Riverside Fellowship shares, “At 9:00 a.m. on Monday of this week we were told that it would take a miracle for us to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy by this weekend because of the impending Labor Day weekend. At this point we still had issues with plumbing, landscaping and site work. Our site work developer said all issues pertaining to him would be taken care of by Wednesday. They were taken care of by Tuesday. We were then told that we COULD NOT get another inspection this week but our site engineer, Coastal Design, stepped in by contacting the county. The county agreed to come out as long as there were significant changes as they did not want this inspection to be a waste of their time, hence the urgent call for help during the middle of the week. The People of Riverside answered the call and completed all necessary work relating to the issues concerning the site.

But…we still had issues with the plumbing: a urinal had to be moved 1 inch and we had to replace 6 aerators in the sinks. Our plumbers said that the closest place to get these parts was Orlando and the supply house would not overnight them to us. Praise God for Chuck Murphy who stopped at every plumbing supply house in Pasco on his way to the site on Friday morning. The last place he stopped had exactly what we needed. The plumbing inspection was passed at 2:30 on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. we were again told that there was not ANY way to get another site inspection to clear the remaining 2 critical items on the list (a sign designating a parking space for a compact car and sidewalk cuts in the handicapped parking areas). Chuck Murphy called the county requesting the final inspection. The inspector was here around 9:00 Friday morning and passed the last 2 remaining items.

Still, there were 2 documents which needed to be signed by Coastal Design. The person who needed to sign these documents was out of the office due to a family emergency. But…our God is always in control. This person happened to stop by the office to take care of any emergencies, one of which was ours. We picked up the documents at 1:30 p.m. and took them to the county along with the necessary payments. Upon completion of the plumbing inspection, Chuck Murphy also delivered those documents to the county as well. 24 hours after we were told that there was no chance of getting our Certificate of Occupancy, we were handed our official Certificate of Occupancy at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Who says that God no longer performs miracles? All Glory to the One Who is in Sovereign Control!”

Isn’t it nice when you enter a restaurant and a hostess immediately greets you with a warm smile and a friendly “hello”? Why not offer the same to the workers who are invited guests at your property?

Maybe you have a group of grandparents or a senior group who could plan to welcome the workers with hot coffee, hot water and cocoa packets during the cool mornings. Offering a warm drink and an even warmer smile and a greeting such as, “Good morning, we are glad to have you here today” will help get anyone’s day off to a good start!

Four Days of Celebration

How will you celebrate and dedicate the completion of your building? Here is how one BGW project planned for a Grand Opening. This project planned to celebrate and thank each of the different groups of people who worked to make their project a success.

Although most projects will not go to this extreme to celebrate their opening, I would encourage you to learn from this example and be certain to include everyone who has been involved in your project!

Thursday: Host a Chamber of Commerce lunch with the Mayor in attendance for a ribbon cutting ceremony. This is where we will invite all the government agencies that have been involved in the project. Besides a catered lunch, we will offer tours of the completed facility and a presentation telling who we are and sharing our mission. We will also allow the other chamber members to have a table for their use if they would like – this helps get them to commit to attending. We hope to have the local business and government entities see us as a resource to help them instead of just another large building that they drive by frequently.

Friday: Host a dinner for the construction workers. Include child care, entertainment, and recognition for those in attendance. Since the beginning we have talked to each group as we provided a ministry lunch; we have asked the workers for their names and addresses so we can mail a special invitation to their family.

Saturday: Host a community open house with free hotdogs, soda, etc. We will do this during the day so we can have the evening free to prepare the building for Sunday services. We will offer open tours with members at various locations throughout the building to talk about the different areas of the church and the programs we have to offer our guests and community. We will also have a video loop running that tells about what we believe and why we believe it. We will also hold some kind of drawing to help entice people to visit.

Sunday: This is what we are calling our family day. We started this project last May with a church potluck and that is how we would like to end it. The entire day, including our services, will be focused on gratitude for our Lord’s work. We will recognize all of our volunteers. We will also be inviting all local pastors and their families to join us in the afternoon as we celebrate. At the end we will have a dedication time for the building and dedicate it to the work of the Lord.

Big Valley Christian High School
Modesto, CA

“We had an after church service ‘Open House/Dedication’ for about an hour and a half Sunday afternoon. We all gathered in front of the building, made some appropriate comments, and then had the senior pastor give a dedicatory prayer. This was followed by the doors being thrown open for everyone to take a tour of the facility – lunch was provided. We stationed key people in strategic locations throughout the building to share with our guests how that particular part of the building would be used. This was a wonderful event.”

Colonial Hills Christian School
Lithia Springs, GA

“The dedication for the new building was held on a Sunday morning in conjunction with the [church] service. We were naming the building after a former pastor and founder of the school. He was in the service. Several spoke briefly: Headmaster, Chairman of Deacons (board member), and Pastor. Afterward, the building was opened for tours and refreshments. It was a very moving service.”

“Break Ground – Break Bread”

Although you may think it would be too difficult to celebrate your groundbreaking by observing the Lord’s Supper, it can be a very special way to begin this event and the construction.

“I Can Dig It!”

Let everyone in your church or school take part in this important time! Purchase yellow plastic hard hats from a party supply store and set aside a special time for prayer and worship. Invite a youngster, teenager, college student, middle-aged adult ,and senior to share short prayers and have everyone who can bring a shovel to take part in the groundbreaking. Take family and individual photos on a bulldozer if your builder will allow and arrange it. Serve “Dirt Cups” to the kids!

Dirt Cups
(Serves 8-10)

2 c. cold milk
1 (4 oz) pkg Chocolate instant pudding 1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed
1 (16 oz) pkg Oreo cookies, crushed 8-10 (7 oz) plastic cups
Suggested Decorations: Gummy worms, frogs, candy flowers, and chopped nuts.

Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with whisk until well blended. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in whipped topping and half of crushed cookies. Place one tablespoon crushed cookies into cups. Fill cups 3/4 full with pudding mix. Top with remaining crushed cookies. Refrigerate 1 hour. Decorate and serve.

Big Valley Christian High School
Modesto, CA

“We had a school-wide chicken barbecue prior to open-house and used this event (the ground-breaking was the motivation for having it) to celebrate the acquisition of our permit, had some keynote speakers, the ceremonial shovel full of dirt being turned (all shovels were painted gold) by the builder, me, elder and school boards, and we had the local paper out for pictures which were in the ‘local’ section of the paper that week. It was a wonderful event.”

Colonial Hills Christian School
Lithia Springs, GA

“For ground breaking we brought in a flatbed and set up a sound system in the space where the new building was to be constructed. We invited parents, board members, chamber members, county officials, our banker, our Christian School Association leaders, church members and alumni to this event. The event was held at 1:30 in the afternoon. We dismissed all student and staff members to this event. The following people spoke for just about 2 minutes each: parent, Christian School Association leader, board member, student, faculty member, builder, headmaster and pastor. We also had one of our students sing a solo. We sang a chorus at the end of the speeches and then gave shovels and a hard hat to each speaker and officially broke ground. Pictures of this event were put in the newspaper and in newsletters. A bulletin board commemorating this event was placed in the hall. The bulletin board was updated as the building progressed. The whole event took about 45 minutes.”

This has been a highly successful form of ministry, especially with the help of licensed hair stylists or barbers from your ministry. One church reports, “Our workers were just that when they were pampered with FREE haircuts on the job site, Chick-Fil-A calendars, refreshing bottled water, and of course a chance to win a $25 Sears gift card. One worker had not had his hair cut in 4 months, another had just had his cut but said ‘Give me a trim,’ another said ‘Give me a crew.’ It wasn’t hard keeping the seats full.”

The story goes that a woman was asked by a co-worker, “What is it like to be a Christian?” She replied, “It is like being a pumpkin. God picks you up from the patch, brings you in and washes all the dirt off of you. Then he cuts of the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. and then carves you a new smiling face and puts a light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.”

While some ministries do not believe Halloween should be celebrated and they may not choose to use the pumpkin illustration above, consider using a “Halloween” object as a vehicle to share God’s message.

Look within your church, school or community for a donation or a low cost purchase of pumpkins, one for each worker onsite. Arranging for school kids to participate in this ministry will make it more effective. Let the workers know ahead of time that several children will be carving pumpkins right after a quick lunch (complete with pumpkin pie!) Ask if they would be willing to help the kids.

For safety’s sake, have the workers do the carving and have the worker and child clean the “guts” out together. Instruct them to carve a smiling pumpkin! As they finish, share this illustration with them. You may want to add a few words at the end of it, but keep it simple, short and to the point! You might give them a candle representing Jesus as the Light and tell them that you would be happy to answer any questions, if they want to see you later. Afterwards, have a prepared card ready with the illustration on one side. On the reverse side, it should say “A gift from (organization name here).” Also include a gift tag and let the kids fill this in. Secure it to the stem with a rubber band and present the pumpkins to the workers to take home.

A Celebration event at the completion of the project is a great time to personally thank everyone who has been an important part of this time of our lives. It’s also another opportunity to share Jesus Christ with the worker and their loved ones.

Let’s face it, if we send an invitation to the contractor offices, a few owners may show up – and that’s great, but, to even have a chance for a laborer to attend, we have to specifically and personally invite him. The best way we have seen this done so far, is to collect each worker’s name each week that he is onsite. Now, this isn’t just going to happen; a worker is not likely to just hand over his name, address and phone number without a reason. Telling him that you want to invite him back for an event probably won’t get it done either. So, what do we suggest? Give them a reason to want you to have this information!

Several churches have successfully collected the worker’s names by having a drawing each time there was a ministry lunch. One church pulled a name from a hard hat and the selected worker was given a $30 American Express Gift Card. Suddenly the workers are anxious to give you the information! This church collected worker information every week and pulled a winning name each week at lunchtime. When invited, some of these workers returned for the Grand Opening celebration!

Another church also held a hard hat drawing and gave away miscellaneous tools and other small gifts. One week they gave away a fifty dollar bill! As a result, this church was able to send invitations – for a two-hour dinner cruise – to more than 150 workers who had worked on their project! Now, only sixteen workers replied to the invitation; and, only ten of those sixteen actually attended the dinner cruise. But those ten and their loved ones were once again thanked for the work they performed; and most importantly, they heard the gospel again.

“Do you really encourage graffiti on your projects?” We certainly do! We encourage writing or painting on the steel, concrete floor–just about anywhere that will eventually be covered up. But what we really encourage is “Holy Graffiti” which is another means of having a witness onsite. The graffiti we are talking about is writing out scripture verses for the workers to see and read. It’s writing “Jesus loves you” and “We pray for you and for your safety” where a worker will see it. Holy Graffiti is also an expression of our faith in God and his goodness to us; expressions of “thankfulness” for God’s provision of a building which we have needed.

A Holy Graffiti event is often a meaningful experience in the lives of the people involved because it is an exciting time. The Bible verses and other spiritual expressions

written within this building will be a witness and testimony to the workers today and throughout the construction phase–and will forever be a part of the building itself!

No other event will surprise a worker as much as arriving on site the following day to find scripture verses, words of encouragement and expressions of thankfulness throughout the building! And you can bet he will read them!

Holy Graffiti shouldn’t replace us as the only witness on this project; it should be another tool to reach out to the workers. So, bring your Bible and bring your magic markers and remember God’s word will accomplish His will.

“I came to work tired and discouraged this morning then I walked around the building reading what was written on the walls and beams and floors; it changed my day!” – Worker on a BGW site

Everyone loves little kids, right? So, with proper supervision, let’s allow our kids to be the little charmers they are naturally! You might be asking, “How can our younger kids be a part of the Ministry of Construction?”

How about making “Thank You” cards for the construction workers! It’s amazing to see the appreciation of the workmen for this act of kindness. After posting the cards for a few days, take them down and send a few home with each worker – in this way, we can reach out to his family!

Singing and skits are another way to include our smaller children in ministering to the workers. These are pictures of the 3 year olds that came to a construction site to present a Thanksgiving skit for the men at break time.

The Riverside Kidz Shine Performers were shining for the workers as they acted out performances to The Great Divide by Point of Grace and Shout to the Lord. The workers enjoyed this entertainment on their lunch break as they munched away on Blimpie boxed lunches and Gatorade.

One church writes, “Thursday, May 5th, was National Day of Prayer and El Cinco de Mayo for our Mexican friends. We thought this would be a great day to share the gospel with our friends on the property.

Everyone was blessed to hear the testimony of Doug Norris, translated for the Spanish speakers. Doug shared briefly about his life before Christ and about the day he realized his need for a Savior. Afterwards, Doug was able to spend some extra one on one time with one of the workers who was VERY interested in learning more. Please keep this young man in your prayers! This is what our outreach to our workers is all about.

We concluded the event with our now famous giveaways. In honor of Mother’s Day, each worker received a plant and two lucky winners received gift baskets from Bath and Body Works.

We also gave away two gift certificates to Sears and ice cream for everyone. The men are always excited and thankful!

Lastly, we celebrated El Cinco de Mayo by giving all the workers Jarritos (Mexican sodas). Anita and Tina Jablon were able to spend some time talking with our Spanish speaking workers.

It was great to see God beginning to work in the lives of some of our workers. Be praying that the seeds being planted will be nurtured and that God will use these events for His glorious purpose. Pray that the workers will be open to attending our grand opening celebration when the time comes!”

Don’t forget to place signs around the construction site telling workers that you are daily praying for their safety. Secure a mailbox and prayer request cards in an area where a worker can access them without drawing undue attention. It’s important that he feels comfortable that he can slip a request in the box without being ridiculed by another worker. Free tracts and Bibles can be offered in this same manner.

…was the idea of the Colonial Hills Christian School project in Lithia Springs, GA. They decided to purchase large Rubbermaid style toolboxes and fill them with items a construction worker would likely use. They included flannel shirts, hats, work gloves and socks in the toolbox which were presented to workers on their site as a Christmas gift! They gave 25 of these gifts out just prior to Christmas. All of the items were donated through the school families.

What a great family project to share with our children! Many additional items could be added to these gifts, some suggestions would be: a hand drawn Christmas card from school children; a seasonal tract; a New Testament; a personal invitation to your church or school Christmas program; some Christmas candy or cookies. Just about anything will work, so let us know what you add!

A prayer team is another effective witness to the workers on your project. This is not a time to hide in our prayer closets, but rather a time to be seen. Why not schedule a group who will meet onsite for prayer at an appointed time each day or week? Consider meeting in the morning at the time workers are to begin arriving at the site; however, because this is a visible witness, consistency is key in this outreach!

A prayer vigil is a great opportunity for us as Christians to grow in our relationship with God. Whether 24, 12, or 8 hours, we encourage you to include at least one prayer vigil into the time of your construction. Post a sign ahead of time so the workers will know what you will be doing – and ask your BGW builder to participate with you during this event!

A prayer vigil is usually prepared by a group of people who set it up to make sure someone is always praying. Vigils are often planned to lift a specific matter of prayer before God. To start the vigil, someone has to want it passionately enough to get 8 or more people to commit at the start. (These early joiners help shape and lead the vigil.) This group must decide what the vigil’s focus will be, and stick to it. Once that is done, it’s a good idea to prepare a written guide that tells what a vigil is (assume others do not know), what the purpose of this vigil is, how long it will run, and how they can take part in it. Also, it should tell them who to talk to about it. Have one focal place for the vigil, where people know they can go to be a part of it. This place can be a sanctuary, a prayer chapel, or even an outdoor site. The place must be fairly quiet, worshipful, and easy to get to. Many can be there at any one time, but there should always be someone there for the entire vigil. Encourage those who can’t make it there to pray at home, according to the guide’s schedule.

One last note, a two- to three-hour event is not a vigil, but a concert of prayer event or a long prayer meeting. To state the obvious: a vigil takes vigilance. (A portion of the prayer vigil information above has been copied from: http://www.spirithome.com/paripray2.html.)

An eighteen hour prayer vigil beginning at 6 p.m. on a Friday night and concluding at noon on Saturday provides ample time for most work and school schedules to fit within. Along with prepared prayer lists (which might vary and rotate by the hour), it is wise to prepare a hospitality area where participants can help themselves to juice, coffee, water, cookies or whatever refreshments you might decide upon.

Consider a Prayer Walk around the outline of the building – stopping to pray at each corner. Pray for the salvation of the construction workers who will work on your project. Pray for the community where you are located to be reached through you. Pray for God’s provision of the necessary finances to complete the building. Pray for God to grow the both the membership of the church or school, but more importantly that He will grow each member spiritually through this process.

Host a barbecue on the construction site with a theme of construction site safety.

What a great family project to share with our children! Many additional items could be added to these gifts, some suggestions would be: a hand drawn Christmas card from school children; a seasonal tract; a New Testament; a personal invitation to your church or school Christmas program; some Christmas candy or cookies. Just about anything will work, so let us know what you add!

With the concrete underfoot – your building starts to take shape! Working with your BGW builder, turn this event into a facility tour to celebrate!

Be creative–this might involve a cookout, and fun and games, praise and worship time, or even a prayer meeting. If the entire slab is poured, ask your BGW builder to mark out some or all of the rooms so members can move from “room to room” praying over the future activities that will take place in each particular room. The biggest caution here is as with all ministry activities–you must work with the builder and only have the event if he can make it a safe event for you!

If you don’t care for the sound of a “Slab Party,” how about a “Service on the Slab?” Here is the story of a BGW project that did just that! This is a special story because this church, led by its godly pastor, had stood by watching their previous church burn to the ground. While it still burned, the pastor encouraged his people that God would be glorified through this trial. It took two years of borrowing and renting space for church and Sunday School classes, but today they had a concrete slab on which to worship!

“The entire slab had not yet been poured, but some of the steel beams had already been set on the portion of floor that was poured. The pulpit area was still red Georgia clay but the remainder of the building did have a completed concrete foundation footing.

We gathered at our regular service time on Sunday evening in May. It was sunny and hot–good ol’ south Georgia weather! Pastor had a lectern set up as close to where the pulpit would eventually be without getting off of the slab. Our sound men had our portable sound system set up and running. Most of the congregation was seated in lawn chairs on the portion of the slab that would soon be the sanctuary. Many of us had umbrellas to shade us from the blistering sun rays.

Pastor made the usual church announcements. He then began to point out sections of the building telling us where the nursery, kitchen, fellowship hall, gymnasium, music department, teen department, Christian school classrooms, restrooms, Administrative offices, entry halls–all things, where they would be located. He then opened the service with a pray of thanksgiving saying, “We dedicate this portion of the building to the glory of God. We are excited about what You are going to do for us in the days to come.”

After prayer, we sang “Revive Us Again” and one of our deacons led us in prayer after which we received the tithes and offerings and continued with the service by singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Pastor asked us to pay special attention to the words of this song because many of them apply to our church today.

One of our ladies provided special music by singing “The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail.” It was funny because as she was singing this particular song, the devil tried to disrupt the service and dishearten us by shutting down the sound system. Although the men worked with it as hard as they could, it wouldn’t come on again until after the service had ended. Pastor told us not to be bothered by it because just as the words of the song had stated, “the gates of hell shall not prevail!” We continued the service with-out the PA system–and God continued to bless!

Pastor then read from Ezra 3:8-11. As the Bible says in verse 11, ‘the foundations of the house of the Lord were laid.’ Pastor asked for and received a hearty ‘Amen’ from the congregation. He then told us, ‘this is God’s work, we are God’s people, and we are going to follow Him. We have no choice, no alternative. We are going to follow Him.”

He continued by saying that we are located on a main highway through Waycross, Georgia and as people pass by they will “see the beautiful building that God has erected here. It is amazing what God is doing for us! Can you feel it? I can feel something. I felt it earlier this afternoon as I walked up and down, back and to on this slab.

Can you feel it? It feels like a steady pulsing–like a heartbeat. You know what that is? That is a heartbeat; the heartbeat of this church! The heartbeat that says our church is alive and well! And church, we are alive and well! God has blessed us mightily!”

Pastor went on to remind us that this past October we had met under the group of pecan trees over on the side of the property and we had a groundbreaking service on a cold, windy, rainy day. Now in just two weeks we will gather again on the slab to write Bible verses on the steel beams as a way to dedicate the building further, and also as a witness to the workers who will be reading the messages and Bible verses.

At the end of the brief message, Pastor appointed men to go and stand in many different parts of the building. He then divided up the congregation to go join those men and hold hands as a group and pray for the building, the construction workers, the congregation, and God’s ministry in our church. As each group finished with their prayer time, they were dismissed from the meeting–although, no one left for quite some time! As one of the people said, ‘It already feels like home!’”

This is a ceremony in which a Bible is buried in the concrete floor, typically beneath the stage floor. This can also be done as a “Cornerstone” or “foundation” ceremony, where the Bible or even a time capsule is buried in the concrete foundation of the building. The church can also create a plaque or sign to commemorate the ceremony and provide a reminder in the future that the church is “standing on the Word of God”.

Host a barbecue or picnic to celebrate when the roof and building are fully enclosed (roof and wall sheeting/rough framing are completed).