Thank you for taking the time to read more about our Dream Night event coming up on November 13th.
As I am sure you recall, our church approved the formation of a building committee this past spring. Over the course of the summer, this team interviewed four architectural firms. At the conclusion of that process, Parkhill, Smith and Cooper was selected and in recent weeks our staff and other lay leaders have started our discussions with this team to clearly evaluate our future facility needs.
Looking at the attendance data in a variety of keys areas including worship, nursery, elementary age, middle school, high school, and adult classes, PSK has done an analysis on how we are currently using the total sq. footage of our campus. They have also looked at those figures in relationship to our available parking.
The results of that do not contain any major surprises.
As an active participant, what you would see there is probably what you would expect given your own experience. We have ample room to grow in our main worship space, but we are already at 98% capacity with our parking. In our adult education space, we are already beyond 100% capacity.
What is more surprising is seeing how desperate our need for additional space quickly becomes when we forecast out what we believe to be reasonable future growth.
For those who may not know, we are one of only two United Methodist Churches in the nation that have averaged a 10% growth each year for the past ten years. Other United Methodist Churches have had more explosive seasons of growth but ours has been steady over many years.
All that is to say, our time together is really important.
Our greatest opportunities are almost always our greatest challenges as well. I have full assurance that God is done doing incredible things through the life of First Methodist Mansfield. I know responding to the hope we see in our future begins with me and it begins with you as a key leader in our church family.
I look forward to seeing you on November 13th at 6:30 pm in The Loft for a special time of dreaming together.
