Breaking Ground - Finally!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ . . .

Yeah, I know. It's been snooze city here at Woodland Builds lately. But that's only because most of what's been going on with the building project has been behind the scenes, away from my camera. You know, the boring stuff like planning, meetings with bankers, applying for various permits, selling our current building, etc. All very essential, but all very boring. Now, however, the action begins!

Sunday, October 7, 2007, Woodland Baptist Church finally broke ground on it's new building. As early as this week we should start seeing some activity on the site that actually looks like construction. From now until the building is completed, there should be interesting scenes for me to photograph, and for you to look at every week. Here's some scenes from Sunday's event (Click on photos to enlarge.) :

Pastor Alan adds "the back of a pick-up truck" to the long list of places that he has preached.

Some of the crowd that came to celebrate the event.

Amber Rhinehart sings at Sunday's ceremony.


















Members of the Building and Grounds Committee, and the Design Team turn over the first dirt for the new building.

Woodland's oldest deacon, Vardy Fugate, assisted with the groundbreaking.

We're not building a church.

Recent Visitor Map from StatCounter

I enjoy the comments and questions by email I sometimes get from visitors of this site. They let me know somebody's actually looking. One emailer from Virginia questioned my use of the word "facility" instead of "church" in the blog sub-title. She thought it sounded too much like we're merely building an office, or a plant of some sort. Actually, I chose to use the word "facility" very deliberately because the building that will go up on Crabtree Road is not a church.

Woodland Baptist Church is an assembly of people, not to be confused with the building we inhabit at any given time. The New Testament never uses the Greek word ekklesia to describe a building, but rather, a called out assembly of people. Am I just splitting hairs over semantics? I don't think so. Would you refer to the house that you live in as your family? Of course not. Wouldn't you think it strange if a friend with a new home invited you to "come see the new family we built in Canton?" Of course you would. Your house is merely the building where your family resides, not the family itself. Just as only people can comprise a family, only redeemed people can comprise a church.

Of course, people will continue to refer to the building we meet in as "the church". That's just common usage of the term, and it probably will never change. However, I think it's important that we not allow ourselves to be so identified with a particular building that it becomes what we think of when we say "Woodland Baptist Church". People should come to mind first. We'll all be proud of our new facility when it's completed, and rightfully so. We're all working hard to make it happen. But this new building could be destroyed by a fire or a storm in a matter of minutes. Not so the church. This new building may one day face the wrecking ball to make room for another building. The church of Jesus Christ will stand forever; He said the gates of hell will not prevail against it. No building can make that claim. Only the church, "the called out assembly" that Jesus has built, will last forever. Only Jesus can build a church.

A Place To Park

One of the reasons our church decided to relocate to a new site was the lack of space available for parking at our current property. It's just a fact of modern life: more people equals more cars. The new location for Woodland will have plenty of level, paved parking close to the building. The fill dirt for the parking area is in place, and now we're ready to start seeing some site prep for the foundation. The official groundbreaking should be later this month.

More Dirty Deeds At The New Church Site

Yes, more dirt for Woodland! This time they're filling in the area that will be the parking lot for the new building.

Before the 4th of July celebration and dedication ceremony, many people had commented on how small the area for the new building looked from the road. It hardly seemed big enough for the size building we were envisioning. But after folks actually got to go on the property and walk around on it, they saw how large an area it really is. The area being filled now for the parking lot will make it even bigger. And there will still be some space behind the new building to allow for further expansion in the future. Buying this piece of property will prove to be a wise choice for many years to come.

First Church Function On New Property

Woodland held it's first official function at its future location on Crabtree Rd., a 4th of July celebration and dedication of the new property. Since the new location is an ideal spot to watch the annual fireworks show put on by Lake Junaluska Assembly, it was decided that this would be a good time to gather everyone together to dedicate the new property, and also enjoy a little food and fun for Independence Day.

Athletes in action?

For now, lots of room for games at the new property.

At Woodland, we love to eat!

Gospel singing mountain style.

Pastor Alan preaching during the dedication ceremony.

Another Sign Of Growth

A growing church needs a growing group of servant leaders. Welcome our newest deacon, Scott Sluder! (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Why We Build

(Click on individual images to enlarge.)

Celebration Event

The climax to the Vision to Victory campaign was the Celelbration Event held on May 20 at the Haywood County Fairgrounds. The adults enjoyed a barbeque dinner, while the children had their own party with food and games. After dinner, there was singing and testimonies, followed by a short sermon by Pastor Alan Davis. The evening was concluded as people turned in their commitment cards containing what they expect to give to the building fund over the next three years.

Who picked the caterer???

(Actually, the food was very good!)

Piles of barbeque and all the fixin's await hungry church members.

Bill Wilkerson and Pastor Alan Davis unveil the scale model of our new building.

The children's party included games, face painting, music, and lots of food.

Harold Medford shares his testimony.

Pastor Alan encourages Woodland from God's Word.

Bill Wilkerson built this scale model of our new building. Amazing detail!

Feel Free To Comment

Until recently, I hadn't figured out all of the options available from Blogger (the host for this blog) for adding comments from you, the viewers. The default settings required you to register for an account with Blogger. Understandably, that was too much trouble to go through just to add a short comment to a post. Well, that's all changed now!

Now you can add a comment without registering for a Blogger account. To post a comment, simply click on "Comments" at the bottom of each post, then click "Post a Comment". The screen shown here will appear. Type in your comment, and then click "Google/Blogger" if you have a Blogger account, "Other" if you want to leave your name, or "Anonymous" if you don't. Then click "Publish Your Comment". It's that simple!

Now you can let me, and the other viewers of Woodland Builds know what you think about what's going with our building project. Let us all know what you think!

The Unveiling

A good crowd turned out on April 15, 2007 for the presentation of Woodland's building plans and fundraising goals. After a covered dish fellowship supper, the rendering showing what the new church building will look like was unveiled. (Faithful viewers of Woodland Builds got a one-day, sneak peak of it two weeks ago.) Also presented were the church's fund raising goals as part of the capital fund raising campaign that will continue over the next three years.

Decorative centerpieces with a construction theme were on every table.

Joe Smith and Pat Conard were given the honor of unveiling the rendering of Woodland's new church building.

Bob Keeling and Ryan Campbell display a banner with our fund raising goals.

Beth and Ryan Campbell gave a stewardship testimony. And no, Ryan did not doze off during his own testimony. That's just photographer's error - I happened to catch him in mid-blink. Sorry about that, Ryan!

This is what our new church building should look like when completed. The rendering was done by local artist Andy Bailey, who was kind enough to send me a copy for use in Woodland Builds. Andy works for D. Wright & Associates, Woodland's architects for the project.

Where did it go?

Oooooops! Well, it seems I jumped the gun by posting a rendering of the new church building this morning. I posted it before finding out that the plan is to unveil it at a fellowship dinner later this month. So if you already saw it, pretend that you're Sgt. Shultz and forget what you saw. (For those of you too young to remember Hogan's Heroes, ask your parents who Sgt. Shultz is.) If you missed it, be sure to come to the fellowship dinner on April 15 for the unveiling.

Ain't it purty?

Dirt is not often described as "pretty", but I think this pile of dirt qualifies. The job of filling in the space that will be the pad for the new building has been completed. Later, fill dirt for parking areas will be added, but the space for the new church building is ready for the next step, the pouring of the slab.

This view shows how much higher the final grade is above the surrounding land. This will give our new building the protection it needs should Richland Creek ever get out of its banks during a severe storm. No more soaked carpets for us!

Construction sites are usually a "hard hat zone", and the new church site is no different. Besides the usual construction site hazards, the church site is routinely shelled with balls from the nearby driving range. (Yes, those are golf balls you see in this photo looking in the direction of the driving range.) Of course, that problem will be corrected long before the building is completed, but consider this: Hundreds of years from now, future archeologists will no doubt be puzzled by the presence of golf balls as they sift through the dirt of what they thought was the site of an old church. Let them figure it out!

What a difference a month makes!

I made these photos yesterday afternoon. As you can see by comparing these to ones I made a month ago, mucho dirt has been moved to our new building site.


This manhole is about 12-14 feet deep. The bottom of it is where the old ground level was. I'm guessing that the orange line indicates where the finished ground level will be. Not much more to go!


This photo is looking down into the manhole. Although it's dark down there, you can just make out the end of a drainage pipe that was lying on top of the ground before any fill dirt was brought in (See February 8, 2007 post). Now it's waaaaaay down there.

Standing Firm

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a day of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8

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It's been a month since I last posted a photo to this site. There's only so many photos you can show of dirt being piled up, so I thought I'd wait a few weeks and then show a progress shot. I drove by the construction site yesterday, and it's really looking good. If the weather cooperates, I'll get out there today for some update photos. Meanwhile, stand firm.

Metal Church Buildings Not A New Idea

Through the wonder of the internet, I get to communicate with photographers from around the world. While visiting the blog of a new acquaintance from Istanbul, Turkey, I learned of a metal church there that dates from the 1890's. So metal church buildings are not such a new idea after all.

Check it out by clicking:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_St_Stephen_Church

Church With A View

This is view of the new building site looking northwest. Pretty nice view, huh? (Photo made 2/11/07.)

Doin' the dirty work

The church construction site was a beehive of activity early Saturday morning as workers took advantage of the dry weather.

Dump trucks rolled in almost every minute as they hauled dirt being dug from a site on Howell Mill Road.

As soon as the dirt is dumped, a bulldozer moves in to spread it out before the next load arrives.

Church Building For Sale

Now that there is a "For Sale" sign in front of Woodland Baptist Church, I wonder what people are thinking when they see it? "Are they moving?" "Are they going out of business?" "Who would want to buy a church?" "I wonder how much a church goes for nowadays?" Who knows what they're thinking. I just know God has a buyer out there, because the Bible says He will provide for all our needs.

I've heard rumors that one inquirer just wants the property to build houses or apartments. I really don't care what the next owner does with it, but it would be nice if another church bought it to use as a church. Just in case the building is torn down by the next owner, I plan to make a series of documentary photos of the building and its interior to remember her by. There's a lot of memories in that building.

You've Got Dirt!

Brian Noland called me last night to let me know that the dirt has finally started arriving - 25 or so loads on the first day! I went out first thing this morning to get some pictures. What had been dumped yesterday had already been spread and compacted as you can see in the picture. Lots more dirt will be needed to raise the grade 10-12 feet above what you see here, but at least the filling has begun!