Are Sundays really too full?

We sit shoulder to shoulder on Sundays, we’re squeezed into children’s ministry classrooms that are hard to find, and there’s often a line for the restroom. If we want to be a hospitable church that cares about making room for people who are seeking God or exploring faith, then the answer is definitely yes!

Why renovate the Mill St. properties now?

We have been searching for a solution to our space problems for years. We feel we finally have a building plan that balances our values and priorities, and are ready to step forward in faith. Most of all, we want to be faithful to our calling as a church that welcomes and invites new people into a transformational relationship with Christ!

Are we becoming a “megachurch?” Why don’t we just plant more churches?

While it is true that Highrock is one of the larger churches in the Greater Boston area, we are still far from qualifying as a megachurch.

Despite sending many of our trusted leaders and friends to plant churches in the Highrock Network, we haven’t found church planting to be an effective remedy to our space problem. Whatever space our church planters leave behind gets filled up almost immediately!

How will the Highrock Sunday experience change?

Our new sanctuary will allow us to welcome more people into fewer services. It is a reasonable “next size up” for us, allowing us to go from 270 seats (plus 150 at the Mill) to seating 500 people comfortably (up to 600 at full capacity) at each service. This means we have room to grow significantly while allowing worship services to still feel full by adjusting how we arrange seating.

This building project will allow us to welcome and accommodate more people, improve our children’s space, and utilize staff and volunteer resources more effectively. It would not change the fact that what makes Highrock special is our community and relationships. We will continue to emphasize and invest in medium sized community groups and small groups as avenues for deeper relationships and growth.

What will the new space feel like? Will it change our worship experience or culture?

The new sanctuary will be built into what is now the Mill garage, so it will undoubtedly feel different from our New England colonial style sanctuary! However, we are being as thoughtful as we can about making the worship space both worshipful and versatile. The roof is being raised several feet to provide a more expansive feel. We will be exploring creative ways to incorporate design and beauty into our worship experiences. We will be discerning in our use of technology to facilitate, not dominate, our worship.

Highrock has always valued authenticity, so we aim to preserve and take advantage of the industrial feel of the original buildings to create a modern yet down to earth vibe. The reality is, some will love it and some might hate it! But ultimately, we hope our worship is not primarily about the decor or architectural style. We hope our focus will be, first and foremost, about the people of God gathered to worship genuinely and passionately in whatever room we happen to be meeting.

Why can’t we make this more simply and less expensively?

Several years ago, we underwent a design process that imagined the kind of building that would have all the space and features we wanted, but the price tag was $18 million! We discerned that spending that much money on a facility would neither be good stewardship nor faithful to our call. After a pause, we went back to the drawing board to find a more cost-effective option by repurposing the buildings we have into usable space.

The approximately 7 million dollar project we are proposing is the result of months of work by staff, architects, engineers, and overseers to get the most value for our dollars. Basically, what we are building is the simple and inexpensive option.

It may seem like a lot of money to many of us. However, we need to keep in mind the scale and sheer square footage of what we are building. It needs to be a facility that is safe for hundreds of people to occupy and have systems that can accommodate large crowds. We hope to create an inviting and functional place for worship, ministry, and fellowship in the most cost effective way possible.

Are we still church planting?

Lord willing, yes! However, we have learned that the ingredients necessary to plant churches are seldom in our direct control. We can be as proactive as possible, but ultimately it is up to God and his timing to provide the right church planting pastor, the right missional location to plant in, and the right community of people ready and willing to commit to a new endeavor. We will continue to be on the lookout for all those factors but in the meantime, we need to continue making more room for welcoming others and exploring other avenues to expand God’s Kingdom as well.

There are so many other needs and places to give — why give toward this project? Why are we spending money on a building when there are people in need all over the world? How does this project connect with global missions efforts?

Highrock will continue to support our global missions partners and ministries that address poverty and issues of justice all over the world. In addition, our support of our denomination (The Evangelical Covenant Church) means a significant amount of our budget goes toward church planting and relief efforts in areas we could not possibly reach as a single church alone.

The reality is that strong and healthy local churches are the backbone of any sustainable plan for addressing poverty, injustice, and lack of access to the Gospel. And churches that effectively disciple followers of Jesus to be generous and missional with their lives can have an exponential impact on the world! We believe Highrock is uniquely equipped and positioned to challenge people to live in these sacrificial and missional ways. We just need more room to welcome them!

Our Neighbor to Neighbor ministry is exploring thoughtful ways to build relationships with those in our community who face a variety of challenges. And our ongoing outreach to local internationals is among the most effective ways to welcome people from all over the world into the family of God. This project will allow us to be even more effective in all of these areas. Therefore, we believe giving to Highrock is an investment that will multiply and bear fruit for God’s Kingdom in immeasurable ways for many years to come!