Sanctuary Debt Paid: Saint Luke 'Community' UMC, Dallas, celebrates
BY STEVE SMITH
Special Correspondent
As Kenneth Gwynn flicked the lighter and touched the flame to the piece of paper presented by the Rev. Tyrone Gordon, audience members in the packed sanctuary of Saint Luke "Community" United Methodist Church let out with a chorus of wild applause, "Hallelujahs!" and "Amens!"
As the flames torched the note, church members celebrated the end of their $3 million financial obligation to pay off the roughly 1,800-seat sanctuary built in the late 1980s. Gwynn, chairman of the church's trustee board, and Chris Redmon, head of the capital campaign committee, looked on with smiles that expressed relief that the threeyear journey was over.
"We came up with a plan not only to pay off the sanctuary, but our other acquisitions, such as properties around the church," Redmon said, after the service. "The whole plan was that those properties were for future growth, and we want to enter that next stage of our process with a clean slate."
On this particular Sunday, Dec. 9, every seat in the place was packed at both the 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services as pastor emeritus, the Rev. Zan Holmes, returned to the pulpit where he spent so many years to preach a sermon based on the parable of the rising yeast from Luke 13.
In his rousing sermon, Holmes urged congregants to avoid making excuses that they don't have enough to do God's work and do the best they can to extend God's kingdom with what talents and finances they do have.
Just before the sermon, the Mortgage Burning Ceremony & Litany brought a major measure of celebration to the 5,000-member church. Gywnn told audience members that their commitment to the building project and raising the funds for paying off the debt sets a good example for children and young adults that they, too, can achieve success through making and sticking to commitments.
"Just as the Lord builds up Jerusalem and gathers the outcasts of Israel, so the Lord allows us to build, pay for, and mark our Christian Witness through Saint Luke 'Community' United Methodist Church," the congregation said, as part of the mortgage burning ceremony's litany. "In humble gratitude, and in accordance with the Scriptures, we praise God for this Worship Center and for all God has done for us, in us, and through us. "We praise God for the blessings of having paid and retired all indebtedness on it; we now rededicate ourselves and this place for God's glory... We rejoice to be free of debt and commit to the upkeep of this facility, the ministry of this church and its witness in the community ..."
The yellow brick sanctuary, long a beacon of hope in Dallas' African-American community, is hard to miss, sitting right on the eastbound frontage road of Interstate 30, about two mile from downtown past the turnoffs to the fairgrounds. Redmon said he never doubted Saint Luke "Community" would pay off the 20,000 sq. ft. sanctuary. From the start, his panel sought help from expert consultants adept at church financing and building projects.
"It's like anything else: you stop, you start, you get distracted, and then you start again," he said. "This time, when Pastor Gordon came on board, he said, 'We need to clear this up once and for all so we can devote more money on our multiple ministries.' And we have more than 100 ministries for the community, and we wanted to get back to the community.
"I am very excited and humbled. We had a very good group of people, 13 families on the team, and everybody pushed to make this happen."
