The construction crew puts the trusses on Grace Baptist, Batavia, N.Y.
BATAVIA, N.Y.—This past spring Grace Baptist Church broke ground on a 2.7-million-dollar addition to its facility. Now masonry and framing work have been finished, and M3 Development Corporation has put up the trusses connecting the old and new buildings.
“This is the most risky day and a half of the project. Risky for the workers, that is,” says Associate Pastor Mark Hurlbut. The job required workers to be high above the concrete floor, setting the trusses brought up with a 100-foot crane.
But the high risk comes with a high reward, he notes. By mid-, the congregation should be meeting together in their new 500-seat worship center. Also included in the addition will be a 1,500-square-foot nursery and preschool suite, an office suite, restrooms, a coatroom, and a spacious lobby.
After touring the construction site, the deacons of Grace Baptist, Batavia, N.Y., gather for prayer.
As Pastor Don Shirk has said, “This addition is not my addition, nor is it the building committee’s addition. This addition is the whole church’s addition.” Recently the congregation was given the opportunity to make their mark on their new facility while giving God the praise for His provisions. During a morning service, each family received a Sharpie marker before heading out to the newly poured cement. There on the new floor of their addition they inscribed favorite verses, expressions of thanks to God, or prayers to Him. “This project is about the people of God giving praise to God and we wanted to make it permanent and personal for each family,” says Pastor Shirk.
- View Grace Baptist’s “Sharpie Sunday” video and photos (see photos part 1 and part 2).
- Read more about “Sharpie Sunday” at The Daily News.
The prayers written on top of the cement are reminders of what lie beneath the surface: After the earth was dug out in June, members of Grace Baptist wrote their names and favorite verses on rocks, adding them to the fresh cement that would be poured to form the building’s foundation. One couple who have served as greeters at the front doors chose to place their prayer rock where the new entrance would be located. On their rock they wrote Psalm 84:10—“I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Others chose the baptistry as their rocks’ location, testifying of the hearts that have been changed at Grace Baptist.
Pastor Don Shirk placed his prayer rock in the corner of his future study. On it he wrote the church’s motto: “Not Bricks and Mortar, but Hearts and Souls.” “Prayer is the legacy and means by which God has built this church, and my study is the place where I pray most.
“As we look to the future with eyes that see, it will continue to be prayer that builds this church through transformed lives to the glory and praise of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!”
