Green Arch Design

“David Rowe’s aim through his Holy Smoke business is to help churches attract more families and children.

Holy Smoke Studios is a new company that builds and creates biblically themed worship environments for children’s church spaces and day cares.

Its offerings include custom-designed 3-D murals, panoramas, life-sized cut outs, puppet theaters and rooms.

“Anything the mind can conceive, we can build,” Rowe said. “From a Bible village to a Western town — you name it.”

Clearview Baptist Church on State Park Road, Holy Smoke’s first South Carolina project, chose to have Bibleland created in nearly 2,000 square feet of the church’s old main sanctuary.

The Rev. Dr. Christian Hall, pastor at Clearview, said, “We’ve always had a goal of making the children’s hour the most exciting hour. That’s why we went with something so different, that’s more of a biblical scene with a town in there, bright colors.”

The scenery includes a tree house that will allow puppets to come out of windows in multi-levels. And instead of pews in the main auditorium, children can sit on risers.

Hall said the church wanted a facility that would also draw kids, keep their attention and show parents “how important they are to us.”

Rowe’s concept for Holy Smoke began in his heart more than three years ago.

After being in the ministry for 25 years, Rowe said he noticed declining attendance in a lot of churches.

“Their congregations are getting older, and a lot of them are not reaching out to kids and young couples,” he said. Rowe saw the impact that companies similar to his own, but larger, were having on churches in other areas of the country.

He cited, for example, North Point Community Church in Georgia which has “Upstreet,” a hallway converted into a city street “to create the feel of a neighborhood where children learn how to study the Bible, worship through singing, and build quality friendships with other kids and adult leaders” according to its Web site.

“I saw how these churches stepped out by faith and did something for their kids, how it affected their church for growth,” he said. “So, I think we’re on the beginning end of a wave of the future of what churches are going to need to do to reach the next generation of people.” – Excerpt from The Greenville News, Sunday March 2, 2008 by Angelia Davis. 

For more information on Holy Smoke Studios, go to their website at http://www.holysmokestudios.com/.

 

 

    

“Tradition is important to Sam Cely, owner of Cely Construction Co., but his 60-year-old company uses some of the newest procedures and products on the market for its clients.

Cely Construction began life in February 1948 as Cely Brothers Lumber Co.

Although the company has changed names over the years, it has never changed its location at 800 S. Washington Ave., not far from the Greenville Hospital System’s Memorial Medical campus.

With about 30 core employees, Cely Construction hires subcontractors and their crews as needed for the job it has.

“Almost from day one, Cely was a church contractor,” said Henry Bellew, Cely’s director of business development.

Cely said that while projects go from $10,000 to $4 million, most of his jobs including building church sanctuaries are in the $1 million to $2 million range. His smallest jobs tend to come from clients he does a good deal of work with, who just add on a small project.

Project size, however, is where Cely wants to grow. He’s looking for larger projects in the $5 million range. And as he grows, his work force will expand.

But he wants to continue to be known as a “blue-chip” construction company: “My goal is not to be the biggest out there. I want to be the best.” And he wants to remain diversified, doing different types of work and different size projects.

The company started with several family members working in it and that’s still the case.” -Excerpt from The Greenville News, Sunday March 2, 2008 by Jenny Munro

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Cely Construction

For more information on Cely Construction, visit their website at http://www.celyconstruction.com/.