By Rev. Heidi Welch

July 2025

You may have heard that we’re in the beginning stages of a capital campaign.

And I’ll be honest, I’ve been struggling the past few months to get excited about it. I know that practically we need a roof, parking lot, elevator, etc. for our church building. But those things are boring. Take a roof for example—you spend a bunch of money and don’t really get to “enjoy” it (other than not getting rained on during worship!). And if I can’t get excited about these things, then how am I supposed to get others to want to give their hard-earned money to it?

So I’ve been praying about it. A LOT.

Then, a few weeks ago, I finally slowed down enough to hear God speak.

I remembered how when we first started talking about needing a new roof, I kept asking the Trustees (this was before we changed leadership structures), “But why do we need a roof? What can happen in this church that can’t happen somewhere else? Why do we need this building? COVID showed us we can ‘be church’ and worship from anywhere!”

But these questions/comments were consistently met with blank/confused stares: “Pastor Heidi we need a roof that doesn’t leak so that everything stays dry… so that the building doesn’t crumble around us.”

Well, yes—obviously. That’s the practical answer.

But I was looking for something deeper… something missional.

Eventually, I stopped asking those questions, because I got tired of feeling like I was a crazy person talking another language. (It should be said: I don’t fault the Trustees for giving me blank stares—it’s a reasonable response, especially when you’re a very practical, engineer-minded person, like many in that room!)

Then, in June, I met with Rev. Joy Fenton-Jones (aka Joy Parker, who was on staff at Brecksville UMC for 9 years) to talk about the building and our capital campaign. At a conference event, I had heard Joy share about her work helping churches reimagine what’s possible in and around their church buildings. And that sounded like something important to think about at Brecksville UMC right now!

During my meeting with Joy, God started to put all the pieces together (I thank Joy for helping me verbally process everything that was racing through my mind!):

We have a fantastic vision frame– our mission, values, strategy, and measures. But we don’t have a clear picture of the next 3-5 years to put inside that frame (like a picture in a picture frame… get it?).

And if we don’t have a clear picture of what God is calling us to do at BUMC in the next 3-5 years, then why should we spend $1M+ on our building? We need a clear vision for what God is calling us to as a church community and how God is calling us to use our physical building.

Add in that we’ve just experienced the loss of our Director of Youth Ministry, Dana Schwendeman – a friend/colleague/mentor/staff member – and that we will need to hire an additional staff person.

And, that the world has been and continues to change at lightning speed–particularly for us, in regards to how people relate to the church, and what they need from the church.

Leadership Board already planned to have a consultant come in to help us with visioning, goal setting, and thinking through our program staff needs. So, what if we paused our progress on the capital campaign for a moment and focused on vision, goals, etc.?

Then, when we come to the congregation with our capital campaign ask, we’ll have a full picture of what we’re asking for and why!

So I talked with Alan Scheufler, our Leadership Board Chair, and he was getting a similar nudge. We met with our Capital Campaign work group that night, and they agreed that a vision-first approach makes logical and missional sense. With Leadership Board’s blessing, that is what we’re going to do.

Why am I telling you all this? Why am I showing you how the proverbial sausage is made?

Well, because I think it’s important that our church community knows that at Brecksville UMC, we listen to the Spirit… even if it’s not convenient or doesn’t fit our timeline.

AND, we need your help– in the coming weeks/months, we need your prayers and we need your insight into our community.

• What are you and your friends struggling with?
• What passion has God laid on your heart?
• How can we reimagine our building to create a “community commons?”

Leadership Board will be providing different opportunities for you to share your insights and thoughts, so that together we can do the incredible things we haven’t even imagined yet, but God already has planned!

Take care,

Pastor Heidi