Restore's New Building

This month, January of 2012, Restore will be moving into our new building in North Haledon! When Restore was commissioned as a church plant in August of 2011, we knew that finding a place to gather for worship was going to be a top priority. We spent several months looking into a variety of locations, including renting from other existing churches, renovating warehouse space, renting storefronts, movie theaters, high schools, as well as other locations that we thought could work for what we needed. November rolled around, and then December, and we hadn't had much luck finding a new place that would not only meet our needs, but would also be affordable for a church starting out.

In early December, we began to hear from a variety of sources that there was a church building that was vacant on Sunday Mornings on Squaw Brook Road in North Haledon, NJ. We immediately pursued this lead, and inquired about the possibility of renting the building for Restore to call home. As it turns out, the leadership of the First Presbyterian Church of North Haledon had recently decided to take their building off the sale market and try to find tenants who would rent the church for a couple of years, giving them the opportunity to conider what to do with the building long term. As they debated whether or not they'd actually find the type of tenants they were looking for (a vagabond church, just looking for a home? Unlikely!), they got Restore's phone call.

It was a hand-in-a-glove. Restore needed a place to grow and develop, and the First Pres. needed someone to care for their building. Additionally, the First Pres. church was also looking to rent out their on-site parsonage, and they also had a large Christian Education building that, while occupied and used by a Co-Op Pre-school throughout the week, could be made available to us on Sunday mornings. This meant that many of the burdens of finding a new location–developing children's space, purchasing children's equipment like tables, chairs, furniture, etc., as well as things like buying chairs for worship space, not to mention the cost of renovation of a warehouse or the like–would be lifted off of Restore and we could essentially "move-in" and begin ministry.

Restore is planning on having a "soft-launch" on January 22nd, as we prepare the building and work out the kinks to officially open the doors in April. We're still in awe at God's blessing in providing us this great space!