Advice for building out a church (construction)

We started our church campus (away from the home campus) 2.5 years ago and it's time to move on from the hotel we've been meeting in all this time. The hotel is going downhill, some of our equipment has been stolen from our locked cabinets and we really want to have a place that we can use 24/7 and have some visibility in the community. We found a warehouse/office situation that's 3670 square feet. Right now it has 2 offices, 2 bathrooms and a large warehouse and once we get our permits in order (should be done January 23rd at the town board meeting), we will begin building out the space to use as our church.

God has been so generous to us in raising all of the funds needed in cash (our Christmas offering went to this project) and giving us favor with the town thus far. He has put people in our path who will be able to do this project with skill and expertise without costing us as much as it normally would. It's been humbling to watch the whole process go along.

My husband and I were talking about the plans this morning and I suggested I post here for advice and he said to go ahead.

So my question is: Have you done a project like this and if you have, what suggestions might you have? This is a rental with a 5 year lease and a few of the things we will be doing:

* Building more classroom space so we can have a nursery, classrooms for Sunday School, a larger room for the youth and the beginning of Sunday School (they all meet together for the teaching then split into smaller groups to do their work) and a comfortable welcoming space as our lobby.

* We need a small kitchenette area to be able to make coffee.

* We will be using chairs that can be moved so we can use the space for many different things.

* We will be angling the sanctuary walls for sound benefit and to create some storage as well.

* http://ichristianc.org/2013/12/wise-men-going-east/
You can listen from about 6 minutes to 25 minutes to hear my husband speak about it or you can watch the video (down the page towards the bottom is the video) and you will be able to see the pictures of what the plan is and hear our vision for this place.


What sort of things have you been able to do for the community with your church? What ideas might we not be thinking of that you encountered that surprised you? I'd love to be able to chat with a few of you who have been here before to pick your brains. Thanks! I'm so excited for this whole project and we have a bunch of people already lined up to begin the work - men who are professionals who will be donating their time to this project! We added on a large extension to our home church with about 70% volunteer labor and we saved well over $2 million by doing that!! It will be fun to see that happen again!

 

Lots of people looking but no one has any ideas?

 

LOVE those ideas! I doubt we can do the lunch buddy thing here on Long Island since most schools are VERY secure and don't even let parents into the school without getting a pass and approval from security. But we definitely want to partner with the schools to provide for any student/family that is in need even if it's just shoes/coats/weekend groceries/etc.

Oh and we now have a signed lease and the key! Hubby is right now going to file the paperwork with town hall and hopefully the meeting in 2 weeks will go in our favor and we can start working.

Oh and another thing we want to do is offer art classes to the school district. My oldest daughter is a certified K-12 art teacher and this school district dropped all art in the high school and has only minimal classes in the lower grades. We would only charge for materials and maybe do it once or twice a month. I think it could be a great ministry!!

I'm so excited to think of all of the things that we can do soon!! God really has gone before us in all of this and it's a privilege to see where He will take us.