St. Andrew UMC Church Onee

We will continue to offer both contemporary and traditional options in worship. Exact times for each style of worship service have yet to be decided, and will be determined based on extensive conversations and feedback with the whole church through a survey this summer. Contemporary worship will move to the Sanctuary in January 2018.

Sanctuary renovation and expansion is the top priority, in keeping with our strategic focus on Worship. After the Sanctuary portion of the project is funded, we will address the variety of needs in Connect and Serve, including Children, Students, Mission, Teaching and The Commons. While our desire is to touch each of these areas, our ability will depend on the total size of commitments to the church.

Conversations have been ongoing with each of the Sunday School classes and will continue throughout the year. If you have further questions, email Pam White here.

Scott’s plan is to move his regular class to Smith Worship Center, which will both improve the experience and encourage growth. Ask Scott about it! He has great plans for his class at St. Andrew.

We heard clearly that people love the Prayer Chapel, and so we are going to leave it unchanged.

No. The Rose Window is a hallmark of our Sanctuary and will continue to be so in the future.

We believe the Sanctuary will be improved in a number of ways:

1. Hearing the Spoken Word | We have been plagued by difficulty in hearing the spoken word in our amazing Sanctuary. While perfect for choral and organ music, the spoken word is very difficult to hear. With the development of technology in sound, we can enhance the sermon and other spoken elements in the service, without diminishing the acoustics for traditional music.
2. Visuals | New screens will be brighter and clearer allowing for enhanced visuals for the sermons and videos that will be played.
3. Critical Mass  |  As we all feel every Christmas and Easter, the sanctuary is a transcendent experience when filled with people. With only one traditional service in the Sanctuary on Sunday mornings, it will feel that way every week as we worship together.

The plan as of today is for traditional worship to continue every Sunday throughout construction. However, we have not secured final construction plans, and there may be short periods where the normal worship schedule will be affected. Every effort is being made to minimize the impact of construction on Sunday worship.

We are excited about master plan proposals for adding more than a hundred parking spaces to the campus, including needed space for seniors and families. Final decisions for how many spots may be designated and where they will go are not yet determined.

We have no desire to create a blended service option. We will offer services that are either distinctly contemporary or distinctly traditional.

This depends on how much we are able to raise; we are not planning on adding significant debt to the church and so our capacity is determined by our generosity.

Currently, we have debt at around 1 times our annual budget. This is manageable and fully housed within our operating budget. As always, our finance committee is constantly monitoring our debt levels and our giving trends at the church.

In this phase, we are looking to add more than one hundred and twenty spaces. In the long-term we may need more parking, but we will also be challenging our congregation to make use of parking spots across Plano Parkway as we make room closer to the church building for seniors, new families, and visitors.

For more information, contact Forrest Pool by email here.