The Future at KPUMC

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

As you know, The Kessler School has purchased a new building for their use in North Oak Cliff. Following their departure, much of our building will be empty during the week, and we will lose significant rental income that we’ve counted on from them in the past. 

While the pandemic has delayed much activity on these issues during the past year, I thought I’d update you all on what’s happening more recently as we start to “open up” again.

First, about a month ago, the leadership of our Parents Day Out Program (PDO), Pastor Kay and LaTara Thompkins, drew up a conceptual model for expansion of that program going forward. They presented two models to the Church Council in March.

The incredibly good news is this: There are credible models for PDO expansion that could in all likelihood replace much, if not all, of the loss in rental income from The Kessler School. (In an upcoming newsletter, we’ll publish the information so you can all digest this information for yourselves)

But, the financial benefit would be just one small factor in this, of course. The primary driver would be to “serve our mission field.”

Our PDO program continues to have a healthy “wait list,” and we routinely turn away families that we wish we had space to serve. An expanded PDO could absolutely serve as an engine for new visitors and families to KPUMC as well.

So, Kay and LaTara have already started working with the PDO Advisory Board to flesh out these conceptual plans. The goal would be to create the premiere program for young children in all of North Oak Cliff. (Stay tuned!)

Even with a greatly expanded PDO program, we will still have much more building space to repurpose.

Therefore, at Tuesday’s Church Council meeting, we spent some time hearing from a United Methodist pastor with deep ties to KPUMC: Rev. Mitchell Boone of White Rock UMC. (Mitchell's father and grandparents were members…)

Mitchell has done a remarkable job leading that congregation to new and creative ways of utilizing their building and physical plant. White Rock has moved from a congregation on the brink of extinction to become a crucial part of the far East Dallas community. Both their building use and their Sunday worship (in normal times) have increased significantly in recent years. (BTW….they had 20,000 more square feet of empty space than we do…egad!)

We’ll be sharing more of what Mitchell told us very soon, but he’s got a lot of good ideas that can help our process.

Church Council will soon create a “Vision Team” for the discerning of the future of our building. If you know persons that would be good to have as a part of that team, please let me know.

Additionally, we will likely make some in-person site visits to other churches in our area (including White Rock) to see what they have done and to learn from their experience.

Listening to others —to each other and to our neighborhood— will be a key part of this process. And the “process” will likely be as important as the actual “decisions” we make.

I know and understand that we have done some of this work in the past. But now, we must do it with intention in that the Kessler School’s departure forces these questions on us in a way that are likely both anxiety-causing and deeply clarifying for many of you.

One bit of advice that Mitchell gave us Tuesday that deeply resonates with me is: “Listen to your neighborhood.”

Note, he didn’t say “listen to your longtime members” or even “listen to your *younger* members.” He said, listen to your *neighborhood.*

Doing that will be our first step in discerning our future. Yes, it will be slightly terrifying, but hopefully deeply exciting and energizing. We are well positioned for a bright future as God’s servants in North Oak Cliff.