Lochbroom Free Church Redevelopment: The Reasons Why

Mission

Every activity of our congregation, from youth activities to worship services, is part of our mission to spread the good news of God’s salvation to our local community. The Kirk Session and Deacons Court have felt for some time that we are being hampered in our mission by not having appropriate premises. Our church building is still a remote, intimidating building that plays no part in the lives of the vast majority of people living in our community. Even when good contacts are made with the community via the youth activities, parents and families do not become familiar with the church building. Having a flexible facility will help bridge that gap by allowing other opportunities for the community to come into the church building at times other than for worship. Our prayer is that our buildings would be inviting and welcoming and not a stumbling block to attending worship on a Sunday.

Presbytery

In February 2007 the Presbytery of Skye and Wester Ross visited the congregation for our five-yearly review. One of the recommendations of that visit was:

“The Presbytery urges the congregation to support the Deacons’ Court as it investigates the feasibility of developing the current church building to provide a more suitable facility for congregational and outreach purposes”

It is worth mentioning that our buildings belong to the Free Church of Scotland nationally and not the local congregation.

Architect

The Deacon’s Court in October agreed to employ Andy McNair from Cowell Matthews Architects, Aberdeen. Andy’s remit was to look at the current building and see what alterations are possible so that we can contain all our weekly activities within the one building. Andy is sensitive to the particular needs of a Free Church congregation. He is a son of the manse and a Free Church member in Bon Accord Free Church, Aberdeen.

Uses for Flexible Building

• Congregational Activities: Worship services, Midweek meetings, Tea & Testimony nights, Psalmody Nights, Women’s Bible Study and Congregational Meals.
• Youth work: a suitable crèche, Sunday School & Bible Class, Connect Club on Mondays, 325 Club on Thursday and YF on Sunday nights.
• Evangelistic work: Christianity Explored, Discipleship Explored and other courses.
• Future Activities: Proposed uses would also include coffee mornings, luncheon clubs and Mums and Toddlers groups.

Lochbroom Free Church Redevelopment: Questions of concern

Given we have the best kept and most beautiful church building in the village will it be ruined by any development?
The last thing any of the Deacons Court wish to do is to ruin the legacy left by the original builders. The main architectural feature of the building is the stunning roof. This will be maintained in a beautiful yet multi-functional building suitable for the needs of a 21st Century congregation. We owe a great debt of gratitude towards the men and women whose vision and effort paid for, and constructed, this building. It would be negligent of the congregation to leave it as a mere relic of the past and unfit for the purpose for which it was built: to further the gospel of Christ.

Will the pews and pulpit still be in the church?
Our proposals include two options for seating: either pews turned 180 degrees or new, comfortable seating similar to the seat image attached at the back of this pack. The decision then becomes a question of wanting one particular internal look or having a flexible and comfortable seating area. Flexibility has been shown to be a benefit in Coigach since the redevelopment there.

The Pulpit will be retained although the position of the pulpit and its height may be altered depending on the final designs.

Why desecrate the wood in the building?
We have no intention of desecrating or destroying the wood in the building. If the congregation prefer the new, sturdy and comfortable seating all the pews would be sold to generate money for the project.

Why is the pulpit not in the centre of the building?
The entrance to the church is unusual. With access being almost half way down the building it means that anyone coming to worship for the first time walks into the building and has half the congregation staring at them. This is an unnecessary barrier to the gospel and this is the reason the pulpit was located in the corner, with all the seats focussed upon the pulpit. 

How much will it cost?
We have started discussions with the Energy Saving Trust who are giving guidance on any possible under floor heating system for the church. This may or may not lead to under floor heating in the building. If we decide against such a heating system on economic or practical grounds, the building will be heated by a mixture of storage heaters and panel heaters. Geothermal under floor heating would, for example, cost over £30,000.

The door separating the church and hall would cost £1500-2000 per metre thus costing around £16,000.

The other main costs would include floor coverings, a new kitchen, joinery work, new lighting, seating and employing a top carpenter to transfer the pulpit from one end to the other.

A budget will be worked out in the very near future once our plans have been agreed.

How would we pay for this development?
There will be a substantial bill to pay. We will need to apply for a loan from the church or a bank and pay off the loan at an agreed rate. There would be collections each month for the church fund and hopefully over a period of a few years this redevelopment will be paid for.

Where would we worship during construction?
It is a rough estimate that we would need other premises for at least three months. Our intention is to use the MacPhail Centre theatre because it has a Loop System, which the village hall does not. Discussions on the practicalities of this venue are ongoing.

Is it right for youth activities to be taking place within the same building as worship services?

• A church building is not ‘holy’ nor is it the ‘house of God’ as some people call it. The teaching of Acts Ch17v24ff makes that clear.
• In God’s providence we have a building in a prime location for all our activities. It is not wrong to use our building to inform the young people in our community of the good news of Jesus. It is not wrong to enable them to enjoy learning about Jesus via activities and music for example.
• The Lochbroom Free Church is not located on Quay Street. We, the members of the congregation, are the church. We could meet in the street or on the shore and be the Lochbroom Free Church. Just as we are not restricted by needing a building to exist so there is no need to unreasonably restrict the activities of the youth groups in spreading the gospel message.
• The Kirk Session must approve all activities which take place in the congregation.

Have you catered for a crèche and for Sunday School rooms?
Having initially considered making an upstairs in the church for these activities we were informed, by our architect, that this would be impractical. Therefore we propose rooms to be constructed for use by the Sunday school, crèche, Deacon’s Courts and Kirk Sessions. Hopefully this facility would enable a supervised crèche to be run to allow mothers with small children to leave their children in a safe environment and thus be able to concentrate more in church.