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Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let
it not be fore present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such
work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay
stone, that a time is to come when those will be held sacred because our
hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor
and the wrought substance of them. "See! This our fathers did
for us."
--- John Ruskin
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| DEAR FRIENDS:
For two years I have been your
pastor. When I came here there was a great need for adequate facilities
to meet the unparalleled opportunities for service. You dreamed and
ventured forth for Christ as you purchased a new building site that is
unsurpassed in its natural beauty and location. This was the first
step toward meeting the challenge.
I hope you will be able to take
time to study the message of this brochure carefully. It describes
our inadequate facilities and our plans for new buildings. It proposes
plans for a church building worthy of a congregation of your size and strength
and potential. |
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I have been indescribably grateful
for your devotion and loyalty in the past. I am confident that I
can count on your response to the challenge of your church in this hour.
Let us put our hands and our hearts together as we build for service in
His Kingdom.
Sincerely,
SAM NADER, MINISTER
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The Sanctuary
In order to accommodate in worship
a rapidly growing and spiritually consecrated membership, such as that
with which your Church is blessed, it is necessary that the Church plant
be equipped with a large Sanctuary. The present Sanctuary, as you
well know, is not large enough to seat at any one time the normal attendance
at worship services.
Its dignity, its beauty, its
architectural character, its worshipful atmosphere, the memories with which
its very walls are to be endowed will contribute so richly to the enjoyment
of worship services observed therein.
Here is a Sanctuary wherein the
most expansive services to and for the Church membership may be conducted.
As they enter and worship, people will feel that they have been in the
presence of the Most High. This is as it should be. |
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The Fellowship Hall
The new recreational building
(interior view on opposite page) is destined to become the new gathering
place for young people and young married couples, as well. Table
tennis, shuffleboard and other indoor games will highlight the recreational
program to be implemented by this new unit of the Church plant. |
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| It is far more desirable
to have our young people meeting in the wholesome atmosphere of the Church
plant, where all play and social activities will be under cordial and sympathetic
supervision.
The social and recreational building
is a means to the end of making your Church maintain the neighborliness
so desirable in any congregation. Through this medium many groups
may be expected to gather each night ... cooking and dining facilities
are adequate to accommodate not only large numbers but large numbers broken
up into smaller units. With its spacious parlor, with its stage and
screen fitted for regulation sound movies ... this new building can house
entertainment for several hundred people nightly. |
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The leadership of your Church
has long been aware of the physical needs highlighted on the preceding
pages. In 1951 your Board of Stewards appointed a planning committee
for the purpose of discovering your needs and your will with respect to
how your Church should proceed in meeting those needs, and to outline the
plans to implement your wishes. That committee proceeded with all
diligence and thoroughness. In due course that committee made an
exhaustive report (which the Board of Stewards carefully studied and formally
approved) out of which grew the plans herein set forth.
Therefore, the plans for new
construction are YOUR plans for YOUR Church HOUSE. |
| On the opposite
page and this page you will observe the plans for the proposed new project.
These plans are shown here so that you may see how we will build on our
new site.
When you turn to the next two
pages you will see the architect's overall perspective of the entire plant
as it will appear when completed.
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Our Primary Department, designed
to handle twenty, has an attendance of nearly fifty. The chairs touch
and when a child moves his arm he hits another; this encourages movement,
but it is a handicap to Christian instruction. |
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- And There Was No Room
"And straightway many were
gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them,
no not so much as about
the door." --- Mark 2:2
The Sunday morning congestion
in our Sanctuary and Church School rooms reminds us of that incident in
the life of Christ. The doors of our Church are still OPEN to all
who will come but in some cases the classroom and auditorium are so crowded
that the open door merely permits the late comer to look in, but not to
come in.
YOUR Church has outgrown its
HOUSE.
Our present Sanctuary was built
when our Church had a membership of 75; the Church School rooms were built
when the enrollment was about 50. We now have 506 church members
and we are now averaging over 185 per Sunday in the Church School.
The congested conditions not
only create physical discomforts but they destroy much of the dignity which
should accompany study and worship in the Church.
So, strictly in the light of
physical needs for space and facilities for the worship of God and the
study of His Word ... there can be no question as to the urgency for building
a new Church plant.
Added to these very obvious needs
are others arising from the necessary broadening of the scope of the Church's
service to its congregation and community. Increasingly, the Church
has become a factor in the social and recreational life of its members
... and particularly so among its younger members.
Today's conditions in your Church,
in contrast to those existing 31 years ago, present a clear challenge ...
IT IS EASY TO SEE THAT MORE SPACE AND ADEQUATE FACILITIES ARE NEEDED. |
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In every adult's memory, there
is stored a sentimental affection for the small church which served the
community of his childhood. It was one of the focal points of his
world, a center of social activity as well as a place of worship; the minister
was the friend of his family and his friend, too. He knew the people
who sang in the choir - perhaps he was himself a cherub-cheeked soprano
... The memory is a pleasant one, all bound round with
soft organ music on a summer's day, with worm fingers of sunlight probing
cool shadows, and with a small breeze stirring the ivy on the walls and
the leaves of trees just visible through an open window. The church
was a smuch a part of his life as home, or school; or going swimming in
the creek on the edge of town ... |
First Methodist Church has been
planned to be just such a church as that one long remembered, a community
church, with a congregation of friends, a church literally and figuratively
close to your home, a church which will add to the community life of Houma
an atmosphere not otherwise obtainable. It has been established not
only for this generation but for those coming up, for tots not yet baptized,
for the boisterous grade-school ages, for the youngsters glowing in their
'teens ... It will be such a church that in the years to come,
you'll be proud and happy to say of First Methodist, "I helped to build
this Church." |
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