07017
January 8, 2007

Room at the Inn

California NCD fills local inn to capacity on Christmas Eve

by Emily Enders Odom
Communications officer, Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands

PASO ROBLES, CA — This past Christmas, there was room at the inn.  But just barely.

     The grand ballroom of the historic Paso Robles Inn, the first building ever constructed in this coastal California town, spilled over with Christmas Eve worshipers from the Highlands Church, a new church development of Santa Barbara Presbytery.  The combined attendance at the two services topped 725.

     The Highlands Church, which does not yet have a permanent home, regularly meets in a local movie theater while its building plans progress.  Since the church has already exceeded the theater’s seating capacity with an average Sunday worship attendance of 230 — the church will move to two worship services this February — it made sense for Highlands to partner with the local inn at Christmas. 

     “Our theme was, ‘This year, there’s room at the Inn,’” said Jamie Baird, director of outreach and small group development at Highlands, “but if three more people had come, there wouldn’t have been!”

     “By having our worship in such a historic location, we reached a lot of seekers and curious Christians this Christmas, a real cross section of our community,” Baird said.

     The Highlands new church development receives generous support from the members and the staff of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara, whose Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign are providing funds for the church’s staffing, interim facilities, site preparation, construction planning, and building. 

     The Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands is a five-year, $40 million campaign to raise funds for new overseas mission personnel and for church growth in this country, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.

     Bill Saul, a former co-chair of the national steering committee for Joining Hearts & Hands, continues to lend his support to Highlands in particular and to the campaign fundraising efforts in Santa Barbara Presbytery in general.

     “Highlands is one of the most successful new church developments I have ever seen,” Saul said.  “It’s a testimony to the spirit and the attitude of the people there, and a witness to what God can do.”

     The Highlands Church’s ministry is expanding so rapidly, in fact, that plans are already in place to hire a new, full-time youth director/worship director this year.  All of the church staff will eventually be located in a multi-purpose building visible from California Highway US-101.
           
     Chuck Ford, a member of the national steering committee of Joining Hearts & Hands, and the Rev. John Chandler, retired presbytery executive for Los Ranchos Presbytery, were instrumental in selecting the building site for the Highlands Church, which both have called “ideal.”  They began the New Year together by spending a full day with the architect.

     “As of our meeting on Jan. 4, most of the design work is now done,” Ford said, “and we hope to start construction in April or May, with a move-in date of December 1.  Both the builder and the contractor are motivated to make that goal.  This is now their top priority.”

     In the meantime, the church is already considering the inn again for next Christmas.