The Conference Room that is no more

Over the past two weeks the conference room that used to be in the Administrative Wing has ceased to exist. Over the last 6-9 months conference room use has changed.

To begin with, the Elders never did fit around the entire table. The conference table seats 12 comfortably. The Elders have numbered upwards of 20, so like you see at US Senate Committee hearings there was always a second row of Elders seated behind those who were at the table. It was never conducive to an all inclusive group discussion.

The formerly organized School Board, numbered around 10, fitting comfortably around the table. But in the daycare/school reorganization the Board of Education numbered 16 immediately outgrowing the size of the room.

And while the church staff of around 12 had no problem holding staff meetings around the conference table in 2004, once the daycare/school office staff's were included plus other staff additions, the attendance doubled to something like 22.

Accessibility was another factor. Though the logical location for group meetings the conference room was never an easy room to access in the first place with the level of office security.

The need for more offices was the final shift that necessitated change. In the summer of 2006 we added three PT ministry staff positions but only had one private office. As PT positions and seeing as we didn't know what the future would hold, we setup a temporary shared office arrangement for two of the three PT positions. We made that work for several months.

As anticipated the landscape of the three PT positions changed over the course of the year. By June we no longer needed the shared office arrangement. However, the creation of the FT Pastor of Spiritual Formation position necessitated another private office. Already recognizing the limited use of the conference room, we've divided it in half to create two private offices, one that will be for the Pastor of Spiritual Formation and the other for a use to be determined later.

If you've been in the holy of holies before, the next time you stop by you'll notice things are a little different with the conference room that is no more.