Dream becomes reality

“Our lips are filled with praise and our hearts with joy as we all meet together today for the first time in this place,” said the Rev. Paul Hooker in his closing prayer Sunday morning. “We see our dreams finally coming true, Lord. But we also realize this is just the beginning of our opportunity to fulfill the dreams you have given our church.”

Hooker, pastor of New Vision Fellowship, preached his first sermon Sunday from the pulpit of the church’s new worship center at the corner of Lindsey Bridge Road and U.S. 311 in Madison. With members and visitors filling almost every chair in the new sanctuary, emotions ran high when the congregation first lifted their voices in song.

“It was an amazing moment when we were able to finally come together to worship here,” Hooker said following Sunday’s inaugural service in the new building. “It’s been a long time coming, but it’s just the end of one journey and the start of a new one.”

Like a birth, there was excitement at the beginning of the story, as well as the end. For New Vision, the story began with the purchase of a 21-acre tract off U.S. 311 more than eight years ago. The church, under the leadership of its first senior pastor, Scott Courtney, purchased the land in April 2001. The vision then, as now, was to develop the property into a church campus with a worship center, educational and recreational facilities, and possibly a Christian school for kindergarten through 12th grade.

“The difference now is that several acres of that original purchase has been rendered useless for development,” Hooker said.

New Vision first considered construction as early as 2002. Hooker said construction costs would have been considerably less at that time. But there would have been unexpected future problems if the buildings had gone up at that time.

In the fall of 2004, the North Carolina Department of Transportation recommended the replacement of the bridges over Big Beaver Island Creek and Little Beaver Island Creek – located on U.S. 311 east and west of the intersection with Island Drive. At the same time, DOT recommended the relocation of Lindsey Bridge Road from its current location near the westernmost bridge.

“When the state first began talking about relocating Lindsey Bridge Road, one of the plans called for it to go almost through the middle of our property,” Hooker said. “We feel better about the current route along the western edge, but it still reduces the usable size of our property by more than four acres.”

From the three possible plans presented at a public meeting in Madison in December 2004, the state selected the westernmost route for the Lindsey Bridge extension. The new road trimmed about four acres off that side of New Vision’s 21-acre site. Hooker said the new road altered the church’s original master plans developed in 2002.

“The athletic fields we planned to build would have been in that area,” he said. “But we believe we still have room to develop those at the back of the property, especially since the state is using some of the dirt removed to extend the useable area back there.”

New Vision members Barbara and Stephen Edwards from Pine Hall remember wondering if Sunday’s opening service in the new facility would ever come. Members since the church organized in 1996, they were there when the visioning process first began in the church’s former location in Rockingham Square Shopping Center.

“I think we missed the very first service, but we’ve been attending New Vision ever since,” said Barbara. “This day means a lot to all of us. We’ve been through a lot in the last few years, waiting to see what would happen, but we’ve also learned a lot about trusting God and waiting on his timing.”

Stephen said the wait appeared to have been fortunate for the church in some ways.

“If we had built the way the original plans indicated, the front of the church would have been facing where the state finally decided to put the new road,” he said.

The process might have been longer, and ultimately cost more, but the end result was worth the wait.

“It’s really a dream come true to be out of the storefront and up on this hill,” said Barbara. “It gives our church more visibility to the community and gives us a place to grow into in the years to come.”

The new facility occupies a 100-foot by 110-foot footprint on the hill off U.S. 311. The central portion of the building is a 60-foot square worship center, complete with fully-integrated audio, video and lighting controls.

Each side of the worship area and the rear of the building will house the church’s educational, fellowship and office areas. At present, only the west side of the building has been finished with classroom and nursery space.

“We knew we had to have space for Sunday school rooms and our nursery,” Hooker said. “And we realized it would cost less to do that now than wait. But we didn’t have the funds to complete the entire facility the way we would like.”

The rear of the building will eventually house a large fellowship hall and kitchen, as well as an upstairs area above the fellowship hall for the church’s youth. The east side of the building will be finished with additional educational rooms.

The congregation plans to do much of the work to complete the building using the skills of church members as funds are available and the needs arise.

Hooker said long-range plans still include additional multi-purpose buildings, athletic fields and additional parking, but it could be many years down the road.

“We learned through so many years in the storefront church that it’s the people that make up the church, not the building,” Hooker said. “We’re excited to be in this new location, but we know it’s about so much more than the physical facility. It’s about fulfilling the dreams that God has given each of us, together and as individuals.”

Terry Brown, the New Vision member who chaired the church’s building committee through the long process, called Sunday’s first service “a huge day” for the congregation.

“So many things had to fall into place along the way to make this happen,” said Brown. “There were so many things that could have gone wrong and stopped our plans in their tracks. Our committee had some small part in bringing us to this place today, but God was the one who brought everything together to make it possible. Today is about thanking Him for bringing us together and letting us build this place to further His work in our community.”

Hooker said the congregation plans to hold an official grand opening service for the new facility, but wants to settle into the building first.

“It’s still new to us and there are a lot of things we’d like to finish before we do that,” he said. “Right now, we just want to enjoy the extra room and open space we’ve been needing for so many years. We just want a little while to enjoy the fulfillment of one dream and the beginning of another.”