[McLane]

I want to thank you all for the replies to my post. To have so many of you reply so quickly with relevant responses, sends a message that this is a healthy & viable board. My sincere thanks and best wishes to those who manage this forum.

To answer a question from above, the main purpose for the oven will be for bread, but we would also like to prepare pizza from time to time. To really explain what we need, perhaps I should share some background. My church was founded in the 1830s, and we remained in the original building until a space crunch forced us to pursue an alternative location. Having purchased a parcel of property, we were prepared to build on this new land until a very unique situation presented itself. WalMart opened a store just outside of town, and a stand-alone department store on the opposite end of town could not compete. It was then that we began to investigate the possibility of converting a 59,000 square foot building into a church. 5 years later we have nearly doubled our congregation and food has become an important fixture; because when people share a meal together - they talk. In the last 4 months, we have embarked on a multi-site expansion, and have opened up 2 additional worship locations in the region. We serve free meals at all of our services, with hot breakfast meals being served in the mornings and hot main courses at the afternoon & evening services. This main location also is the site where food is prepped for the additional 2 locations. I've always wanted to bake bread, so this past fall I started preparing bread for the Saturday evening service. What started out as an experiment, has evolved into my purchase of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" book, in which there is a chapter on baking bread in a wood-fired oven. With the creation of a new kitchen in the opposite corner of the building from where our current kitchen resides, I have made the pitch for the addition of a brick bread oven to the plans. The idea has been met with immediate enthusiasm. I'm not sure how to judge the size of the oven we will need, but I average about 20-35 pounds of flour per week in the creation of dough for Italian, French & sourdough breads.

I hope that the above gives you a bit more background as to what we will use the oven for. As for the type, I'm still not sure about the design, but as I read through the threads on this board and share thoughts with you folks, the vision should become clear as to what we will need. The bottom line is that we will require an oven that will potentially be able to bake enough bread to complement a meal for a crowd of 1000 people, or kick out the occasional batches of pizza to feed a crowd of that size. What that looks like is a thing that I hope you folks can help me out with. We originally were going to search for a used natural gas fired commercial unit, but I am starting to feel rather strong that a wood fired unit is the only way to go. We have several members who are brick layers by profession, and I feel confident that we can build a unit that can do the job. My only desire is to make sure we build it right - the first time.

Thanks again for your willingness to assist us with our adventure in wood-fired baking!