The vision:

"Believing that God has given us a vision to develop two new churches, we propose to move this congregation to a temporary facility (beginning service in October 2004) while pursuing a permanent location, thereby allowing our current facility to be used to establish a new church plant that is developed with the assistance of the Pacific Southwest Conference."

Where it all started: Church records show that it was in the 1960's that the congregation first began to consider a possible relocation. Along the way, the congregation received encouragement from superintendents and pastors to consider relocation. Over the years a number of different sites were considered. Individuals on their own and committees attempted to identify possible locations. (One committee identified the site of Creekside elementary school as an excellent location for our congregation! But, Lodi Unified got to it first.)

When I was called to pastor SCC, one of the stated goals of the congregation was to find a pastor who: "can lead us through a significant period of change, including the decision of whether to start a sister church or relocate."

In our Covenant Vision to action process in 2001, our facility was one of the five topics identified for additional work. While the topic did not specifically address moving the church, it was a recognition that our current facility was not meeting our current ministry needs.

For a year and a half the leadership council prayed, discussed options and met with denominational leaders about the decision. When the council felt that they had heard from God, the proposal was brought to the congregation and three informational meetings were held. A congregational business meeting was then held on July 25, 2004 and the proposal was accepted.

Things have not happened exactly as we had planned! The leadership council knew and shared with the congregation that we would never have all the answers or all of the information about every possible contingency, but we had enough information to move ahead. We believed that as we moved ahead God would continue to reveal His will. (We were comforted to know that the United States Marine Corps planned to 70% and then took action!)

The partnership with the Pacific Southwest Conference to plant a church in our old location did not materialize. This was primarily because the conference has only a limited budget for planting churches and a limited number of church planters. Money and staff were not available for this project. In the meantime, God lead us to another congregation who is currently renting our facility. This is in addition to the Hispanic church which was already meeting at our facility.

When we thought interim move, we didn't think interim would be this long! I think most of us believed that we would have identified, purchased and perhaps even begun to build on our own new property. This hasn't happened.

Creekside Elementary School has been a great blessing to us and we have endeavored to be a great blessing to them. The facility is wonderful. It provides a gathering place and one point of entry that we did not have before. The principal is a Christian who is himself in a church plant. He and the vice-principal are very interested in our success. The rental rate that we pay is very low.

People who only visit our church occasionally - missionaries on furlough, conference and denominational staff, etc. - consistently tell me that the congregation has changed. They use words like: joy, light, happy, friendly. They talk about how worship is different. I couldn't agree more, we are not the same. The move has helped us to focus on what is important. It has helped us to streamline our programming. The light, airy room where we can see one another has changed our worship interaction. Fellowship and intergenerational mixing occurs more frequently because we have an area conducive to conversation.

Overall volunteerism has increased. Everyone is needed. Some bake. Everyone puts up chairs. People help set up and tear down. While it is true that a number of people work very hard to make the service happen each week, many people do a little to make it all come together.