“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”  (Isaiah 54:2)

The Lord has blessed the life and ministry of St. James to the extent that we must now “stretch our curtains wide”and begin to look at how we can continue to meet the spiritual and ministry needs of our congregation and the community of Athens. Over the past three years we have been involved in a master planning process to determine the best ways to meet those needs.  Led by an outside architectural firm, we conducted congregational surveys, ministry focus groups, and interviews with church staff, and determined the biggest, most pressing needs were:

(1) the need for a larger meeting and gathering space (i.e., fellowship area) to meet together as a church family
(2) dedicated classroom and worship spaces for our youth and children's ministry activities
(3) additional and improved parking to alleviate the overflow parking into the surrounding neighborhood.

This page will be updated in the future with the various steps that have taken place and those that need to happen in the future to achieve these goals.  As we construct that “visual” display of the process, we invite you to review the minutes, listed below, of the Building Task Force.  This group is a representation of the St. James people and they have been charged by the church with the task of developing a plan and design for the future and then presenting that to the church for review.

St. James UMC Building Task Force Meeting Minutes:

February 17, 2005

March 24, 2005

April 14, 2005

June 1, 2005

Please check back often for updates. May the Lord bless you!