Question 3 - Location

How did you go about finding a place to meet? What factors were considered? What were the requirements for the facility? What options were available to you (school, office bldg, etc)?

• First met in homes and encouraged people to go to Sunday services at a church they liked (1)
• Starting meeting on Sunday mornings almost 2 years after planning began, began during Lent (1)
• Initially met in an empty room above a store front (free) and borrowed chairs from a local Methodist church (1)
• Community room owned by a non-profit that could seat 85, rent was $50/Sunday; as the church grows will contribute more (1)
• Didn’t want to use commercial space for a traditional service (2)
• Networked with local pastors and used their space (library) free of charge (2)
• Looked into meeting at 7th Day Adventist churches, local art studio (2)
• Hope to start a service at local music school (2)
• Met at 5pm Sunday evening at a local Lutheran Church, fee to use facility; then moved to a Baptist church that could use for free (3)
• 1st Sunday morning service at Sheraton Hotel for Easter (3)
• 2.5 years after bible studies started moved into an elementary school; contract with school district, negotiated to have 2 pods kept at the school for storage and the PTA uses one of the pods (3)
• 1st service in pastor’s living room and then met in a room above his garage for first 4 weeks (4)
• Moved to ARS (air-conditioning company) building that had a training room that could hold 50-70 people on Sunday mornings, rent was free and stayed there for 6 months (4)
• After 6 months had 1st public worship, a church member owned a local mall and moved into one of the empty bays and used another bay across the hall for the nursery, $2500 monthly rent including utilities for 2 bays; after a store went out of business moved into a double bay that could accommodate 180 people and paid $5,000(4)
• After 1 year moved into a portion of Belk office space, month to month lease, paid $6,000 (out of $20,000 total) for rent and utilities separate; later had to pay fair market value of $20,000 and yet not in location desired
• At the beginning, started in a melodrama theater and looked geographically for bigger places, the goal was to meet unbelievers in the city (6)
• Moved into a school from the incubation period, the school admin was very open and excited (7)
• The strong interest was to meet the lost, but used a growth and demographic study to confirm area to determine location that confirmed prior knowledge (7)
• Had no targeted demographic, but was simply open to the Lord; now, desire to stay in the center of Austin and plant 10-12 churches (8)
• In 1990, moved into school; location was due to 85% of congregation lived in southwestern part of county (9)