UPDATE 10 - Thank this guy!
Hey everyone!
Long time, no post! Let me begin with a quick update and then move to the main bulk of this post.
What is happening with the building? The short answer is that we are continuing to work with our architects at Hexagon. Our internal architecture team– Justin Matulewicz, Scott Hicks, Colleen Etherton, Madison Klee, and me– met with Hexagon in August and our internal team met again in September. We have moved out of the schematics phase and onto the design phase. As best I understand it (ask Justin if you want to know the difference), we are shifting out of designing the layout of the space and starting to think through more nitty gritty details– flooring, walls, ceiling, carpeting, etc. The hope is that we can get through this stage and move onto bidding with contractors this fall. Pray that we can break ground at the building in the next couple of months! If you are asking yourself, “when are things ever going to get started over there?”, know that I am asking myself the same question. One of the big things I have learned this year is that architectural planning takes a lot of time. We won’t regret being thorough once the contractor starts doing renovations.
Hauling away debris from the demolition at the new building.
Ok! Now I wanted to move onto the purpose of this post, which is an overdue thank you. Many (many) people deserve a big thank you, but one person in particular who has done so much over the past year has been Scott Hicks.
I have been friends with Scott for ten years since he and I roomed together at a house on Memphis St. We have a lot in common: we were born two weeks apart; I’m from Colorado and Scott is from Nebraska; and we share similar (far away) roots. We have been shoulder to shoulder putting our new roots down in Philadelphia. At around the same time, we got married in/near Philly, bought homes in the River Wards, worked for various ministries in the city, and pressed in at Liberti River Wards through being involved in the same home meeting. He is a great friend. (If you’re reading this, I love you, buddy)
It has been a great joy to labor in Christ alongside Scott as God has called Liberti to renovate this building. I have seen God unlock many of Scott’s passions and gifts over the past year. Scott was one of the first and strongest voices urging us to buy the building; he (alongside the rest of the Cedar St crew) has big dreams for what this building could offer for our neighborhood youth; and he has served on every iteration of our building teams over the past year. Scott has also put more hours in at the building over the past year than anyone: he led demolition, clearing (literally) tons of stuff out of the building; he coordinated skilled volunteers; he organized two rummage sales to clear out the building while connecting with neighbors and artists; and he (alongside Beau Rosario, who deserves a post like this himself) has spent hours at the building putting tape on the floors to imagine how the layout could work for our services and ministries. Scott has saved our church tens of thousands of dollars through his work and ingenuity. God has brought Scott Hicks to Liberti for this labor! Thank you Scott. And thank you Lord for providing him to us. And thank you Julie for letting him spend so many hours at the building :).
It is fitting that Scott is being ordained as a deacon at our 9am service on Sunday, October 20. God has clearly called and equipped him to serve our church in this way. I hope you can join us to celebrate as Scott and three other men are ordained as officers at Liberti. I am amazed at how God has intertwined our stories– Scott and I will be installed in our new roles (him as deacon and me as Lead Pastor) on the same day! It’s a joy to serve alongside you, Scott. Thank you for all you have done and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store to do through you in the years ahead! We wouldn’t have gotten this far at the building without you.
-Stephen
