Church opens in Celina, Celina Record

First United Methodist Church of Celina prepares for first services at new facility Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Mar 25, 2016 For 90 years, congregation members at First United Methodist Church of Celina have climbed the front steps of its brick building on North Colorado Street to attend more baptisms, weddings and funerals than likely anyone has counted. Last weekend, however, the final Sunday service was hosted in its sanctuary. The sermon was presented by Rev. John Baldwin, who will continue to lead the 575-member congregation, after the church moves this weekend into its expansive, newly constructed building at 12465 FM 428. Ground was broken last spring on FUMC’s new 17,000-sqaure-foot facility, the exterior of which is covered in stone and boasts at 73-foot-tall cross tower. Inside it features a gothic-style sanctuary with custom-made stained-glass windows and chandeliers, as well as pew seating for around 240 people. There is also a wide foyer, a long fellowship hall, a sizeable kitchen, a dressing room for brides, offices, a wing for the church’s preschool and additional classroom and meeting spaces that will house its ministry programs for children, youth and adults. “It’s a cool space,” said Baldwin, who moved to the church five years ago from Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano. When he arrived, he said, plans to build a new facility were in the works, although he disagreed with the contemporary architecture style that was initially considered for it. “It was like Legos stuck to one another – just one big … glob of brick and glass,” he recalled. Instead, “We went with a traditional, comfortable, anchored feel,” Baldwin said, adding that the gothic influences make the new building “feel as though it’s been here for a while.” The sanctuary and other spaces are part of the first of three phases of construction planned for the 20-acre site FUMC purchased in 2006, Baldwin said. Total cost for the project is $6.75 million, of which $2.3 million was raised by congregation members. “My thing was, I didn’t want X-number of families to pay for the whole thing. I wanted every family to pay for part of it,” he said. “We didn’t worry about how little you gave (or) how much you gave. We worried that you gave. We felt like if you can give us 50 cents, God will do something with it.” Baldwin said phase 2 of construction is likely to start in about a year, when additional space for child and youth programming as well as green space and an outdoor playing field is set to be built. The third phase, which will include the construction of an 850-seat sanctuary, should be wrapped up in about eight years. Farther in the future will be phase 4, for which Baldwin said the church plans to eventually purchase land and build another campus in Gunter, where many of its congregation members reside. “There’s not a Methodist (church) presence between us and Pottsboro,” he explained. “As the growth heads north, I want to get as close to out ahead of it was we can.” Nevertheless, FUMC does not intend to become one of those megachurches that boast stadium-sized sanctuaries and tens of thousands of congregants. Baldwin is not a fan of that concept. “A megachurch, to me, loses some of the personal relational reality,” he said. “When I preach … I don’t stand in the pulpit. I walk around, I have a conversation.” The majority of FUMC’s congregation members are “excited” about the new church building, he said. “I think people are going to be thrilled when they see how it turned out.” They may also be pleased to learn that a few keepsakes from the former church will make their way to the new facility. Among them will be the sanctuary’s colorful stained-glass windows and large cross, which in the coming months will be installed and backlit in the fellowship hall. “So you’ll walk in here and throw on a switch and it will feel a little bit like you’re sitting on our old sanctuary,” Baldwin explained. Rex Glendenning, owner of Rex Real Estate in Frisco, and his family have been members of the congregation for a dozen years. Both of his daughters were married at the Colorado Street church, which was built in 1926. “There have been so many families that have been baptized there and have worshipped there,” he said. The building was purchased several years ago by the city of Celina, which has been holding its monthly City Council and other meetings there for about a year. Plans are to eventually turn the former church, which features a large pipe organ, into a performing arts venue. Following a renovation the adjacent Kirk Hall building, which currently houses Friendship Corner Preschool, will become the new headquarters for the Celina Police Department. Glendenning’s family has long roots in Celina. He sat on a church-based committee that helped selected the site and acquire the land for FUMC’s new campus. Vacating the old church building will be “a little bittersweet,” he said, “but we’re certainly excited about … getting into that new facility. “With the leadership of Pastor Baldwin, the sky’s the limit for the growth of this church and (to) become more of an integral part of the community, to have facilities to kind of parallel our growth.” Glendenning calls the new church “a shining star out on the west side of Celina that hopefully will be a facility that we can be proud of for many years to come.” Baldwin said he gets “a little emotional” when he thinks about delivering his first sermon in the new sanctuary on Easter Sunday. “What I’ve told the people is this (building) is simply a tool for doing what we’re supposed to be doing … for reaching people for Christ, and so we’re not going to spend a lot of time patting ourselves on the back. That’s not why we’re here,” he said. “We’re not here to build buildings. We’re here to reach people.”