MSOW
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You can donate via credit card or direct debit by clicking on the button above, or you can mail a donation to:
St. Mary's MSOW 406 E. Savidge St. Spring Lake, MI 49456 |
Our Plans
The conceptual rendering above is an example of what the finished community Catholic Education Center might look like. It will house approximately 23,000 square feet of space for classrooms for the almost 500 weekly faith formation youth and adult students, RCIA, additional preschool through eighth grade students, and increased faith formation activities for non-students and students alike.
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Our Plans
Throughout the 150 year history of St. Mary's Catholic Church, parish families and clergy have worked together to build and sustain the parish. From the first church that seated 50 people to the current parish campus that serves 1,300 families, St. Mary's Catholic Church continues under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to dedicate ourselves to living the Good News of Jesus Christ, primarily through worship, education, love, and service to all.The long term plan of the parish, as envisioned in the late 1990’s, assured that parish facilities and grounds would support the worship program and ministry, faith formation, education, evangelization, and social needs of the parish well into the future. The initial investment in the plan focused on building the Activity Center that connects to the church to allow for a needed, expanded gathering space. Areas within the Activity Center serve a variety of parish ministries and programs, including the choir, food pantry, youth ministry, private events, school, and preschool. The Activity Center has greatly enhanced the parish’s ability to come together as a faith family, to be Christ’s hands and feet in the greater community, and to provide opportunities for parishioners of all ages to grow together in faith. The Activity Center was constructed with the intention that a new Education Center would seamlessly integrate into the Activity Center and the Sanctuary.Ongoing, age-appropriate faith formation education for parish families is a priority and this new Education Center is about both the school and the faith formation ministry. Between both programs, over 500 students utilize our current school on a weekly basis. Even more people will be able to use the new Education Center when we expand the new facility to include the adult ministries. This campaign is about enabling all of our ministries to utilize adequate facilities that include elementary school, young 5’s, preschool, faith formation education, RCIA, and other faith-based ministries that keep the Catholic mission alive and strong in this area.The parish-wide research shows that we parishioners support the construction of a new facility to more efficiently use our funds. The existing facilities have major foundation failures, asbestos contamination (which is contained and nonthreatening), and have been pushed beyond their life expectancy. There is also a major safety/security issue with the multiple buildings that are currently used to educate our children. The operational costs to maintain these failing buildings are very high and increasing every year. The alternative of a major upgrade to the current facilities was studied and it was determined that any upgrade solution would still be more expensive for the long term. A new facility will serve theSt. Mary's Catholic Church and the Catholic community for many years at a much lower cost than our current spending levels.The new plans also call for the existing rectory to be demolished and a new residence constructed where the existing playground is. This will serve several purposes. First, it will allow us to connect the playground and green space to the school building for added safety and security. Second, as the number of seminarians in our diocese continues to increase the chance of either an associate pastor or seminarian intern getting assigned to St. Mary's is growing. The current rectory only has one bathroom and is inadequate to house two priests or a priest and a seminarian. A new house would be built to accommodate two people, with guest space for visiting priests as well.During 2012-2013, an extensive feasibility study was conducted within the St. Mary's Catholic Church. Results of the research indicated that an overwhelming majority of respondents described our parish as “a vibrant, dynamic, and accepting community” and expressed pride in recent facility improvements made possible by parishioners’ financial sacrifices. Further, some noted that the success of the Activity Center campaigns indicates what the parish can accomplish when something major is needed. Participants acknowledged that all facets of our ministries are critical and they specifically focused on the youth of our parish. The common theme to “keep kids Catholic” and provide the faith opportunities for our youth that were provided to us by our predecessors is apparent throughout the parish. Based on the feedback from this study and economic factors, parish leaders have developed a multi-faceted funding plan. The first step is constructing a parish capital stewardship campaign to raise at least half of the funds, approximately $3 million. This is the amount deemed necessary by the Diocese of Grand Rapids to begin construction.
Throughout the 150 year history of St. Mary's Catholic Church, parish families and clergy have worked together to build and sustain the parish. From the first church that seated 50 people to the current parish campus that serves 1,300 families, St. Mary's Catholic Church continues under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to dedicate ourselves to living the Good News of Jesus Christ, primarily through worship, education, love, and service to all.The long term plan of the parish, as envisioned in the late 1990’s, assured that parish facilities and grounds would support the worship program and ministry, faith formation, education, evangelization, and social needs of the parish well into the future. The initial investment in the plan focused on building the Activity Center that connects to the church to allow for a needed, expanded gathering space. Areas within the Activity Center serve a variety of parish ministries and programs, including the choir, food pantry, youth ministry, private events, school, and preschool. The Activity Center has greatly enhanced the parish’s ability to come together as a faith family, to be Christ’s hands and feet in the greater community, and to provide opportunities for parishioners of all ages to grow together in faith. The Activity Center was constructed with the intention that a new Education Center would seamlessly integrate into the Activity Center and the Sanctuary.Ongoing, age-appropriate faith formation education for parish families is a priority and this new Education Center is about both the school and the faith formation ministry. Between both programs, over 500 students utilize our current school on a weekly basis. Even more people will be able to use the new Education Center when we expand the new facility to include the adult ministries. This campaign is about enabling all of our ministries to utilize adequate facilities that include elementary school, young 5’s, preschool, faith formation education, RCIA, and other faith-based ministries that keep the Catholic mission alive and strong in this area.The parish-wide research shows that we parishioners support the construction of a new facility to more efficiently use our funds. The existing facilities have major foundation failures, asbestos contamination (which is contained and nonthreatening), and have been pushed beyond their life expectancy. There is also a major safety/security issue with the multiple buildings that are currently used to educate our children. The operational costs to maintain these failing buildings are very high and increasing every year. The alternative of a major upgrade to the current facilities was studied and it was determined that any upgrade solution would still be more expensive for the long term. A new facility will serve theSt. Mary's Catholic Church and the Catholic community for many years at a much lower cost than our current spending levels.The new plans also call for the existing rectory to be demolished and a new residence constructed where the existing playground is. This will serve several purposes. First, it will allow us to connect the playground and green space to the school building for added safety and security. Second, as the number of seminarians in our diocese continues to increase the chance of either an associate pastor or seminarian intern getting assigned to St. Mary's is growing. The current rectory only has one bathroom and is inadequate to house two priests or a priest and a seminarian. A new house would be built to accommodate two people, with guest space for visiting priests as well.During 2012-2013, an extensive feasibility study was conducted within the St. Mary's Catholic Church. Results of the research indicated that an overwhelming majority of respondents described our parish as “a vibrant, dynamic, and accepting community” and expressed pride in recent facility improvements made possible by parishioners’ financial sacrifices. Further, some noted that the success of the Activity Center campaigns indicates what the parish can accomplish when something major is needed. Participants acknowledged that all facets of our ministries are critical and they specifically focused on the youth of our parish. The common theme to “keep kids Catholic” and provide the faith opportunities for our youth that were provided to us by our predecessors is apparent throughout the parish. Based on the feedback from this study and economic factors, parish leaders have developed a multi-faceted funding plan. The first step is constructing a parish capital stewardship campaign to raise at least half of the funds, approximately $3 million. This is the amount deemed necessary by the Diocese of Grand Rapids to begin construction.
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