Since our last update, the Building Resurrection Committee (BRC) has been actively working to finalize our architect selection process and continue to develop the information necessary for the early stages of designing our new church campus. It has been a month of contract negotiations, site visits to other churches and information gathering with members of the Malibu Presbyterian Church community.

Our New Architect - Dominy + Associates

Based on the BRC's recommendations, the Session of Malibu Presbyterian Church unanimously selected and approved using Dominy & Associates (www.domusstudio.com) as the lead design architect for our project. Dominy & Associates is a well respected firm based in San Diego, one that enjoys an outstanding reputation for church design.  The firm was chosen based upon multiple factors, including experience in designing church projects similar in size to ours, historical ability to meet project budgets and schedules, efficiency in the costs of their design concepts and their ability to understand the unique way in which Malibu Pres uses the facility for its various worship and ministry activities.  

After receiving Session approval, the BRC negotiated a design agreement with the firm and is now prepared to start the design process.  Our first meeting with the Dominy &Associates design team took place during the middle of the month of April. We introduced the principals of Dominy to the congregation.
In addition to hiring an architect, the BRC has also been at work engaging the services of independent firms to perform soils/geotechnical studies as well as on-site wastewater treatment options.  This information will be necessary when we eventually apply for building approval from the City of Malibu.


Collecting Information - Building Consensus

The other important step we are taking is to gather the necessary information to create a design that will best serve the interests of our church, moving forward.  Since last fall, we have been soliciting and analyzing input from survey forms, programming questionnaires and interviews.  This process continued again in April with a planning study conducted by Resource Services, Inc. which included two focus groups, online surveys and additional interviews.  We want to thank everyone who participated in these activities and gave us your input.  

While everyone has their own thoughts and ideas about what our next church should be, we hope this process will provide us with direction in developing a campus that will allow us to fulfill the vision and mission of MPC and, most importantly, bring glory to God Our Father.
 

Next Steps

In the coming months, the BRC will begin the challenging task of working with our architect and creating the design for our new church campus.  We will be reconciling what we would desire in our church with the constraints imposed by our building budget, schedule considerations and regulations imposed by the City of Malibu.  Tough, but necessary, decisions will be required to get all the pieces of this puzzle to fit together properly.  While trade-offs are a natural part of this stage of design, the BRC will be working cooperatively with Session and MPC staff in seeking the optimal solutions for our future church home.
 

Bulldozers begin demolition of the remains of MPC's structure. Click the numbers below to see more.

Demolition began this morning on the foundation of MPC's site.  

As we transition from recovery to a rebuilding phase, we will devote this page more specifically towards the efforts of the Building Resurrection Committee.

We are on an amazing journey of rebuilding our Church and we want to bring you all along with us. We will posting updates of our progress here, so please check in frequently! Additionally, we will have our own e-mail address for you to communicate with us. We welcome your questions, your thoughts, and your prayers. We also welcome you to talk to us at anytime, we are all so passionate about this and want you to be informed so that you may share our enthusiasm.

For any questions, contact building@malibupres.org

It has been 3 months since the fire, and we are settling into our new workspace.  Our offices are located in two new modular buildings located on a portion of our parking lots.

Remarkably, these structures were constructed one month after the fire.  We moved into them the first week of December with most rudimentary systems in place.  The mobilization of efforts to get these structures up has been amazing.

Fox 11 News covered our Christmas Eve Service.  Click the image below to see the piece on their site.

Tim Jones woke early on the morning of October 21st to see an orange glow rising over the Malibu skyline.  Realizing that a fire had broken out, he called the Malibu Presbyterian Church staff and got in the car.  He recounts his memory of that morning.

It’s funny to reflect on Charles Hummel’s classic 1967 essay “Tyranny of the Urgent,” where he identified the telephone as among the worst offenders against our peace and well-being.  And that was even before we started to carry the offending instrument with us everywhere, embellishing it with email, computers, cameras, downloadable ring tones, TV, movie and music files. 

As we begin the first steps of recovery after the fire, our hearts naturally turn to the future.  What will we rebuild?  Our Building Resurrection Committee has wrestled with these questions in the recent weeks.

We want to keep in dialogue with you at every phase.  We are asking members of the congregation to fill out a simple form, telling us what you liked about the old building, and what you would like to see in the new one.

Now that the Corral Fire is mostly contained, we are mobilizing efforts to reach out to the community.  If you know of anyone who is displaced or has lost a home in the fire, please contact Tim Jones at tjones@malibupres.org.  Or respond by commenting, below.

Despite the loss of our own structure, we remain the body of Christ, and stand alongside all those who have suffered a loss this past month.  We will let you know of ways to assist in the coming days.

One month after the fire that engulfed MPC, a second fire has broken out in Malibu that already has burned at least 35 structures and threatens about 200 more.  Several of our parishioners are evacuated from their homes.  Please pray for those affected by this second blaze.