The congregation of the First Feformed Church in Schenectady has been around long enough to go through three different governing bodies.
"The congregation is 340 years old," said the Reverend Dr. Bill Levering. "We've had five different buildings, they've burned down many times, and so we've been around within a few blocks from here for 340 years."
Levering is helping to take the building in the Stockade District into the next century.
"We're turning this building here into a place for meetings in the community," he said, pointing to one structure.
It's a $3.65 million project paid for by benefactors and members of the 700-person congregation. They're removing asbestos, making buildings ADA compliant and adding energy efficient components.
"This building project is actually here, but it's a way of us reaching out to the community," said Levering. "We're changing how we are able to do things for the community in the new fellowship space, in the new education space, in the new meeting space.
"This is us reaching out, rather than waiting for people to come to us."
Levering says he wants kids of today to have an experience in the church that matches what's happening around them. That includes being more environmentally conscious and keeping up with technology rather than shying away from it. He hopes these changes will last the church another 100 years.