Work has begun on the PARKING LOT!

Yesterday (Monday, June 3) work began on the parking lot in front of the church. Currently, they are preparing to pour the first part of the lot with hopes of having the whole project completed very quickly!!!

This is going to cause a few inconveniences for the ministries this week, so here’s what you need to know:

Anyone needing to visit the office should turn into the church drive and stick to the right (east) of the mailbox in the grass. We are parked on the east side of the building and that door can be used to reach us.

The front door is to be used by the workers only!

Tuesday Morning Bible Study is canceled

Wednesday Youth Group (Junior High & High School) will happen! We are asking parents to drop off at the back door. If you turn into the church parking lot, stick to the left (in the gravel, and away from the fresh concrete) – you can follow the gravel portion of the lot around the building to the shed. The back door is located facing the shed. Junior High is 6-7 & High School is 7-8.

Choir will still meet and can park on the east side of the building or in the back of the parking lot, but should plan to come in the east side of the building for ease.

Any future updates will be shared here! – Kyle

Building Update 6/22

There have been quite a few projects going on at the new building these past couple of weeks. The flooring people have been hard at work getting the carpet down. They still have one more day scheduled to complete that project.

Outside, we have begun concrete laying on the backside of the building. This is the pad where air conditioning units are located. This means we will be actively pouring concrete for the next few weeks as we prepare our building for Occupancy!

Our HVAC workers got our vents hung in the Worship Center. And after some touch up painting, it looks great!

The curtain is up on the stage! While there are still things to finish up on the stage itself, but the curtain looks amazing! And fully functioning!

New Building Update 3/18/2021

A lot is happening at the new site, and we are getting close to being finished! We wanted to share an update of what has been done in the past few weeks.

The bathrooms have appliances! We have sinks and toilets in the bathrooms now that the tile work is finished. Soon we will be putting in the nice sink fixtures in the mens and womens restrooms.

The stage is ready for the inclusion of all the stained glass pieces! We have the cutout ready now for all 4 pieces.

The team is working to get all of the duct work for the gym space painted, this is the duct work currently drying in the Chapel!

Outside the front doors, ground work is being prepped for concrete! Sidewalk coming soon!

Our awesome tech guru Darla has been hard at work getting wifi in the building. It is up and ready to go, along with a phone line!

After church last Sunday our amazing UMW group made a trip to the new building to discuss logistics of the kitchen, Fellowship Hall and some of the areas of the entry way.

We are not finished with the work site just yet, as you can see there is plenty of things to still be done. We would love to have some extra hands to clean and prepare the building for the next steps, carpets and flooring!

Contact the Church Office for info about how to get involved!

Building Update 1-13-2021

With all the excitement focused on the New Building, we thought this week might be a cool look at what is going on behind the scenes here at our current home while we prepare for the big transition!

We have a new team that is working diligently to prepare what we have to take with us. This new team has started sorting and packing, to make for an easy move to the new building.

Right now this team is small, but we are soon going to be looking for help in preparing our current supplies and property for the move (stay tuned for how you can get involved in this).

These pics show you the current situation in the classrooms. Our team has begun clearing out closets and cabinets in an attempt to consolidate what we have into ready to go packages. The big overall plan here is that when we get to the new building, all of this stuff will be in the Workroom.

We want to create an easier way to find the items everyone needs for their specific groups. For example, if the Children’s Church class on Sunday morning needs crayons, construction paper, scissors and glue… they can find it all in the Workroom! No more going classroom to classroom in search of the materials you need for the day.

This last picture is something I (Kyle) am really proud of. Not only is my office completely cleaned and packed (if you know me at all, this is a small miracle itself) but the big pile of amazon boxes in the back hold some treasures that are going to be essential in the new building.

The Amazon packages contain the equipment we need for the new gymnasium space! These boxes have basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, footballs, dodgeballs, and other cool stuff for us to use!

As a sports guy, that purchase was one of the happiest days of my time here at the church.

Building Update 12/31

On the final day of 2020, feels like a good time for a long building update.

We have been blessed with an amazing Construction team, that has given hours of their time to the church in what has turned into a really fun project for everyone involved.

The exterior of the building looks fantastic and has become a great topic of conversation in the Downs community. Please don’t stop telling your friends and neighbors about this project!

As you can see in the first picture, we have gravel down in the parking lot, making it accessible for work trucks and the many helping hands we have in and out of the building each day.

The real fun is what we have going on inside…

Here you can see the work being done in the worship space. With the walls up, we have a better idea of the space we will have in this area, and the word that comes to mind is…. WOW.

We have been in with many different people to brainstorm and plan for the ministries we have planned for this space – from worship, to music, to sports!

Here we have the hallway that makes up the Administrative Wing of the building. On the right side are the offices and work room, at the very end of the hallway is the library (that will also act as a small conference room). The wall on the left will be lined with artifacts and memorabilia from church history – specifically the history of Downs UMC.

This space is our new nursery. The exterior door leads to a fenced in playground area. This space gives us so many new ministry opportunities for the little ones!

Welcome to the Youth Room! This wide open space is going to the perfect place for youth group, as well as serve as the largest classroom space for groups that come into the church. There will be a partition in the middle for when the room needs to be broken in half for multiple groups.

This image really gives you an idea of how big the Chapel windows are. This space is going to be a very intimate and Holy space. Perfect for prayer, and small services.

This project continues to grow and create new opportunities to serve. We are in the process of preparing to do the drop ceilings and the building committee is looking for helpers willing to get to work on that project! If that is something you are interested in – get in contact with the office and we will connect you with them.

This last image is brand new as of today… We have front doors!

Building Update 12/15/2020

We continue to see a lot of traffic in and out of our new building! The Construction Team has been busy. Last Saturday they had a crew together working sun up to sun down on insulation and dry wall.

They also were hard at work on the walls for the stage! You can the view from the main lobby entrance, and then the stage!

They received a much needed lunch break, and were provided food from some of our awesome church family! This project really is a collaborative effort.

Back to work after the meal, and long into the night. These guys are giving up entire days and long weekends to get this project completed for us to move in!

We continue to be amazed at the willingness of our congregation to lend a hand in this project. And we will have more opportunities to volunteer and serve as this project grows and continues!

Be sure to check out our Sunday Worship service this week, we will have an update as part of the video! Stay tuned!

Building Update 11/09/2020

The past couple of weekends we have had members of the Construction team out on the new property to work on a couple of projects.

There have been 2 crews hard at work on site. One crew has been digging outside and putting in drainage tile for the site! Heavy machinery at work.

The other crew has been inside framing the interior walls for all of our classrooms, bathrooms and offices! We can really get a feel for the size of our building now on the inside. It is a true blessing to see these gentlemen hard at work!

Enjoy some pictures.

NextGen Ministries Delayed

We have decided to delay the start of our in-person student ministries until next week. We want to ensure that we can offer a safe environment for our students and it is in our best interest to follow the school’s lead in not hosting in-person at this time

We will continue to post updates as we have new information.

We will be making changes to our NextGem Ministry tab.

We will have resources for families, as well as links to videos and Zoom meetings as needed.

NextGen Minsitry Update!

The NextGen Ministries at DownsUMC will resume the week of September 13th

We have a new schedule this year for our student ministries, here it is!

Sunday Nights (starting Sept 13) – High School from 6:00-7:30pm

Tuesday Nights (starting Sept 15) – Elementary School (3rd and below) from 6:00-7:00pm

Wednesday Nights (starting Sept 16) – Middle School (4th-8th Grade) from 6:00-7:00pm. 7th/8th Grade will meet until 7:30pm on this night.

There will be classroom assignments posted on the back doors of the church each week.  Please don’t drop your students off before 5:50, we want to give our volunteers time to prepare lessons and set up classrooms without having to monitor kids before we begin. 

When meeting inside we ask all students to come prepared with a mask.  We have set up the rooms to fit social distancing guidelines to the best of our ability.  This year we are not offering a meal before our groups meet, please have your student eat dinner prior to coming.  We are also not offering Teen Time for our Junior High and High School students, instead we may have another option available for them.

Rocky Railway VBS 2020!

Good news, VBS is happening!!! This year, we will be hosting VBS virtually. We wanted to wait as long as possible before making a final decision, and want to make sure everyone knows we want to be as diligent as possible in allowing an event like this to still take place!

We have an awesome volunteer group at DownsUMC that will be banding together to record an experience for your kids!

We will have 2 dates for you and your kids to come into the church to see our VBS set up! And you will be sent home with Imagination Station trinkets and information on how and when you can view each day’s VBS video online!

The dates for in-person VBS pick-up are July 23rd from 5:00-7:00pm and July 26th from 4:00-6:00pm. Or you can set up a time with our church office.Here is a link to register for our virtual VBS this year:

https://app.faithteams.com/portal/desktop/publicForm?formId=PXhbvBbk1jbeoj5EWnyCK7QUGEUabkehbrheuKG3Fii

Stay tuned for links to how to watch the online version of our VBS from July 26-30!

New Building Update 7/15/2020

Hey everyone! Here is your New Building Update from Kyle.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the excitement I have for the new building. First, if you haven’t driven by lately… You’re missing a lot! The construction team has been hard at work and we can now look at the building and have an idea of where everything is!

One of the newest topics of discussion for us has been the stage space and how to equip our space for everything we could possibility need – sound and power outlets. We are blessed to have some very knowledgeable people here in the church who can help us pick the right set up for our stage!

I had the privilege of walking in before the walls and roof were finished and the space is going to be so perfect for us.

Obviously, I am most excited for the multipurpose gym/worship space. As someone with a sports background, having this space is going to create all kinds of new opportunities for our church. Some of the ministries we already have are going to benefit tremendously from this space – we will have room to do large group games for our NextGen Ministries!

We also have the exciting opportunity to try some new ministries – sports ministries! This is something I am excited about because of the community we live in. We could do some real good for this community by using the gym space effectively.

I see so many great opportunities in this building, and it is starting to feel real! Seeing the building go up so fast has been a true blessing. I have also received a lot of messages from people in the community asking questions about the new building. We are getting noticed and I can tell you it isn’t just our current congregation that is excited.

We will continue to post updates as we get new exciting news.

– Kyle