PORTAGE COMMUNITY CHAPEL
Building Project

The Need
As the church has grown in its 30 years the need arose to expand to accommodate the growing number of people attending the church on a regular basis and to expand for ministry. In 1966 the original building was constructed primarily as a place of worship. In 1985, when the church outgrew their facility they added another building beside it to house a new sanctuary, nurseries, and classrooms and the original building was used as a fellowship hall, AWANA room, and classrooms. Since then, the original building has begun to fall apart and the time has come to tear it down and make way for a larger, more diversified facility. In its place we will construct a three-story building that will house church offices, an adult library, larger kitchen, nurseries, abundant classroom space, music practice rooms, a commons area, and a regulation-size gymnasium. As the church seeks to expand its influence in the community and its ministries within the church, this new building will be a great tool for expanding children’s ministries, AWANA, and sports ministry. The project will be headed by one of our church Deacon/Trustees, Tim Miller, who is a builder by trade.

Portage Community Chapel

Stewardship of Life
In January of 2004, Senior Pastor Barry Shahan began a series of messages that would become the structure for the entire building program. He entitled the series and the subsequent capital campaign Stewardship of Life, and focused on the areas of Time, Talent, and Treasure. Instead of simply talking about raising money for the building, the challenge became to look at how well each and every member of the congregation was investing all of the gifts that God has given them. What could have been simply a three-year fundraiser became a call to godly stewardship, a spiritual exercise that challenged members of the church to make God a priority in every area of their lives.

Without God, An Impossible Task
The goal that was set before the congregation back in 2004 was to raise a square foot estimate of 1.2 million dollars for the new building over the course of 3 years. In the Stewardship of Life campaign, Pastor Barry introduced the congregation to the BHAG, a character representing the enormity of the task that lay before us. The BHAG (which stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal) represented more than just the amount of money we had to raise, but also the other things that might stand in the way of the church completing the task we knew God was directing us to accomplish: things like wrong attitudes, misplaced priorities, trials that were sure to come, and each and every laborious task that would come as the church completed the new building. We were all reminded that the most important part of facing the BHAG is that unless God is in it, whatever goal we work for will fail. God and His will has indeed been our focus – as of March 2007, all of the 1.2 million has been completely raised or pledged.

BHAG

First Floor



Second Floor

The Ever-Expanding Project
Ten years ago, when the project began it was simply going to be a remodel of the old building. However, decay and changing building codes closed that door and forced the church to consider a whole new facility. In 2004 a set of plans were revealed for the expansion of the building. However, over the past three years building codes and other factors have forced the alteration of those plans as well. The building plans have changed dramatically to meet the needs of the church and the expectation of future growth. During the last part of 2006 and the first few months of 2007 an executive building committee met to make the necessary adjustments to the plans and solve any further problems that still loomed. The plans have been finalized and are currently under review by the necessary authorities. After final estimates were turned it, the cost rose slightly to 1.5 million dollars, all of which has been pledged.

Finally Building
In March 2007, the Stewardship of Life campaign ended with almost all of the money received or pledged, the elders and deacons (following the previously held congregational vote to build) unanimously agreed to go forward with demolition of the old building and construction of the new facility. Both phases began in May of 2007. As of September of 2007 the foundation and basement, geothermal loops for heating and cooling, the gym floor and the first floor were completed with the walls well underway on the first level. The shell is expected to be complete before winter weather arrives.

Elevations



Basement

Maplewood



Maplewood



Maplewood



Maplewood

Church Relocated
During construction, the church will meet off-site. Sunday services will be held at Maplewood Vocational School while AWANA will meet at the Ravenna First Church of God. Maplewood is located roughly two miles north of the church property at 7075 State Rt. 88.


The church offices are also being moved temporarily to 4300 Lynn Road, Suite 202, Rootstown.