UPDATE: Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
As you may remember, in May of this year, we told the church that we would soon start to renovate the buildings on campus as an act of faith and stewardship over the resources God has given to us. It took a bit of time, but we are excited to announce that we now have the necessary permits, approvals, and resources to begin construction in Sanctuary 2. Starting the remodel in Sanctuary 2 gives us the opportunity to relocate staff offices in such a way as to make more room for key ministries to expand strategically.
Construction will begin on Monday, October 23rd, so our final day to host the indoor live-stream services in Sanctuary 2 will be Sunday, October 22nd. Our goal is to transition the indoor live-stream service to The Grille by Sunday, October 29th. We will create a warm and welcoming environment for worship with a few initial adjustments. While temporary changes will be made to The Grille to accommodate this phase of construction, we will work to redesign The Grille into a multi-purpose fellowship hall as the remodel continues across campus.
With the conversion of The Grille, we will no longer offer weekly meal service on Sundays. Instead, moving forward, The Bridge Culinary program will provide food service for special events. This shift benefits the church’s vision for Jesus’ fame and The Bridge Culinary program.
In this transition, we will assist ministries that currently utilize Sanctuary 2 throughout the week in finding new meeting locations. Impacted volunteer teams will also receive further instructions from ministry leaders in the near future.
UPDATE: Sunday, July 16th, 2023
It is hard to believe that we are halfway through summer already! We are grateful for how the Lord has been faithful in providing many blessings in this season. As we look ahead to the fall and to our upcoming remodel, we have decided to close The Grille on Sundays through August. Closing The Grille for these six weeks will allow us to provide some rest for the Bridge Ministry, which runs our Sunday food service. Our staff team will also take advantage of this season to reimagine and prepare for the way we could do our Sunday food service in The Grille in light of the upcoming remodel.
While The Grille is closed on Sundays, we will provide complimentary breakfast treats in The Grille dining area, along with our regular coffee and tea stations on the patio. We hope you will stick around after services to enjoy these treats and fellowship with your church family.
We are so thankful for The Grille and the Bridge Ministry for being such a blessing to all of us here at Calvary. Please pray with us as we seek wisdom, desiring the Lord’s vision for the next season of ministry through The Grille restaurant.
UPDATE: Sunday, May 7th, 2023
Our Desire
We want to see the fame and glory of Christ in as much of the Monterey Peninsula and Salinas Valley as possible. We want as much land and as many buildings dedicated to Christ’s kingdom as possible. Calvary Monterey is one of many expressions of the church in this community, and God has given us nine acres of land, plenteous water rights, and permits for a wonderful new pavilion sanctuary on the lawn. Additionally, we rejoice that our current building and land were completely paid off in 2020. So, we want to be faithful stewards of what he’s entrusted to us. Though our goal is not numerical growth, we do want a gospel-saturated, Christ-exalting, Scripture-loving, God-honoring, disciple-making church for many years to come, which we hope leads to more people at Calvary and more churches in our area.
Here’s our current property line:
Our Situation
God has blessed us with many resources, including his word, the gospel, his Spirit, and unity of purpose. Additionally, he has given us land, water, and permits. With the management of these resources, we recognize that there are several obstacles in front of us:
Our attendance is nearing pre-Covid levels. Though the demand for a pavilion sanctuary is not as strong as before 2020, the pressure points we experienced prior to 2020 remain: our children’s ministry space, parking, and main sanctuary seating are not sufficient to sustain the anticipated growth. We think these pressures will increase in time.
Our finances have plateaued during the last 16 months, while the price point for the pavilion sanctuary is becoming more out of reach due to rising construction costs.
Our current facility, or major portions of it, have remained untouched while we waited to see if we would build the new pavilion sanctuary. Deferred maintenance, scattered offices and workstations, and delayed repairs and updates abound.
Our video sanctuary (Sanctuary 2), though it houses a beautiful part of our congregation, is too large and far away from the rest of the church. We like the concept of adding worship space with a video venue and think it can work well for many, but our current video sanctuary is further away and bigger than we’d like it to be.
Our Plan
Our financial board, pastoral team, and church staff have decided to delay the construction of the new pavilion sanctuary and instead desire to creatively solve our pressing needs. To help our seating pressures, we will build a modest balcony that will add 100 seats to our current main sanctuary. To help the kid’s space pressure, we will move the 4th-5th grade classrooms to our current main-level office spaces. To deal with delayed repairs and outdated areas, we will do a modest renovation of the main level. To make our video sanctuary more appropriate in size and closer to the rest of the church, we will move it to the existing Grille restaurant space. To provide a dining space on Sundays, the patio seating will be revamped, and part of Sanctuary 2 will become indoor dining. To solve the problem of scattered offices, we are moving the main offices to Sanctuary 2. To help the parking pressure, we will investigate adding more parking to our undeveloped land.
Our financial board has approved financing for this project, as we cannot pay for all of it with our current savings. We are in the permitting process now, so we hope the project will begin within the next month or two and continue in phases throughout the year. Additionally, we have acquired a project manager who is offering his services at no cost to the church.
We are excited about this plan for various reasons:
The crucial addition of main sanctuary seats facilitates church growth. Though we can always add early morning, afternoon, and nighttime services, our strongest need is at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. on Sundays in the main sanctuary. Currently, our main sanctuary seats 400 people per service. With the addition of a balcony, our capacity will raises to 500 seats per service.
2. The new main-level classroom space for 4th and 5th-grade children provides more space for a cornerstone ministry, Calvary Kids.
3. The entire project enables us to delay or eliminate a costly pavilion sanctuary project, which, if undertaken, will be easier to pursue as the church grows in the next several years. (If a pavilion sanctuary is ever built, almost all of these changes will need to be done, so this project can be seen as phase one of a two-phase project.) Below is a mockup of a future pavilion.
4. The new office space puts most of the staff in the same location, growing collaboration, communication, and efficiency. The office spaces will be built in the building that is currently Sanctuary 2.
5. Once The Grille is converted into a video sanctuary, the people who attend service in the video sanctuary will now be closer to the main sanctuary, Calvary Kids classrooms, and the welcome center. Additionally, we will be able to move our outdoor seating just outside the back wall of the new video sanctuary, allowing for these two alternative worship spaces to be close together.
6. A unified and updated look will communicate trustworthiness and health to everyone who visits the campus.
7. It provides an opportunity for our current congregation to partake in the church's future in a way it has not been able to in recent years.
Our Hope
To see Jesus Famous, ever increasingly, at Calvary and in our wider community.
To grow into our expanded seating and, if the Lord leads and provides, enter into a new pavilion sanctuary by 2027.
To develop strong discipleship pathways at Calvary so that we are always making disciples, whether we build in the future or not.