UPDATE 11 - Year in Review

Hey all!

As of December 20, 2024, it has been one year since we closed on 2531 E Lehigh Ave! Time flies.

We have been able to do a lot in the building over the past year. It was a year of demolition: we had two rummage sales, loaded a full dumpster of stuff from inside in the building, and spent months clearing out walls and wires. Many of us have objects in our homes that used to be at Portside Arts Center. It has also been a year of small gatherings there: we hosted several prayer meetings, a worship gathering for our advanced commitment for Project Sanctuary back in the spring, and meetings for various teams– elders, deacons, architecture team, and more. I met with several pastors this year in the building and we prayed for the future God has for the space. I walked to the building to pray there by myself many times. But most of all, it was a year of planning. Our architect and the church’s internal architecture team have had several meetings to discuss the vision, schematics, and design for the space– to say nothing of the phone calls, emails, appointments with consultants and engineers at the building, and pop-ins to our architect’s office to check-in on how the work is going. We have much to thank God for.

And I have much to thank you all for as we look back on the past year. Thank YOU for your prayers, your generosity, and your service. Thank you for your attention and reading this blog. Thank you for coming up to me and asking, “where are things with the building?” Your attention is a sign of your care.

At the same time, I will be honest with you all and say that I am discouraged that we are hitting the year anniversary and we have not broken ground on renovations yet. There are many reasons for these delays. In October, after a couple rounds of deliberations, our team decided that we wanted to change the layout of the second floor sanctuary. The new layout, we are confident, will be better for sound, allow a few more seats, and make the space better to use as a multipurpose space. But that change was late in the architectural order of operations, and the timing was rough right before the holiday stretch of November-December. Yet I have no doubt that we will not regret making this change in five years…even if it has slowed us down by a couple of months.

Looking ahead, expect to be hearing more about the building in the new year. This fall has been a quieter season with the building, which felt appropriate after how much we were talking about it in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024. But our attention will be back there again in 2025 as, Lord willing, we start renovations and gear up for moving in to make it our church’s home.

Again, thank you all for praying! God has done much and has much in store for Liberti at 2531 E Lehigh Ave.

-Stephen