, however the current owners have expressed no interest in selling. Please make these issues subjects of prayer as we move forward for the glory of God.

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