Check out the clips from an interview with Bevan on the opportunity the new kids building represents as well as some discussion around the decision to move forward in the midst of a global pandemic.
Transcript
Bevan
We’re building kids building because that is the best way to balance the site with the capacity of the auditorium and the youth and the parking and all of that. But what it represents is the opportunity to partner with parents to train up children who can not only live their lives the way that God has designed life to be lived, but who can influence and be leaders and impact this community and this world in a way that this year has really shown us. We really need people who understand God’s ways and who are living God’s ways in order to really help solve the problems of this world. So the chance to do our part in this community to advance the next generation long after older people like myself are gone, I just can’t image how exciting that’s going to be to be able to do something like that.
Transcript
Elliot
So I wanted Bevan to talk a little bit about this project and how we got to the point where we’re at, so got a couple questions for him. The first one is why are we building a kids building during a global pandemic.
Bevan
Obviously, that’s probably the first question that pops in everyone’s mind. It’s the first one that comes to my mind. I think this year is going to leave an impression on us obviously for a long time, maybe a generation in some ways. And it’s hard to know exactly what that impression will be, but from what I have observed, I think there are going to be two truths that are becoming more and more clear now and will be more and more clear even as we move beyond the pandemic. And those two truths are (1) how unstable life really is. Before this pandemic, I think there was this illusion of security and stability and now that’s pretty much gone. And I think the second impression or idea that’s really going to linger with us for a long time is the notion that the answers that this world gives really do not solve the problems of this world.
So I think those two realities represent and opportunity. And I think the opportunity is to open people up more and more to the truth that God provides, His answers to the problems of the world. And the second thing is the stability that a relationship with God gives beyond the circumstance of this world. So I think the opportunity that is represented in this is for people to be more and more open to the things of God as we emerge from this pandemic.
As I’ve thought more and more about this, prayed about it, talked with the other leaders here at Seabreeze one of the things that became clear to me is that we need to do everything we can right now in the middle of this pandemic to put ourselves in a position to get ready so that when we immerge from this, I mean fully immerge from this, not just the tiers and the colors, but when we’re done with all that and we’re on the other side of this, that we immerge in a position where we can really be ready to make the most of the opportunities of what God is going to be doing in people’s hearts. I think that’s why now is the time to raise the money, to build this building, get it done as soon as we can so that we can be ready to really make the most of the opportunities that I think God is going to present on the other side of this pandemic.
Elliot
Something that challenges me about that is just how proactive it is. It’s not kind of just a sitting back, but it's saying that there is a unique opportunity in this season and we want to seize that, so there is a lot of movement. I find that really inspiring.
Bevan
Yeah. That was part of my realization too. There was a time in the summer where I was discouraged probably like we’ve all gotten and in kind of a funk about all of this. I was think about what we’re supposed to do as a church and I remembered the first statement that Jesus made about the church, really you can call it the birth certificate of the church. He described the church as something that the gates of hell will not prevail against. And what that means basically is that we are an offensive, advancing force against evil in this world and I realized at that point that I needed to change my thinking from how could we survive this, to how could we make the most of this. How could we advance in this stage with all the limitations that we’re all faced with.
For more information on this project check out the construction blog.