Finally!

That's the word heard most often these days in the halls of Peachtree City's Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Finally, the addition has been completed.

Finally, the office staff has moved. They've sorted through closets and cabinets, hooked up computers and copy machines, and are working through the kinks in a new phone system.

Finally, Sunday School teachers can teach their classes in real rooms with real tables and chairs instead of behind cardboard partitions or in stairwells.

The 24-year-old congregation of 650 families has finally completed its third building project. Plans for the expansion began in the fall of 1995; a three-year fund-raising campaign was launched the following year.

It was another year before a contract was signed with Architect William Foley, and in May 1997, Group VI contracted for construction. The congregation moved out of its existing Sunday School and fellowship space early in 1998. The building was gutted, and after a series of delays, construction at last moved forward rapidly.

The facility received its certificate of occupancy just before Christmas. Erika Crawford, daughter of building committee member Russell Crawford, had her wedding reception in the new fellowship hall on the day the last of the carpet was glued in place.

Jim Moore and Rob Muller shared chairmanship of a committee that involved at least 75 members and staff personnel. Steve Burgess was Group VI's superintendent for the project.

The new facility more than doubled the capacity of the church's Christian education and preschool program, and vastly expanded its administrative and library space. Besides the new fellowship hall, a new upgraded kitchen is now in place. The size of the sanctuary was not increased, but the worship space appears much larger because of the open narthex and central staircase.

Rooms on the "old" lower level, formerly housing offices and the music program, are now being renovated primarily to provide needed space for the church's fast-growing vocal and hand bell choirs.

Senior pastor, Rev. John Weber, says the new building was worth the long wait. "This new facility provides much-needed tools for ministry to our members as well as to the community," he said this week. "Finally, we're in."

The Rev. Dr. Ron Warren, bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a member of Christ Our Shepherd, will dedicate the new facility at services this weekend. The public is invited to attend, Weber said.