It’s always a good sign when a church undertakes an expansion project as Beautiful Savior did this past Sunday, August 3. Typically, it means that something good is happening at the congregation, that church members are successfully fulfilling their mission and affecting the lives of others in a positive way. This certainly was the message spoken this weekend when Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church broke ground on an expansion of their worship space on the southwest side of Green Bay.
While several hundred church members gathered to break ground on the new addition, the Holy Spirit cooperated by providing a sunny blue sky day that was perfect for community photographers to take pictures of the city’s highlights and attractions to put into brochures. Soon, we’ll have a new picture of Beautiful Savior as part of Green Bay’s attractions.
The new addition will provide needed worship space. Currently, the church has standing room only with members lining the sides of the existing worship space for its major services. The addition should provide enough space for the years ahead as the church continues its outreach and grows its membership base. The project involves increasing the size of the existing worship space, adding offices for the pastor and administration, upgrading the restrooms, and building a fellowship hall complete with kitchen facilities.
Pastor Jon Meyer began the ground-breaking ceremony with a prayer, and then said: We’ve been working on this since I got here. We now know this is becoming something very real! Here we go, we’re in this together! We’ll be blessed as we go through this together”. Pastor Meyer then compared the building journey to the journey that the Biblical figure Jacob undertook when he was running away but forgiven for his misdeeds and undertook the mission of “building a kingdom.”(Jacob saw a gate to heaven.) “That’s what this is. It is a gate to heaven, a place where babies are baptized, this isn’t about bricks & mortar … this is about the Word of God and proclaiming Christ crucified. “
Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt agreed, and added, “This is about the future of community. We all need a place to communicate with God. We look at surveys about what people want in a community and high on the list of retention is to have places that have a connection with our faith.” He went to say that when churches expand they help to build up the entire community just like the arts and sports venues do. “God Bless all of you”.
Congregational President Steve Haskins said, “We all serve in many ways. We continue to grow and reach out to area groups. Our members continue to find the resources to provide great resources to worship here and we have open hearts to share our resources.”
Building Committee Chairman, Greg Archambault ,agreed and said church members have been sharing their time and talents, “It’s because of you we’ve gotten this far, but its’ not about the building, it’s about our work together and God blessing that.” Smet’s Greg Runnoe recalled the first meeting in April of 2012, and said “It took many meetings to get to this point.” He said he appreciated the input the church members gave and expressed appreciation the church selected Smet to head up the construction management team.
We too, are glad that Beautiful Savior selected Smet to head up the construction of their church expansion. We look forward to a smooth project, a project to be delivered on budget, on time, and built in the manner that Pastor Meyer said best when he mentioned this isn’t just a building that we’re building, “It’s a gate to heaven.”
For more information:
Greg Polacheck, Director of Market Research
[email protected]
Menu
Accessibility