Project Initiative No. 3
The Next generation of community ministry
+ Staff Development
A space for mission, ministry preparation and collaboration.
The church office complex was established in the renovation of the 1980s, when the church staff looked and functioned differently that it does today. The number of pastors, administrative assistants, and ministry staff working in this complex has changed significantly in the past forty years while the technology needed to do our work has become smaller or has been phased out completely. Finally, the values placed upon the ability of our staff to work collaboratively and safely have also changed.
The current office layout has significantly underused spaces and empty offices, we have inefficiencies in workflow and organization, and we have significant issues with sound transmission between offices preventing confidential conversations from being kept private.
Above all, however, we have seen a dramatic increases to our community ministry services facilitated by our full-time Director of Community Ministries, Lisa Horne. Our congregation assists people in receiving vital records (birth certificates and driver’s licenses) so they can begin a journey out of poverty in a dignified way.
A licensed clinical social worker, Lisa weekly welcomes dozens of clients to her office while also returning around one hundred phone calls of people interested in the services we provide. She has helped us forge important partnerships with the Secretary of State, Department of Health and Human Services, and the County Clerk’s office with the result that we are now a recognized agency working to help people with identity recovery. It’s a beautiful ministry and one that Lisa conducts from her small office, alone. She is in need of additional office space and room to hire a part-time assistant to ease the burden on Lisa while also expanding our church’s ministry to the community of Flint.
Our friends at Sedgwick + Ferweda Architects worked with us to provide a plan for a renovated office space that addresses these concerns and more as we seek to better position our staff for growth and development into the future.
In the revised plan for the office, we almost double the space given to Community Ministry and provide an outer office for an assistant to work who can coordinate appointments and handle phone calls and drop-in-visits. The office complex in the proposed renovation began with the desire to provide a space for Community Ministry to grow and develop under Lisa’s leadership.
The design also take seriously the needs of collaboration between key staff members providing our staff with offices that intentionally share a common space for meetings, planning, conversation, and file/resource storage. We are also able to expand our staff break room into a proper space with tables and chairs for staff to enjoy lunches or coffee together. We are also creating a workspace that is able to be flexibly used by our Women’s Ministry Coordinator, summer interns, and others who may need a desk to sit at while they are in the office.
The Community Ministry department will receive a significant expansion in this plan, nearly tripling in size. The outer office will be staffed by a part-time assistant who will help Lisa Horne coordinate appointments, phone calls, and drop-in visits. They will be a friendly face welcoming anyone needing resource help from the church. From the hallway, clients can access the interior of the Community Ministry space via a door. Workstations in the outer office will allow clients to work on paperwork or complete online registration forms quickly and efficiently.
The interior of the Community Ministry director's office will be devoted to client care and counseling. A window will provide natural light and access to this office will be possible through two doors (one not pictured), allowing the director to safely and easily exit the office when needed.
Another view of one of the hallways showing the conference room (right), staff organization, mailbox, and planning area (left).
Staff members will be able to enjoy time together for meals or coffee breaks. For the first time, a full-size refrigerator will allow staff to bring more food from home. An instant hot-water system will allow for access to hot water for the first time, which will make food prep, santitation, and cleaning easier.
Looking down the hallway of the new office interior, you can see that glass walls provide visibility and light to our common spaces. On the left of this image is the "Family Ministries Office" where our children's and youth ministry directors can plan and collaborate on upcoming events and activities. On the right, you can see into the conference room where staff meetings and brainstorming sessions will take place.
Office technology needs and space have changed over the past 40 years and we now no longer need two large rooms devoted to our two copy machines. Instead, a double-wide hallway will suffice for paper storage and machine use.