Church starts construction project years in the works, with plans honed during pandemic

LAPEL — Ford Street United Methodist Church members young and old turned out and turned over shovels of dirt Sunday at the site of what will be their new sanctuary — about 13 years after their previous church building, dating back about a century, was demolished.

It was also after a successful first year of a three-year capitol campaign to fund the project; members say during that time, the church also renewed its sense of purpose.

“We felt like the thing we learned at Ford Street going through the pandemic was that the church was a lot more resilient and adaptable than even we thought,” said Glenn Knepp, church pastor since 2016. In addition to the dedication of longstanding members, “one of the great discoveries we had is we had some younger leaders step up to really help make sure that that online footprint got better, was able to serve people.”

Construction of the 3,600-square-foot, $480,000 sanctuary building began Tuesday, Knepp said, at the same address — 925 Ford St. — as the old church building, which was razed because it was deemed structurally unsafe.
The new sanctuary will be attached to the church’s narthex building, which also has 3,600 square feet of space, including offices and bathrooms, to serve the congregation of about 270 members. The church also has an education wing that includes a gym, kitchen and classrooms.
After the demolition of the old sanctuary, “They constructed a narthex that is the space we’re currently worshiping in,” Knepp said. “It was not intended to a permanent worship space, but it kind of became that. And the church, I don’t think, was really sure what would happen next, although there were many who had the dream of still having a dedicated sacred space, and that the narthex then would become a place more to connect with the community from, and to serve the community.”
The church began moving in the direction of that dream several years ago, Knepp said.
“We got some momentum to move forward because the church was doing some good things in small group ministry. They were making some good connections in the community. And one ministry that really gains a lot of traction (and) helped Ford Street feel like it had relevance for its community still, is the supply store that we conduct every fall, that began in 2014, and that’s where we provide school supplies to kids in the Lapel community who are on the free and reduced lunch list.
“So, all these things kind of worked together to help the church feel we had a mission, a purpose and vitality in the community.”
In 2019, he said, the church revisited some earlier building plans, scaled them down to meet congregation and community needs, and started fundraising for the new building.
Then the pandemic hit, putting church leaders into crisis mode, at least temporarily.
“Like a lot of churches, we didn’t know … we sat down and figured out how many Sundays we could go without an offering,” Knepp said. “But we never had to.”
Giving remained steady, he said, and tech-savvy members of the church helped it build its online presence. The church switched from in-person services to virtual methods at the start of the pandemic. It restarted in-person services about a month ago but plans to keep and broaden its virtual outreach in the future.
“We’ve discovered a greater impact in our community still, and our capitol campaign flourished, and one year from shutting down (because of the pandemic) we voted to … go forward and build the sanctuary space.”
With two years left in its capitol campaign, Knepp said the church has about half of the project cost in hand, including $40,000 the church had at the start. The campaign also has commitments for more than two-thirds of the remaining cost.
Ron Nunley, who has attended the church for 50 years and is chairman of the committee guiding the project, and Elizabeth Cress, who is a newer member of the church and handles its communications, said it’s a thrilling time at the church.
“People are excited, I think, about it,” Nunley said, noting that about 95% of church members voted in favor of the project.
He said he was concerned the lack of in-person services during the pandemic would hurt fundraising, but it didn’t.
“The giving’s been so good through this we hardly noticed we weren’t in church,” he said.
Once the sanctuary is built, space will be freed up in the narthex for other uses, Nunley said, including greater flexibility for the scouting programs the church supports and room for a planned coffee bar.
“It’s going to change a lot of things, I think, as far as community goes.”
Cress said seeing the new facility on the horizon is energizing and powerful.
“It means a lot of things, actually, and in the context of the pandemic, it magnifies it,” she said.
“Initially, I had pushed back on the idea (of building a new sanctuary),” Cress said, “and what I have witnessed since then … is the power of community, and transformation of the community through the church.
“During the pandemic, we had to learn how to operate outside of the church. And I witnessed that the church is more than a building — that the church is the people,” she said.
“Now, coming back, and being able to have the funds to create this space … I have changed my perspective in that,” Cress added, saying she can see “how a place can serve a community; that the people building and pouring effort into creating something to better serve the community, how that can strengthen the relationships and create relationships and deepen connection, deepen the connection that we desperately needed this past year.”
Furthermore, when the people come together “and create something to better serve the community in an adaptable way, there’s a lot of beauty in that.”
Many lessons learned during the past several years, and in the past year in particular, will be reflected in a very visible and symbolic way in the sanctuary design, Knepp said: Through a work of art that will not only shine within but also look outward.
Knepp said when the old building came down, the church saved some of the stained glass. Only one piece, an image of Jesus as a shepherd, remained in the current worship space in a frame.
“But when we build this sacred space, he’s going to be put back into a window where he’ll be looking out at Lapel again,” the pastor said. “And that is such a key thing, because if this church hadn’t learned through its back-to-school ministry and other things to really be looking out at Lapel, we wouldn’t be at a place where we would have the confidence or the capacity to be putting together a sacred place anyway.
“So, to me, it’s just such a powerful symbol for Jesus to be looking out at the community, not just in at us. It’s such a powerful symbol also that just speaks to what this church had to figure out just to get to this moment.”