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Churches splurge on expansion to keep up with growth

By Don Kirkland

From the handful of families that met for worship services in a converted barn on May 27, 1962, Episcopal Church of the Epiphany has managed to secure its place in history and now in the future, as well.

The familiar, brick-faced façade on Price Road north of Southern celebrates 40-plus years of community service with dedication ceremonies on Sunday for a new, $1.7 million sanctuary designed to accommodate churchgoers well into the 21st century.

The ceremony marks a milestone in an ambitious three-phase construction program, eventually estimated to cost $2.5 million and to provide a spiritual home for what it sees as a growing number of young Episcopalian families, including many from the Kyrene Corridor.

In fact, at least 40 such families already are among the church’s mainstays, including John and Susan Burger, Jack and Mary Harthun and the church’s senior warden, Buena Vista Ranchos residents Leslie Evans and her husband Tony.

Like many other longtime church members, Jack Harthun, a member of the volunteer committee that oversaw the construction project, hopes the new buildings will help lay the foundation for a successful future.

“For some services, we were literally bursting at the seams,” said Harthun. “We knew that if we wanted to grow as a church, we had to expand.”

Expansion, of course, also requires the ability to attract younger families, an effort Harthun admits hasn’t always been easy.

Episcopalians traditionally are seen as older, he says, which church officials recognize doesn’t lend to the kind of regenerative growth needed to perpetuate the denomination over years to come.

That may be why a significant part of phase-one planning involved construction of a bright, modern childcare center adjoining the new sanctuary and the inclusion of a windowed “crying room” that allows parents with small children to observe what’s going on in the main sanctuary without others being disturbed.

The sanctuary itself was built using so-called rammed-earth materials, a modern-day improvement of the ancient adobe brick, now 18 inches thick and refined to be more durable. In addition to protecting west-facing walls from summer’s searing heat, the rammed-earth blocks also helped minimize construction costs, Harthun said.

Although the planners needed to keep a lid on costs—the project originally was seen as totaling $700,000 less—Harthun said the planners did not want to lose the familiar red-brick look designed in the 1960s by noted Valley architect Benny Gonzalez.

A compromise allowed rammed-earth construction on the side of the building facing the sun and red brick on the east side facing the street.

 

(Part 2) Attracting young families seen a vital to survival

By Melissa Hirschl

It’s not just adolescents who experience growing pains; churches do, too. And with the influx of new residents to the Kyrene Corridor, space is the name of the game.

For Gethsemane Lutheran Church on Guadalupe Road in Tempe, the game is being played out with an impressive $1.9 million renovation.

Not a day too early, either. For a church where two worship services have been taking 80 percent of the capacity, it seems that space was beginning to feel like a luxury.

Scheduled for completion this August, the new 12,000-square-foot Family Life Center is part of a community outreach program geared to absorb the church’s overflow of activities as well as serve the community.

The center will boast a gymnasium/multi-purpose room for youth sports, three meeting rooms, a youth room, volunteer space and five offices. It will also house administrative space adequate for a congregation three times its size.

That’s pretty impressive, considering that when church officials opened the doors 26 years ago, they were renting space in Marcos de Niza High School across the street.

“This is going to be a totally separate building,” explains Pastor John Krueger.

“The kids that attend our attached Gethsemane Lutheran School (Pre-K-8 with extended day care) are excited because they will be able to compete in basketball and volleyball leagues, which were previously held outside in the heat.

“We never hosted other teams because of lack of space and parks, and off-campus sites had to make do for many athletic activities.”

The church is also considering using the gymnasium for adult sports as well as church fellowship.

“It’s just a huge space for people who need space to get together,” says Krueger. “I’m excited for the kids and also because we can do more for the community with expanded facilities--hopefully, some outreach programs with Marcos de Niza students after school.”

The idea for a new center sprung to life about three years ago, according to Krueger, when a consensus of 10 church members decided the time was right to launch an expansion project.

“We were going to create a worship center, but the use of the land just didn’t work out,” said Krueger.

“The first of many steps toward achieving the goal of our new center was finding an architect, and that turned out to be Glasco Bedrin Architecture Group, who has worked on over 100 churches in the Valley. They really listened to us. They came back with exactly what we said; I was very impressed with that.”

“Next came selection of a contractor that turned out to be Concord Construction Company, who came highly recommended.”

The most vexing task involved with a major renovation such as Gethsemane’s is naturally funding. To achieve its financial goals, the church undertook what Krueger calls a “three-year capital funding adventure.”

Basically, church members were called on to make pledges that could be paid out in three years. Fortunately the church was able to raise $450,000 in advance. At present time, they are in the second year of funding.

A new worship center is on the church’s “wish list” but will probably come some time in the future, according to Krueger.

“The faster we grow, the faster we’ll get the new worship center,” he says.

Another sight on the horizon is an addition to the Gethsemane Lutheran School, which is next door to the church.

“What we’d ideally like to do,” says Krueger, “is combine the three, one-level buildings into a multi-story building, and use the excess space for a ballfield.”

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the national church body of Gethsemane church, represents the largest system Protestant of parochial schools in the country--1,600 Lutheran grade schools nationwide, according to Krueger.

“Our school has been here for over 20 years to serve the community, and we hope we can continue our efforts.”

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