With multi-site being one way The Austin Stone will plant new churches in the future, it makes sense that our St. John building project would look a little different. We still want the campus to provide all the benefits of flexible, permanent space for worship with a focus on the non-profit center. But now, instead of the original plan of three buildings in a campus-style layout, the new plan has us renovating the X-shaped retirement center building on the southwest corner of our property, and adding a 500-600 seat worship auditorium onto the back. One reason this is exciting is that, in this plan, we'll have even more space devoted to the non-profit organizations who will share this facility. Plus, with the 30,000 square feet of unfinished shell space upstairs we'll end up with more total overall space than the three originally planned buildings.
The half of the building that runs along St. Johns avenue, the main traffic artery of the St. John community (along the left side of the schematic), will have both wings completely devoted to our non-profit partners. Of the other two wings, one will accommodate our children's ministry, and the other will hold the equipping classrooms that we'll use for training on weekends and share with our non-profit residents during the week. Youth worship will also be in this section of the building. The square part of the building on the right will be the only part that is completely new construction: the worship auditorium.
Just as before, we're planning on concrete floors, exposed ceilings, garage doors and yes, the same black plastic folding chairs we sit in right now in the gym. The facilities will be exciting, but in a raw and authentic sort of way - it will be a good place to be while not being extravagant. Check out these views of the auditorium and non-profit center to get an idea of what it might look like when it's finished.
This building project, just like the vision it will help us to achieve, is for others - for others to use and for us to equip our body to serve and take the Gospel beyond our walls. We'll talk more about the building in future posts, but for now it's exciting to see the new means God has given us towards the same vision of city renewal. We think this new plan has the potential to help us make an even more effective redemptive impact in Austin.
save