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Update from Administrative Council
In our last Church Council update, we shared with you that the Mt. Horeb Trustees, Finance Committee and Church Council had voted unanimously to make an offer on the building and property at 1501 Park Street in Downtown Columbia and that we were entering a period of discernment and due diligence to determine whether or not this impressive property was the right fit for our ministry needs. We also shared that our plan was to hold town hall informational meetings and invite the entire congregation into a time of prayerful discernment about this opportunity.
As our prayer and discernment journey began, we began to encounter a series of obstacles. The first of these obstacles was that the seller had a leaseback provision. In other words, if we continued moving forward we could close on the property in December but would not be able to truly occupy the building until April. Next, we continued to assess whether or not we could ascertain parking adequate to future needs and conducted further analysis of the intersection between the layout of the building and our ministry needs for worship and children’s ministry spaces. We had ongoing concerns in these areas.
Then, shortly after our Church Council engaged in a serious time of prayerful discernment, we had two changes in staffing realities. First, with Pastor Faye Stephen’s announcement of her upcoming retirement from our Congregational Care department, Pastor Stephen Fitch has expressed a desire to shift from leading our Columbia worship efforts into a full-time role in Congregational Care. We celebrate this move with Pastor Stephen and feel confident that his gifts will match up perfectly with our needs in the Congregational Care department. Days after learning of Pastor Stephen’s decision to step out of our Columbia efforts and into Congregational Care, our part-time Columbia Worship Leader, Bella Bible, notified us of her intentions to step out of her staff role back into a volunteer role with our worship team while she pursues a master’s degree at Columbia International University.
Challenges with the building combined with these staffing realities caused us to slow down and reevaluate our Columbia efforts. Acknowledging that the Holy Spirit seemed to be closing doors, at our most recent Church Council meeting, we unanimously voted to conclude our discernment process earlier than expected and NOT move forward with the purchase of 1501 Park Street.
What does this mean for Columbia? Plans are underway now to develop a GMC college ministry strategy to capitalize on connections we have made with college students. Further, as a church, Mt. Horeb is committed to resourcing a core group of about 20 senior adults as they build upon our Columbia Worship Gatherings to establish or join a Global Methodist church in closer proximity to the Columbia area.
To be clear, we still feel called to plant the healthy DNA of Mt. Horeb in new locations, effectively becoming a multisite church. Our team will be researching the best next place to establish a Mt. Horeb presence and develop a timeline and strategy to accomplish that goal. In the meantime, we are also excited about things to come on our current campus in Lexington. Our Long-Range Campus Planning Team has been busy working with consultants to develop a campus master plan that we anticipate will be delivered in the first part of 2026. We cannot wait to share with you those plans and exciting things to come. In addition, we want to continue to be a leader in the GMC in South Carolina by partnering with other, smaller churches to provide discipleship and worship resources to multiply the impact of our ministries in many locations around the state. God is doing some amazing things in our midst and we look forward to where He leads us!
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