Powhatan UMC Continues to Serve Christ Through Mission
In July, 2016, the Leadership Group at Powhatan United Methodist Church met to discuss a building plan and introduce the capital campaign vision to support a $1.8M construction project. Pastor John Hemming and his leadership team, led by Allen Minter and Betty Bowman, co-chairs of the building committee, began a two-year journey in navigating from a dream of hope and faith to a reality of a new structure connecting two existing buildings with a kitchen, new Sunday School rooms, nursery, offices, bathrooms, parking lots with lights, modern technology, additional storage, and a renovated sanctuary. This past November, the project was completed and will help Powhatan UMC to fulfill its core values of “Serving Christ through mission, Celebrating God’s grace, Encountering Christ through small groups, and Welcoming those to worship.”
According PUMC, there were several factors that contributed to the successful completion of the project including: having a strong internal leadership group, being able to get the congregations’ buy-in into the vision; having the right partner in Evans Construction to help execute the vision; being able to raise sufficient funds through a progressive capital campaign, and obtaining the financial support of the Virginia United Methodist Development Company, who funded the expansion loan. According to Kimberly Adams, Treasurer: “Of course, there were bumps along the way; we performed a giving study and were told that the church would be able to raise one third as much of the money that was actually raised! Our congregation surpassed all expectations, and once the walls started to raise, the excitement continued and resulted in expanding the scope of the original project to include a sanctuary renovation as well.” Leadership was cognizant to ensure that status of construction was communicated and was transparent to all by having multiple town hall meetings; displaying the drawings of the new building addition; and having several donors to give Sunday morning testimonies regarding the importance of supporting this project. PUMC expressed special thanks to the building chairpersons, Betty Bowman and Allen Minter, for their hard work and tremendous dedication to the efforts of ensuring a successful conclusion to this story!
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