The New Simkins Hall in the Shelby Center. The day has finally arrived! Thanks be to God. Building projects, renovation projects, all begin with a bit of dissatisfaction and a dream. A tipping point is reached and all of a sudden, something that seemed just fine no longer is.
Our old Simkins Hall was like that. It was a great and wonderful space for a very long time. It has been a wonderful place of fun and fellowship and learning and quilting and flu clinics and voting and scouts and Easter picnics and basketball for generations of us. It has spawned relationships and celebrated weddings and been a place of saying good-bye. We loved Simkins Hall so much and so well that it became like the Velveteen Rabbit—remember that wonderful children’s story—that velveteen rabbit, that precious stuffed toy, growing shabbier and shabbier as it was used and hugged and loved to death by the little boy who cherished it, and in the process learns that you become real as you are really and truly loved.
We loved the old Simkins Hall. But one day just about 3½ years ago now a number of us reached the tipping point on. We’d moved beyond worn and comfortable to shabby, tacky even. The floor tiles were broken in many places. The ceiling was a mess. Using the sound system was harder than shouting into a bullhorn. Staging any kind of theater production involved feats of daring on high ladders that I won’t detail here for fear of losing our insurance coverage. And while I know that many of you are really going go miss all that orange and brown, we finally had to admit that the 70’s were over.
It was time and a dream was born. God planted the seeds of a new vision, a hall bright and attractive, equipped for the needs of our congregation and of the many community groups who also call it home. A new Simkins Hall, that through its very design and look would tell the story of who we are and what we value. A space that would invite people in, in to a life of fellowship and faith, in to a life of community and service, in to a life of learning and beauty. In to the new Simkins Hall in the Shelby Center.
We talked and prayed and God responded with a burst of renewing, transformative energy. (SAVE YOUR APPLAUSE FOR LATER IN SH)
Our member, Todd Erlandson and his colleagues at (M) Arch, created a beautiful and innovative design that taps into the heritage and values of our congregation, the architectural style of our buildings and sanctuary and adds pizzazz and energy that propel us into all the opportunities of the present and the future. Our Trustee Dave Roper brought all of his CalTrans experience to bear and knew that a successful project would require the input of any and all who had an interest in this hall. He listened tirelessly to all of our ideas, our hopes, our dreams, our criticisms, our fears, our suggestions. And although, of course, though there was no way that each of our individual ideas could go forward, Dave’s patience and consideration has insured that we have all been respected and heard and as a result, we have created a hall that we can all be proud of and love and call our own.
We have done a great deal of the work in-house and that has saved us a lot of money. The team of John Youngman, Chair of our Trustees, Bill Prescott our Business Administrator, Todd and Dave have served as the general contractor on this project and you know how much work that entails. Bill, especially, who is on site every day and often every night, has supervised every detail of this project making sure that we have the best products and the best work at the best price and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
And of course, there is the inspiration behind it all—the dedicated years of ministry of Don Shelby who left a lasting legacy of vital ministry and community involvement and whose name now identifies this complex of rooms—the hall, the kitchen, the scout room, the choir room—as The Shelby Center. For indeed these rooms house the beating heart of the life of the congregation’s ministries of fellowship, education and service for children, youth and adults as well as the primary site of our intersection with the community. The new Simkins Hall in The Shelby Center will carry that legacy forward, Don, in ways that will surely make you proud and grateful.
To all of you here today, congregation and community, your generous contributions have made this possible. Your contributions of money and ideas and time. Your patience through the months of planning, fund-raising and the work itself. Your prayers, your encouragement and your support. All this has brought us to this day, by the grace of God.
For indeed, it is the transforming and transfiguring power of God that makes any of this possible. It is God, ever at work to make all things new. It is God, breathing life into old dry bones and bringing forth life. It is God, resurrecting life from resignation and all deadness. It is God, ushering the church into the next generations of its life and witness. It is God who, through the words of the apostle Paul, says to us today, “YOU are God’s building and the foundation is Jesus Christ.”
The measure of what we do this day will be found in our faithfulness and our witness. The real value of the new Simkins Hall in The Shelby Center will be measured in the transformation of the lives of the children, the youth, the families, the adults who will come here to grow in faith and knowledge and the love of God and who go out from here to serve God’s people selflessly and well. The real value of Simkins Hall will always be measured by the community groups and organizations whose experience here the radical hospitality of God and the welcoming embrace of God’s people. The real value of the new Simkins Hall in The Shelby Center will be found in the lives of Christian disciples transformed for the transformation of the world.
YOU are God’s building and the foundation is Jesus Christ.
May God bless us this day with a spirit of deep gratitude and profound joy. May God bless us this day with the transforming and transfiguring power of renewing grace. May God bless us this day with a passion for the endless possibilities and opportunities that lie ahead and call us into God’s tomorrow with conviction and outreaching love.
Amen.
©Patricia Farris, 2008. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
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"YOU are God's Building and the Foundation is Jesus Christ"