Growing forward at Emmanuel
Growing forward at EmmanuelPlease check back often as we will update this page with the latest news from our Growing Forward Capital Campaign.
GroundBreaking – Sunday, August 30, 2020, 10:30am
Read more and see more pictures of the Groundbreaking HERE
Growing Forward Update-Thursday, August 20, 2020
Dear Emmanuel Community,
God is doing a New Thing at Emmanuel!
Fifty-two years ago, a group had a vision for the potential of a church in this
neighborhood. Many people invested their time, energy, prayers, and resources to birth
Emmanuel.
Nine years ago, a vision team was created to faithfully discern the ministry
possibilities God is leading and equipping us to engage.
Fourteen months ago, through the action of a charge conference, a building
committee was established to plan and implement these imagined possibilities.
On Sunday, August 30, 2020, we will break ground!
It has been over 25 years since Emmanuel has made significant improvements
to its facilities. We are ready to change lives, impact families, and better connect to the
neighborhood.
Emmanuel United Methodist Church‘s vision to be A Growing and Vital
Community Where Christ is Transforming Lives has been the driving force that has
guided our efforts. Growth creates energy and new life. Vitality signifies purpose and
importance. Community is all about relationships and connection. Transforming is about
changing lives to be more like Christ. The world has changed over these past five
months, but our vision has not. We are ready to be “Growing Forward” by making this
vision a reality!
We hope that you can join us at 10:30 AM on Sunday, August 30th (in person or
livestream) as we gather outside, safely distanced and with masks, to celebrate and ask
God’s continued blessing through a short Ground Breaking Service. We will still have
in-person worship at 9:30 AM and in-person and livestream worship at 11 AM. A link to
both livestreams will be included in your e-news the Friday before and that Sunday.
If you would like to know more about the future plans in place for Emmanuel and
our Growing Forward campaign, please go to: www.emmanuelmemphis.org/growing-forward-emmanuel/.
We hope you will join us in celebrating this new and exciting thing God is doing
and find a way to faithfully participate in making Emmanuel a vital and growing
community where Christ is transforming lives for the next 52 years and beyond.
Celebrating Together,
Wade
Growing Forward Update-Friday, April 24, 2020
Building Addition Update: New Fellowship Hall, Community Room and new youth area
The Building Committee met on April 6 by video conferencing with our architect, Hord and Associates, and our General Contractor, Linkous Construction, to get an update on the Growing Forward campaign.
Through April 23, or 10 months into the Growing Forward campaign, $1,139,864 has been received against $3.2 million that has been pledged, which is wonderful! That’s 36%! Thank you congregation!
Hord and Associates reported that they are about 75% complete with the construction drawings and anticipate having the construction drawings complete by mid-May. Linkous will start taking bids and after that will be ready for anticipated construction to start around July 1 with construction to last about 12 months.
Growing Forward Update-Sunday, February 23, 2020
GOD is doing GREAT Things at Emmanuel!
The first phase was the Streetscape project which was designed to clean up the front of our property along Messick Rd. and make the church more inviting and welcoming. This project, which was just completed included tree removal, grading, a staircase, lighting, landscaping, irrigation and new signage. Emmanuel and the Stockley subdivision have completely TRANSFORMED this block of Messick Rd.
The second phase will be the new Fellowship Hall building which will be attached to the Educational Building. This will be a two-story building that on the upper level will have a Fellowship Hall that will seat 300, a full kitchen, a platform for performances, an Audio-Visual system, lots of storage and an elevator from the lower level. The lower level will include a Community Room, a Food Pantry, the Youth Lounge with break out rooms, lots of storage and an elevator to the upper level.
We are excited about the design and how it will allow us to fulfill our Missions and Ministries!
There are four major phases to designing and constructing a building.
First phase was the Schematic Design Drawing Phase, which are two dimensional drawings, and were completed in September 2019 and allowed us to confirm our $5.2 million budget which was approved by the Church Conference this past June.
Second phase was the Design Development Drawing Phase which was completed January 28, 2020. These drawings are three dimensional and about 65% complete.
At this point we are about 4% over the $5.2 million budget, but we feel confident as does our General Contractor, Linkous Construction, that we will be on budget when the final numbers come in.
Final phase are the Construction Drawings. The Building Committee authorized Hord to finish these drawings. They are to be completed by late May 2020. Then Linkous Construction will take final bids.
Groundbreaking and Construction should be late June to early July 2020.
Completion will take about 12 months.
A year ago we started the Growing Forward Capital Campaign to raise the money for this project.
We received about $3.2 million dollars in pledges during the campaign which are to be paid over a 3-year period that began last July.
Thru December 31, 2019 we have received about $950,000 or about a third of the pledges in the first 6 months! That’s outstanding! Thank you!
We also have about $700K left from the sale of the property to add to the pledged amount for construction.
To those of you that pledged, Thank you!
To those of you that are paying on your pledge, Thank you!
And to those of you that have not been offered an opportunity to pledge, Jim Wilson, Co-Chair of the Growing Forward campaign, is available to answer your questions about making a pledge.
As you can see GOD is doing great things here at Emmanuel!!
UPDATE: (6-5-19)
180 pledges totaling $3,211,352
We are kicking off our Growing Forward Capital Campaign.
Emmanuel United Methodist Church’s vision is to be a Growing and Vital Community Where Christ is Transforming Lives.
We are excited to announce that Emmanuel UMC will soon be Growing Forward in our journey to share Christ’s Love with those around us.
The time is now to be more engaged in the mission and ministry to the congregation and the community to make our mission of Loving God and Loving Neighbor a greater reality. The Growing Forward campaign seeks to meet these needs and greatly expand our ability to be a vital community where Christ is transforming lives.
Together we are taking a three-year journey. A journey that involves the entire congregation and the larger Emmanuel community.
We seek to involve the entire church in making prayerful, faithful stewardship decisions about the use of God’s blessings. And we will celebrate God’s accomplishments through the faithful response of God’s people at Emmanuel.
The reality is – everyone in some way will be touched by it, everyone in some way will be blessed by it, and everyone is needed.
- Pray for Emmanuel Growing Community through Christ.
- A member of one of the teams may call you and ask for your help. When you are asked to help, please say, “YES”!.
- You may volunteer by contacting our Campaign Chairs or a member of the Campaign Cabinet.
Solutions
- Offer multiple ministry opportunities for discipleship by freeing up the gym and building a Fellowship Hall.
- Provide a new kitchen that is functional and hospitable.
- Create dedicated space for all age level ministries, family celebrations, and community gatherings.
- Provide a new community room and designated space for the food pantry to better serve the missional needs of our neighborhood.
- Enhance access between floors with an elevator.
- Create a youth and age level area that allows space for future ministry growth.
June 3, 2019
WOW! What a celebration we had at church. Celebration Sunday was all we anticipated and more!
Inspirational music and messages – Joy Begets Joy!
Our Growing Forward Capital Campaign has received 176 commitment pledges totaling $3,195,872 as of Celebration Sunday. The excitement for Growing Forward and for Celebrating the future of Emmanuel was apparent to all who attended church and our picnic lunch. The gym was completely filled with tables of our Emmanuel family and it was a beautiful sight. 
We are rooted in faith and we’re growing in love…
May 29, 2019
This coming Sunday, June 2, is Celebration Sunday! We are excited to share what our collective campaign commitments to this
point will be, during our one service at 10am followed by a picnic lunch in the gym.
Last Sunday, May 26, our theme was Staying Forward: we are bridging the gap from our past to our future.
And hopefully, you were at church on Commitment Sunday, May 19. What a special service with balloons representing our Moving Forward …and UP!!
See some of the pictures and videos others took and shared. And read the latest email at the link below.
May 14, 2019
This week we are focused on Paying Forward. A new email was sent today with all the latest news and exciting announcements. (Email archive link at the bottom of this page.)
May 7, 2019
The third newsletter was mailed on May 1, and two emails have been sent out.
You can see the links at the bottom of the page to read these publications.
Last Sunday, May 5, was a day of prayer at Emmanuel. We are Praying Forward as we are Growing Forward.
April 21, 2019
We officially kicked off our Growing Forward Capital Campaign during worship services on Easter Sunday.
Many attended information meetings between April 8-16 and were asked to pray for Emmanuel and what God is calling us to do as individuals and as a congregation.
The video shown at the information meetings and the handouts which included a Prayer Bookmark, a brochure of renderings by the architects, and a Commitment Guide can be viewed at the links below.
March 21, 2019
Dear Emmanuel Community,
God is doing a New Thing at Emmanuel. Do you feel it? It is about the future… and the present. It includes the children… and the youth and adults. It connects the community… and the neighborhood. It involves your family… and mine… and those whom we have not met, yet!
Have you seen the construction of the new neighborhood being built right next door to the church? Have you seen the number of new and many young families moving into the neighborhood on the west side of the church?
Fifty years ago, a group had a vision for the potential of a church in this neighborhood. Many people invested their time, energy, prayers, and resources to birth Emmanuel.
The time is NOW for Emmanuel to position itself to be part of the new movement that is happening all around us and to be prepared for the next 50 years.
Over the past 7 years, the vision team has been working faithfully to imagine the ministry possibilities God is leading and equipping us to engage. We are now ready to change lives, impact families, and better connect to the neighborhood. It is time for us to be “Growing Forward” by making our vision a reality!
Emmanuel United Methodist Church‘s vision is to be A Growing and Vital Community Where Christ is Transforming Lives. Growth, both physical and spiritual, creates energy, excitement and new life. Vitality signifies purpose, meaning, and importance. Community is all about relationships and places of connection. Transforming is about changing both the giver’s life and the receiver’s life to be more like Christ. Through it all, Christ is our foundation, initiator, and motivator.
Enclosed you will read about some specific ways, the vision team and now building committee envision how we can grow forward. The preliminary estimate of costs was at $5 million. The estimate once a contractor was engaged using schematic drawings was over $7 million. The building committee is working with the architects and contractors to revise this estimate and determine priorities while keeping the vision at the forefront.
The Capital Campaign Committee is organizing us to kick off a capital campaign beginning Easter Sunday, April 21 and lasting for four weeks. Beforehand, each of you will receive an invitation to attend an Information Meeting the second week of April to learn more.
Let us begin now prayerfully considering how we will be a vital part of this new thing God is doing of growing our community around us and within us.
Imagining the possibilities with you,
Wade
Senior Minister
March 1, 2019
What you can expect?
- You will receive updates through newsletters and emails. Or you can check this page.
- You will receive an invitation to attend one information meeting.
Links:
If you know someone that is not receiving the news, they can sign up here: Growing Forward Campaign Subscription Form – www.emmanuelmemphis.org/GFC
Newsletter #1: Mailed on Monday, February 25. You can read and/or print it here.
Newsletter #2: Mailed on Thursday, March 21. You can read and/or print it here.
Newsletter # 3: Mailed on Wednesday, May 1. You can read and/or print it here.
Email Archives – click to read
Creative Giving Strategies Brochure
An Example of a Commitment Strategy For A Family of Five
- Growing Forward Video
- Commitment Guide
- Prayer Bookmark
- Architect Brochure