Many are the plans in a man’s heart;
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21

Today is simply the beginning of The Sanctuary Vision. Your gifts and graces are needed now like never before. We hope you will experience the enormous joy that is here!

OUR RECENT HISTORY
Though our history stretches back nearly 170 years, twelve years ago our Sunday services averaged only 15 people.  Our church was landlocked on two acres of land. Serious consideration was given to closing the church. We decided not to! (more history)

THE CHALLENGES
Only six years later, we were out-growing our small church and its burgeoning village of doublewides.

  Our growth challenges included:

• Our membership increased 500% in the prior 6 years
• We projected 50% growth per year
• Our facilities were woefully inadequate
• Land prices were rapidly escalating around us
• Our small congregation had serious financial constraints

THE VISION COMMITTEE
The BUMC Vision Committee was formed at that time to seek God’s vision to meet these challenges. Our human vision is normally measured in weeks, months or, at best a few years. We charged ourselves to look out 50 to 100 years.
At every step we have sought God’s will in this effort. Our guiding scripture was from Proverbs, chapter 19, the 21st verse,

We sought to “dream a vision that will be pleasing to the Lord”.
We hoped and prayed we would do our work faithfully.

THE PROCESS
We met nearly weekly for over three years, our human limitations and personal fears (primarily financial) tended to lead us down paths and to conclusions where we felt comfortable. Through time, we jointly came to the conclusion that we needed to “let go and let God”. If our efforts were possible without God, we simply weren’t being faithful to the possibilities of his power or his Kingdom. To put it another way, “if we could do it without God; we weren’t doing enough”.

THE NOTION OF SPACE AND THE SANCTUARY
As we struggled; and I do mean struggled, with many options for the future of our church, one of the options included moving the church to a new location. That was a painful option, but an example of the issues we were dealing with.
Then the Lord presented opportunities for additional land which frightened us. They excited us too, but the financial issues bound us in varying levels of fear.
Through weeks and months, we became convinced that the Lord’s will was for us to gain space … in the form of land. Five contiguous parcels of land adjoining our church became available simultaneously in the most miraculous manner . . . more land than we had a clear use for. In time we became comfortable that we did not need to know its ultimate use. We simply needed to move to make it happen.

PLANNING OUR NEW CHURCH
Underpinning our efforts were several guiding principles to assure we stayed on track. Remaining within the Lord’s Will was always first. There are others which formed boundaries and guides for assuring that what we built made sense, that it served our stated needs, and that it fit into the community and on the land.

MAINTAINING INTIMACY AND WARMTH
After engaging our architect, Jerry Spangler of Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates, we challenged him with a most daunting architectural criterion. We wanted this larger space to convey as much of “the feeling of intimacy and warmth” as possible from our precious little church and our surrounding community.

CROSSING THE CHASM
In 2001, we presented The Sanctuary Vision to our congregation in three separate meetings. In that presentation we discussed “crossing a financial chasm” where we would have to extend our congregation’s financial resources to the absolute maximum. The period would last for 18-36 months. We would not undertake this endeavor unless The Church was fully behind it.

Our small, but growing congregation stepped out and pledged the money required to buy the land for The Sanctuary. Our congregation made their pledges in a large tent erected next to our old church. To underscore your faith and commitment, those pledges were made in the fearful and uncertain times less than two weeks following the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001.

TODAY
Today we have 63 acres, two thirds of which is set aside in its natural setting providing venues for one’s spirit to rest and recreate.

There are 3 miles of hiking trails (there will be 7 miles of trails by Christmas), streams, footbridges, many gathering spaces, an outdoor Vesper Chapel, a large outdoor amphitheater with seating for 2500, a baseball field and plenty of room for you share private time with your God.

You may be able to make out (on the slide) the footprints of future buildings surrounding the church green that are a part of our long range vision. They include additional education and ministry facilities and a larger worship center.

And we have this magnificent place to worship, to gather and to grow. And grow we will. The best part is that much of our little church is now with us within these walls.

SANCTUARY MEANS A SAFE PLACE
The Sanctuary Vision is much more expansive than a wonderful worship center.
The Sanctuary includes the entire 63 acres of our current campus and all the buildings and resources contained within it. It is more a spiritual environment than geography and buildings.

WHAT THE SANCTUARY IS
The heart of ministry here is to build a place where souls can come to know the living Christ, grow in their faith journey, experience transformational living, and practice justice, mercy, and kindness.

Our prayer is that the entire space of The Sanctuary will be a blessing and resource to all people … those inside its walls and those outside its walls….ultimately to the entire world.

We believe the Lord selected this place and this land for purposes beyond our abilities to comprehend.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has imagined for those that love Him.”

God will make each step of our path clear.

A PLACE OF PEACE, RESTORATION AND GROWTH
In addition to being a place where one can lay burdens down and learn to trust God, it is a place of peace, restoration and growth. It is a place where one can become a disciple of Christ, grow in discipleship, and learn to live the results.
It is a place to grow in the conviction that each of us is part of the Body of Christ, and each is called to be disciple and that each of us has a role to play in building the Kingdom of God.

It is a place to heal and to grow strong in one’s faith. It is a place “to learn to swim” so you won’t be afraid “to launch off into the deep water” of this world.

A PLACE OF ACTIVE DISCIPLESHIP & MINISTRIES
Through time, as we are ready, it is a place for us to find our purpose within the Body of Christ.  It is a place “to learn to fish” so we can share the grace and redemption that we have found with the rest of the world.

A HOME OF MINISTRIES
Further, The Sanctuary at Birmingham United Methodist Church seeks to be a home of many worthy ministries and a supporter of many more. Our land can be an incubator of ministries for Kingdom Building.

The Sanctuary at BUMC over the next hundred years will undoubtedly become a center of enormous outreach in our community, our country, and throughout the world.

A NEW BEGINNING
Today simply marks a new beginning.

As a matter of fact, we are nearly as constrained resource-wise as we were when we began our efforts six years ago. We need more classrooms, more offices, more storage space, a commercial kitchen, a maintenance barn, and more infrastructure on the land and the amphitheater.

And isn’t that a blessing!

• We are grateful to all of the saints who have laid the foundation for where we are today.
• We are grateful to all who have worked so diligently to conceive, construct and support this place.
• We are grateful to our wondrous and marvelous Creator God who guides our hearts, heads and hands.

Thanks be to God that we are here. And thanks be to God that you are here.

• If you are searching for meaning, purpose, and significance in your life … this may be your place.
• If you are searching to be a part of something more important than yourself … this may be your place.

We can grow together!

We are still “dreaming a vision we trust will be pleasing to our Lord”. We are trying to be faithful to his plans as we understand them.

May God bless our efforts on behalf of His Kingdom.

The body of Christ here is on a journey, doing our best to listen prayerfully to the dream God is dreaming for us. As the dream becomes a vision, we have pledged ourselves to live up to it, with everything we are and have.

Thanks be to God for this glorious day!