King of Grace Building Committee Update — Sept 6, 2026
At the April Open Forum and the May Voters meeting, the Church Council announced that it was commissioning a Building Committee to gather information and take preliminary steps to determine if there was sufficient evidence to warrant an addition to the existing building. A ten-person committee was formed and had its first meeting on June 4th. The first order of business was to find ways to gather as much input as possible about our current facility and the work that takes place on our campus.
The Building Committee made use of different approaches to solicit feedback, and in the end gathered four different data sets to work with and analyze. The data comes from 1) 60 surveys completed by congregation members, 2) 25 surveys completed by non-member school families, 3) one-on-one and small group interviews conducted with the faculty and staff, and 4) input from congregation members that attended one of our four between-service listening sessions.
1. By the numbers: What did people tell us?
Priorities listed in the surveys - The top 10
Church/member survey: 60 responses
Non-member school-family survey: 25 responses
Combined survey responses: 85
Needs identified in the data
School classrooms — 45%
Fellowship Hall, community space — 39%
Multi-purpose spaces, dedicated spaces — 36%
Early childhood and Preschool — 24%
Hospitality, entrance, welcoming space — 20%
Security and safety factors — 19%
Storage and organization — 19%
Worship, Bible study, gathering — 19%
Youth ministry — 11%
Parking and traffic flow — 9%
What the numbers mean
The most striking finding is that the top priorities found in the surveys are really expressions of the same underlying problem:
King of Grace does not have enough appropriately sized and appropriately located spaces for the number and variety of ministries already taking place on campus. Pursuing certain ministries and not others is fine, but King of Grace has already said “yes” to a preschool, school, Sunday school, adult Bible studies, Pioneers, and more.
The survey data does not describe a church and school that needs a larger building in order to expand for the sake of being larger. It describes a thriving congregation whose present facility is increasingly forcing our different ministries, programs, age groups, and people to compete with one another for the same spaces.
When the listening session feedback and the faculty and staff input is combined with the survey data it only reinforces the conclusion drawn from the surveys, that this is not about simply adding square footage. The consensus from those who responded is that we are looking for ways to allow our current ministries to function simultaneously with greater functionality and less time spent on set-up and take-down. The faculty specifically noted:
classrooms that no longer align with recommended educational practices;
a lack of small-group and intervention space;
competition for music, art, tutoring, piano, band, and other instructional spaces;
inadequate preschool-specific facilities;
The Fellowship Hall and cafeteria areas serving too many incompatible functions;
inadequate storage;
hallway congestion;
A building not designed with security in mind;
Limited HVAC and sound systems in spaces used for instruction.
inadequate support staff spaces.
2. What does your feedback say about our ministry needs?
Priority 1: Need to provide a more functional, organized learning environment that supports excellent education for the students we already serve.
The problem: Because King of Grace has a consistently strong enrollment and strives to provide our student population with an exceptional, well-rounded curriculum, portions of the educational program are working in spaces that were not designed for their current instructional demands.
The issue is not merely that a classroom is small. Current elementary and middle-school education standards and practices require:
whole-group instruction;
small-group instruction;
individual intervention;
manipulatives and specialized equipment;
classroom libraries;
project work;
movement;
quiet work;
collaboration.
Faculty repeatedly identified that classrooms, especially lower-grade classrooms, are too small. Spaces for small-group work and classroom interventions are insufficient. The faculty and students use hallways, public spaces, former storerooms and other compromised locations for breakout groups and more individualized instruction. The lack of functionality significantly impacts our teachers’ ability to teach and our students' ability to learn.
Priority 2: Improve and expand the educational spaces used to serve students with differing learning needs.
This may be one of the most significant future mission opportunities in the entire data set.
Currently, King of Grace has a Learning Center, but the space is small and inadequately equipped. Because it is a repurposed storeroom that is connected to a larger storeroom, students in the Learning Center are frequently disrupted by staff needing to access classroom supplies, the laminator, and items housed in the school’s primary storage area. It was never meant to be a place for students and teachers to work. Our Learning Coordinator specifically talked about the increased potential to support struggling students if we could provide them with dedicated, potentially divisible, quiet learning spaces with natural light.
The principal took this a bit further by noting that King of Grace is increasingly turning prospective families away. The school’s ability to address the individualized learning needs of our students are being stretched beyond what our spaces can effectively handle. It means we have artificially capped classes below their normal capacity. These same constraints have meant that King of Grace has also asked families to transfer out because we cannot adequately serve their child’s needs.
What we see on our campus mirrors what we are seeing across the board in both public and private schools - more students need individual and small group support in order to be academically successful. Unless King of Grace can provide services to address these needs, the significant number of students will simply be eliminated as prospects for enrollment. Instead, what if King of Grace could be a Lutheran School leader when it comes to providing special education and support services. It would make King of Grace unique in our Twin Cities Lutheran Schools Association.
This is bigger than “build a special education room.” It is a question of:
Could King of Grace serve children who currently cannot attend because the facility and support infrastructure do not exist?
This is a powerful mission question.
Priority 3: Should have a dedicated, high-quality environment for preschool and early childhood education.
Our preschool has been the introduction to King of Grace Church and School for many families. Updated daycares and early childhood centers have put us in competition with campuses that have specialized, dedicated spaces for young students. The survey and interview data strongly supports improving preschool space and identifies several operational problems with our preschool program:
shared bathrooms;
congestion;
interruptions;
inadequate separation from older students;
competition for nap-time spaces;
traffic and circulation issues;
inadequate outdoor/storage support;
insufficient flexibility for a three-year-old program.
Priority 4: Stop asking one room to be everything.
This is perhaps the most repeated request found in the listening sessions and interview data.
The fellowship hall, sanctuary, gym, fireside room, hallways, classrooms, and other spaces are repeatedly being used for multiple incompatible purposes.
Just the Fellowship Hall alone is currently used for:
preschool naps;
music classes;
piano lessons;
band;
tutoring;
meetings;
Bible studies;
small-group learning;
funeral and wedding receptions;
soup suppers;
blood drives;
youth activities;
storage;
plays and musicals.
The problem is not that multi-purpose space is bad. In fact, respondents frequently asked for more flexible space. The problem is that King of Grace has some spaces, like the Fellowship Hall, that are overloaded with incompatible purposes. The goal would be to create a balance between specialized and flexible spaces so that ministries can coexist without repeatedly displacing one another.
That may mean a combination of:
dedicated program spaces where equipment must remain in place;
several smaller flexible rooms;
larger divisible rooms;
spaces designed to serve different ministries at different times without requiring constant setup and teardown.
It is clear that we cannot solve the problem simply by building an enormous multi-purpose room, we have one of those. Instead, the data suggests King of Grace needs an architect to help us design a hierarchy of spaces.
Priority 5: Need spaces that encourage people to stay, meet, and build relationships rather than simply coming for an event and leaving.
The listening sessions and congregational surveys brought this out as a significant ministry opportunity. People are not necessarily asking for a larger room merely to hold more chairs; they are asking for places where people naturally gather, linger, meet newcomers, have coffee, and build relationships.
Comments included requests for:
A portico and more welcoming entry;
clearer wayfinding;
coffee space;
casual fellowship areas;
spaces for small meetings;
rooms accessible to community users while keeping school spaces secure.
One particularly interesting comment was that we should make it “harder for people to leave church quickly.” That may sound humorous, but it is actually a great ministry goal.
Priority 6: Improve safety and security without making the campus feel institutional.
Security appears both quantitatively and qualitatively throughout the data. Areas of concern include:
exterior door security;
difficulty separating church traffic from school traffic;
unreliable communications systems;
difficulty securing the building during large events.
Respondents frequently stated that they do not want King of Grace to feel like a fortress. They are looking to have a welcoming campus that has the ability to distinguish between public, church, school, and preschool spaces.
3. Given these priorities, what specific mission goals should this new building support?
Mission goal A: King of Grace has school facilities that will foster academic excellence in future generations of students, and attract families seeking Christian education in a highly competitive market.
The present facility already constrains function, efficiency, and the breadth of curriculum King of Grace can provide to its current students. How can King of Grace strategically invest now in a facility that will function and serve the next generation?
That might mean selective improvements to spaces that support specific functions:
classrooms
preschool;
special education;
academic support;
intervention services;
unique programs that make King of Grace more attractive to families.
Mission goal B: King of Grace is recognized as an Lutheran educational leader by including and providing needed support to struggling students and those often excluded from Christian schools.
This may be one of the strongest unrealized opportunities King of Grace has before it - the ability to serve more children with learning needs. It would mean that we are committed in our desire to serve every member of the body of Christ, with love and compassion. Who better than us to take on this ministry?
Mission goal C: King of Grace specifically and strategically invests in the spaces used by the people who carry out the ministry of King of Grace. Our campus supports, rather than hinders, the work of our called workers and support staff.
Both the surveys and the faculty and staff interviews make this aspect of a new build hard to ignore. The building is not merely inconvenient, in some cases, it actually limits instructional methods, interferes with learning, disrupts specialized instruction, and restricts the school curriculum. People believe we have a great faculty and staff, but recognize that the building gets in the way of their work.
Mission goal D: The King of Grace campus helps people become a congregation. We are not merely a collection of individuals attending events in the same building, we have spaces that encourage us to connect and build relationships.
A family has strong ties. Families help each other. Families grieve together and celebrate together. Over and over it was made clear that King of Grace members are looking for more opportunities to develop relationships and make connections. Members love King of Grace and want others to join our family of believers.
4. What are some other things that showed up in the surveys and interviews?
A. The sanctuary is not broken
Some mentioned the need for additional seating or an expanded choir loft, but people consistently said they do not want significant changes made to the sanctuary.
B. The gym is a good space
The gym came up repeatedly as one of the spaces people like and enjoy. Problems identified have to do with classroom noise, seating capacity, and competing uses.
C. The playground and outdoor space are valued
Several respondents specifically asked us not to sacrifice: the playground, large grass spaces, trees, and general park-like quality of our campus. People are aware that expansions often cause a campus to solve the indoor-space problems by destroying its outdoor space assets. Outdoor space should not be simply seen as surplus land; our grounds are an important part of the ministry environment.
D. Natural light matters
This appeared repeatedly amongst all respondents. People like windows. Dark interior spaces like the existing fellowship hall, cafeteria, and under-ground spaces were listed as undesirable places to gather and work, whereas the gym lobby and “sun room” as well as the windows in the gym and altar area were listed as architectural features that should be replicated in any future build.
E. Parking and traffic flow should not be casually sacrificed
Similar to the elimination of valued green spaces, even those who strongly voiced the need to build also shared their concern about eliminating parking or restricting traffic flow.
5. What are the Building Committee’s next steps?
Provide the congregation and school community with an update on the data collection process and results. We just did that!
Create a roster of architects the Building Committee can meet with to start the idea generating and proposal process.
Create guiding documents that will help the Building Committee and the architect more clearly define how to move forward. One document would be a description of our mission and ministry goals (who we are as a church and school, our history, what we are trying to accomplish, what we are not trying to do, etc.). Another document would simply share all the data we collected along with the synthesis of that data - basically we would share what we just shared with you. While we would want to meet all of our stated goals with a new build, the Building Committee would be tasked with prioritizing our goals as physical space and financial restraints are presented by the architect. The committee will also generate a list of questions for the architect, such as: Can the project be phased? How can existing spaces be repurposed once ministry functions move into new spaces?
The Building Committee extends their thanks to all the feedback received from the congregation, school families, and staff. We have many people who express a love for King of Grace. We have a congregation that values worship. We have members and non-members alike who have a deep gratitude for our preschool and school. Our faculty and staff are appreciated for their dedication and service. We cherish the many ministries we have that reach out to all age groups.
Now we are all being invited to consider how our campus and building can best serve the ministries God has already blessed us with and how we can best serve the people who have yet to walk through our doors. Buildings can either make it easier - or harder - for people to welcome, gather, worship, learn, teach, and serve. The Building Committee believes that a building project can help us make room for that kind of ministry - room for more caring and relationship building. It means that this conversation is about far more than just a building.
The Building Committee will continue to communicate with all of the King of Grace stakeholders via Sunday announcements, bulletins and emails, and the Building Committee page on the King of Grace website.