Last month, we began our Committee meeting by recognizing what our congregation accomplished on the facilities master planning front in 2024. Following the congregational listening sessions last January, the church entered into an agreement with St. Joseph’s Catholic School to lease our upper parking lot to them. After checking with First Baptist New Street, we sold the High Place lot to the Catholic Diocese of Savannah, thereby accommodating some of St Joseph’s other ministry plans. We also transitioned out of the Washington Avenue Building (WAB) with youth and adult Sunday School classes moving to use under-utilized parts of our Great Room and High Street buildings. Once again, we extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone for their flexibility, thoughtful inputs, and the hard work that made these transitions possible.
Since last Fall, our Committee has been planning to market the vacant WAB to potential partners. We engaged a photographer to take high quality photos that prospective partners can view and that our congregation can also use. We created a list of organizations and key individuals to notify that we are seeking partner(s) from the educational, business, cultural, and nonprofit sectors whose missions and proposed project align with our values of inclusion, equality, and community impact. While we are not seeking to sell the building outright, we are open to exploring creative opportunities to partner, lease, and redevelop the building so that it continues to benefit both our congregation and the broader community. Our committee has also created a flyer that shares pertinent information about the building, our selection criteria, and how to contact us. This information, along with photos, has also been posted on the church’s website at https://fbcxmacon.org/washington. Interested partners will be available to view the building before providing us with a written proposal for the committee to evaluate before it makes recommendations to the Church Council and Conference.
While we anticipate that most of our committee work this year will focus on the Washington Avenue Building, we will also continue to explore options around the shared use of the High Street Building.
Please help us to spread the word in your circles of influence about this opportunity to partner with the First Baptist Church of Christ. We will also share this information at the church conference on Wednesday, January 29th.
Harold Tessendorf Chair:
Facilities Master Planning Committee