If you have been in worship this year, you have seen the new bulletins. We thank Rachel Fitzpatrick for designing the logo that will be on all of our 150th Anniversary material. As you probably know by now, we have kicked off a year long celebration of our 150th Anniversary of ministry here in North Jefferson County.
In preparation for this year of celebrating, the 150th Anniversary Committee has attempted to read most of the histories that have been written through the years on both the Gardendale Church, which had its birth in 1860, and the Mt. Vernon Church, which had its birth in 1878. Often times those histories were revised when a new directory was done. As you read of those two churches and then their coming together on this hillside in 1974, you learn a lot about living into a vision.
It started with the vision of the Rev. John Shugart and the Tennessee conference. This part of North Jefferson county had not developed enough to even have a name when Brother Shugart began holding evangelistic services in what is now Gardendale. But he had a vision, a vision that moved Methodist across this nation, a vision to offer everyone Christ and to spread scriptural holiness.
I have noticed that often the histories of these two churches moved from one building project to the next. If you look closer, those building projects were testimonies to the churches real mission of growing more fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ. That is the way it should be. The vision should never be about building for building sake. It is about providing space to better fulfill the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ. When a church stops visioning of new facilities, it has probably stopped visioning of reaching many new people for Jesus Christ.
George Mathison sends me the newsletter from Auburn United Methodist Church. In a recent newsletter he mentioned their purchase of another Church Facility. They do not need all that facility at the present moment, but they are preparing for the future. I sense that Gardendale-Mt Vernon has witnessed that kind of visioning in its 150 years of ministry.
Teresa Watson has been working on ways to get the news of 150th Anniversary out to the community. She was able to line up spot on NBC 13’s Mid-Day News a couple of weeks ago. We have been able to obtain a copy of the interview that Lisa Crane did with me that day. It is included in this blog.
As we celebrate these 150 years of ministry, our Building Committee is looking at cost for a new Children’s Ministry Building. They have already discovered that cost estimates for the new building are down from two years ago. They are gathering information which they hope to have ready for the March Administrative Board meeting.
While construction on a new building is still down the road, we need to remember what is driving that vision. If we had additional space we could increase the number of children we have the opportunity to influence for Christ. Our overall waiting list still numbers over 300 children. We also need additional Sunday school space for adults. We are running out of room and we really need to begin one or two more classes right now. And when the entire new Children’s Ministry Building is complete, we will also have room to expand our facilities for youth. That’s the reason we have a new building on the drawing board, to provide additional space to connect more people to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to grow more people in Christ-like love and to send more people into the world through Christ-like service.
Before we can think much more about building a new facility, we have to fix some erosion problems. You need to know that our building is not presently in danger, but the heavy rains have created some major erosion issues. The Trustees decided to do more than another stop gap attempt to stop the erosion. They hired an engineering firm to give us a solution for the long haul. The Trustees are almost ready to bring those recommendations to the Administrative Board and then put the work out for bid. They will keep us informed of the next steps in that journey. You need to know that it will not be cheap. Be in prayer for the decisions related to this work and its funding.
You should have received a packet of information about our Global Impact Celebration. It kicks off next Wednesday, February 3rd, 6:30 PM. Make plans to participate in all the opportunities of the Global Impact Celebration.
Because of the Faith Promises made last year at the Global Impact Celebration, our Mission Team was able to send $1,300 immediately to our United Methodist Committee on Relief for there response in Haiti. I encourage you to be in prayer for your Faith Promise commitment to missions that will be made in the morning services on February 7th. A Commitment was included in the packet of information you received.
As always, your responses to these Reflections are welcome. You can email me at rguess@gmvumc.org.
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