Visioning Our Future
/by Rev. Eric Folkerth
Friends,
The past few weeks at Kessler Park are revealing the hope and optimism possible for our church community. As you’ll see elsewhere in this newsletter, we’re currently hosting many “live” in-person events and we have more still to come this fall. It is so good and hopeful to be gathering in events, big and small.
Wednesday Night Live is drawing 25-35 neighborhood children every week!
It’s so exciting to see this “normal” neighborhood ministry return. Parents and children alike are thrilled to be back…as is Pastor Kay!
We hosted a powerful training titled “Confronting Christian Nationalism” created by the folks at “Vote Common Good.”
Our Sunday night book study on “Do I Stay Christian?” is also drawing a nice crowd.
And Sunday worship continues to bless us with new and many visitors every week.
Coming October weeks will bring a large Halloween event (Trunk or Treat, Movie Night, Haunted House), and a special concert in Roberts Forest.
All these are incredibly hopeful signs.
A few weeks back we shared with you the beginnings of our “Phase One” renovations to our roof and to our day school.
In moving forward with these important Phase One building renovation steps, we “protect our house,” (the roof) and “build our foundation” (ground floor school and playground expansion).
As all this happens, the Campus Vision Team of KPUMC has met twice as they consider how we will use and utilize our space going forward. I expect that there will be much to share with you regarding their work in coming weeks.
But as a part of that process, we will soon be soliciting your input too. The primary three questions our church must answer are:
1. How should our building be organized/structured in order to serve KPUMC for the next 50 years?
2. In order to grow, what space will KPUMC need now and in the next 50 years?
3. Are there parts of our building that can be utilized to serve the greater community of Oak Cliff and Dallas, beyond KPUMC’s internal ministry?
The order of these questions is essential, but they are all important.
We want to hear your dreams and vision for the KPUMC Campus. We’ll soon craft a survey for members to offer their input. We’ll also invite you to write, draw, and clip out ideas and place them on a “vision board” at the back of the sanctuary. And we’ll likely communicate with you via mail as well.
Additionally, I strongly urge you to plan to take a building tour with us after worship. Starting very soon we will host brief tours of the building following every worship service. It has become very clear to me that many of us —even long-term members— do not fully understand the scope of our space. A walking tour will make this plain and hopefully get your own creative space-use juices going.
Continue to pray and meditate on your dreams for the “middle” of our building; the middle and upper floors. However our space will look in the future, we cannot do this important ministry without YOU.
I hope you are excited by the signs of life at KPUMC and the hope for our future together.
Eric Folkerth