Full Throttle owes a HUGE thank you to our new friend @RoryMacDonald92 from Kensington Community Church! Rory is an amazing young man with a heart for Christ that far exceeds his years. He hung out with the full throttle crew for significant portion of our first ever safety inspection day to help out single moms in need. In the process of doing so, he shot some great video and created a video short that captures the essence of what KCC's Full Throttle missional small group is all about. Check it out!

Full Throttle's Open House & Commissioning

Full Throttle's open house and commissioning on Monday, September 12th was well-received by all in attendance. More than 30 people were on-hand to tour our new shop, learn about our vision and goals, and speak with the leaders and members of Full Throttle to learn about what we are gearing up to do. We also had Kensington Community Church - Birmingham Campus lead pastor, Clint Dupin on-hand to commission our new shop and lead us in prayer.

We will be busy in the coming months with safety inspections, Bible studies, classic car restoration projects and ample opportunities to serve His Kingdom as the hands and feet of Christ.

We had a great turnout for our open house!

Mark V. addresses the crowd.

Clint Dupin shares a Biblical perspective of what it means to "be" the church and serve God's Kingdom as the hands and feet of Christ.

 

Mark V. shares Full Throttle's vision and explains what our primary missions.

Mark J. adds more perspective regarding Full Throttle's mission and goals.

Join Us For An Open House!

This coming Monday (12-Sep-2011), Full Throttle will  host an open house.  It’s open to all of Full Throttle's friends and family.  Whether you haven’t come in a while, you've recently renewed your ties with us, or simply wish to discover what we're all about, please stop by to check out our new digs! We have the shop primped and primed for our guests (we even cleaned and polished the bathrooms with the fairer sex in mind) and we'll have munchies and refreshments on-hand for all to enjoy. Please contact us at FullThrottle@kensingtonchurch.org to get directions and/or more information

Our upcoming restoration/raffle project, a 1956 Oldsmobile Holiday, will also be on display and we would be thrilled to discuss our multi-faceted approach to serving God's Kingdom!

As the "icing on the cake," Kensington Community Church's - Birmingham Campus lead pastor, Clint Dupin, will be on-hand to lead us in prayer and "commission" our new shop. How exciting!

Here are some photo's of our finished shop and some teasers for two of our primary missions:

Our new "work" area, complete with a hoist, compressed air, and the tools necessary to serve those in need.

Another view of our newly-renovated shop area. We even have a trailer to help us serve our mission!

A Blast from the past... A banner from an earlier restoration project that was championed by the members of Full Throttle. Our new restoration project, a 1956 Oldsmobile Holiday will be on display at our Open House!

Bob G. works on our very first "customer's" vehicle. A Honda Civic belonging to a single mom in need.

Ready for Paint!

Continuing down the road of renovating our new digs, Full Throttle is pleased to have completed the construction of a partitioning wall and "window" fillers. As our rented shop area is but a portion of a larger facility, we needed to separate our area from the rest of the building. We will be painting the north end of our shop of Memorial Day weekend, setting the stage for finalizing installation of additional electrical outlets, running compressed air throughout the shop and adding vehicle lifts and more.

The lion's share of this task was constructing the partitioning wall. Working around a double-pitched roof line as well as a steel support bean made the job more interesting for all of those involved.

Here Mark J. and Steve L. trim studs with precision to accommodate said obstacles.

 

 

 

 

Larry, Moe and Curly?!?!?

Nope! Just Chet, Bob G., and Steve L. working on building that partitioning wall. 

Tom E. takes a break while holding a piece of sheeting in place.

The finished product. Ready for primer and paint. Full Throttle is very excited for this next stage in our shop transformation.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Home Renovations Continue at 'Full Throttle'!

Renovations of Full Throttle's new home are progressing nicely. Seemingly a rather daunting task at first, a large amount of trash has been removed from all areas of our space. This necessary first step cleared the way for the shop area, break room, storage area, and covered porch to be ready for the improvements necessary to allow Full Throttle to live out our mission.

One of our first major projects was to install a sufficient amount of fluorescent overhead lighting. This involved the help of a fair number of Full Throttle members over the course of several weeks. Due to these efforts, we now have a respectable number of overhead fluorescent lighting fixtures. While we may opt to add additional fixtures in the future, the improvements made over the past month provide ample light for our continued renovation projects. These lighting improvements also provide a solid foundation for when we're ready to take on projects where we can really get some grease and grime under our nails.

The second of our major projects was to renovate the meeting / break room. Again, more improvements may be forthcoming but we now have a functional room from which to take care of the spiritual aspects of our group such as prayer, devotionals, study groups, business meetings, etc. First, all of the belt-line shelving from the break room was removed and recycled into a number of "high-top" workbenches. Next, the wall covering was repaired in those places where it was damaged during removal of the shelves. Finally, boards were stained and installed sort of as a wide "chair rail" molding around the perimeter of the room to cover the spots where the shelving had been attached to the wall.

Much more progress has been made... stay tuned for new posts with more info!

Full Throttle Has a New Home!

On April 4, 2011 Full Throttle began the exciting process of moving into our new "home." While much work needs to be done, our new space offers many great features, such as this covered porch area.

While we have some renovations planned, we're also excited to have a very nice meeting room. This will provide Full Throttle members a place to meet for devotionals, studies and prayer time.

Several members of Full Throttle work to install additional fluorescent lighting in our workshop area.

High ceilings, solid concrete floors, overhead I-beams suitable for a chain winch and ample storage space provide all the basics for a great shop.




Stay tuned for more updates on our new shop area and other exciting new activities that Full Throttle will embark upon as we grow and ramp-up to kicking off the missional aspect of our small group!