02
SSCC – New Facility Open
Posted on March 2nd, 2008 in Church Life, Faith by Fred McKinnon
Hey Everyone -
Well, I’ve just come out of a long, hard nap this afternoon – the official “first weekend” of SSCC in our new facility is now “in the books”. All I can say is “WOW”. It was amazing. If there is ANY PROBLEM, it was simply that we had more people than we could handle. If all those folks were “1-timers” to check out the new place, we may .. MAY .. be OK .. otherwise, we just didn’t build it big enough.
Although the sanctuary will seat around 1,000 chairs, we put out around 850 seats … both the 8:45 service and the 11:00 service were at capacity … maybe a few scattered chairs here and there, but at least 95-99% full, from my vantage point on the stage.
KidJam – it started about 10+ minutes late because of the CROWD of families lined up all the way down the hall and INTO the atrium pressing in to get a seat. It was standing room only … and then, only if you were skinny enough to squeeze in. I stood in the doorway and searched for Joy and the kids and never found them … they were on the front row. Joy said it was amazing – and she just couldn’t get over how incredibly professional everything was.
Parking was a huge issue – and the “buzz” around the building all morning was “shuttles, renting parking space at the shopping center down the street”, etc.
I was amazed listening to the people coming out of “Tiny Town” – I think there were like 30 kids in the 1st grade classroom alone. HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of kids. Probably 1500-1600 adults. Combined, I’d say we easily had well over 2,000 people this morning.
So much to say, so much to show, but for now, I’ve gotta play catchup on some other things. Pastor David (blog) graciously told us we could take tomorrow (Monday) off if we felt like we needed some downtime … but to come ready to “hit the ground running” on Tuesday.
I hope to do a video worship confessional … maybe I’ll find some time to slip up there Monday and do it. Chris and other photographers took tons of pics this weekend, and Jay and Brooke were gracious enough to volunteer to roam around taking video footage ..maybe we’ll get some of that online, though I wonder how any of them would find the time!
Until then, thanks for praying .. it was an AMAZING weekend!
For the Kingdom,
Fred
Related posts:
12 Responses to “SSCC – New Facility Open”
Would you join in the discussion? Checkout the responses below, and click "reply" to reply to someone's comment, or scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to leave your own comment in the box!
WOW!
Amen.
Rock. It’s super cool to hear how well everything went.
[...] care of. All was well. Music in the main service was amazing. The team did an outstanding job. Congrats, Fred, on an awesome first day. As it got closer to 10:00am I headed back out to make sure everything was [...]
I feel awkward commenting after my own trackback. Oh well.
Fred, you and your team did an outstanding job this morning and Friday at the worship night. I’m in awe sometimes at your leadership and mad skills. Hands down you are the best at this type of job of anyone I’ve personally known.
Chris,
You are too kind, bro. I feel the same way about all the incredible design stuff you do. There is nobody better.
Kudos on the photography, too – I’m GOING CRAZY to blog some pics, so I hope you have some ready soon! Of course, I’ll give you plenty of link love!
Fred
Wow – great to hear!
Who did the logo design for your different ministries? Love the branding and consistency!
I rejoice with you all!
Fred…
Sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch up with you after the service Sunday morning, but my wife and I were there and it was great. I can’t believe how much work has gone into the various environments since we finished our work in December. The crowds were amazing, and I appreciate that the recurring theme was that the focus needed not to be on the building but on Jesus Christ. It was a pleasure to work on the project, and we hope to visit again soon.
I’ll be posting a short blog with some amateur photography, so I also look forward to Chris’ pictures from the weekend to link to!
Scott,
Let me know when the pics are up – I hate I didn’t get to see you – now, next time drag ole’ Carlos down here!
Fred
Awesome to hear that it went well!
[...] Fred McKinnon and Chris Moncus are at St. Simons Community Church they just moved in to their new facility this weekend and it sounds like everything was A+. Way to go Fred, Chris and teams!! Although the sanctuary will seat around 1,000 chairs, we put out around 850 seats … both the 8:45 service and the 11:00 service were at capacity … maybe a few scattered chairs here and there, but at least 95-99% full, from my vantage point on the stage. [...]
[...] season, Norh Carolina boggled the mind with fantastic defense last night. Thewww.tarheeltimes.comSSCC – New Facility Open Hey Everyone – Well, I??ve just come out of a long, hard nap this afternoon – the official ???first [...]