Wednesday evening the church met together for its congregational meeting to discuss our 2016 budget and to vote on beginning our building expansion.

The church voted affirmatively to begin the building process. The first phase of the expansion will begin shortly after Thanksgiving. It will include all site work (mostly below ground so that we can finally begin building above ground).

Included in this phase of the work will be constructing a drainage pond near the new main entrance to the building. The new entrance will connect Murphy Road, which comes off Highway 21, with the front of the campus. Adjacent to it will be the drainage  pond. We will also use the area behind the ROC for drainage as well.

This phase will also prepare the building pad for the expansion (158,000 square feet), and construct the new front parking lot.

We expect to finish this part of the project in about four months. Sometime after the first of the year we will see the plans for the  main part of the expansion and have the costs for the entire project. We will take what we anticipate to be the final vote on the building at that time.

We are thankful to be at this point, and we are thankful for those who are giving to make it possible.

To date, we have accumulated $14 million toward the $20 million we expect a raise for the project. These funds have come from the RiseUp! Campaign, funds in the budget designated for the new building, and savings from wise budget spending.

If you would like to know more about the project, please visit our website at www.FBCCOV.org and look at the frequently asked questions part of our website.

I want to express my thanks to Jay Sigl and the remainder of the Strategy Planning Team (Jane Copp, Jason Hunt, Susan Kendrick, Mike Martin, Anna Mizell, Danny Shaw, Dick Stewart, Barry Strickland, and Brad Thompson) for their effort and encouragement in this project.

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