UPDATE on Partners:
Texas Office
Places and $225,000 in support from
foundations - and funds are still coming
in! The goal of the campaign was to
raise enough money to install a new
kitchen and a sprinkler system for the
main floor. Due to the success of the
fundraising, Grace UMC was also able
to remodel the existing choir room to
provide additional office spaces and
renovate its Fellowship Hall.
Grace United Methodist Church, near Dallas, helps its neighbors and its community
through myriad social service programs. Photo courtesy of Grace UMC.
Grace United Methodist Church, located near downtown
Dallas, is a conventional church on Sundays. But during
the rest of the week, Grace UMC is anything but - it’s a
preschool, a medical clinic, a legal clinic, a sanctuary
for teen mothers, a community center, and a monastic
community that serves the poor. Not a large church by any
standards, this 300-member congregation is committed to
serving its neighbors every day by housing a wide variety of
vital community programs within the church’s walls.
Grace UMC participated in New Dollars/New Partners training
in 2007, during which the congregation learned how to
recognize and calculate the public value of its historic
sacred place. The congregation was helped to develop and
effectively tell its story to a wider audience, which helped
to attract new partners and resources to help maintain
the aging facility. The church’s many outreach programs
have not only encouraged donations from within the
congregation, but have also gained support from the wider
community.
Over the past few years, the church has embarked on several
capital campaigns and added significant new programming
to its array of social services programs. From 2010 to 2013,
its Transforming Grace capital campaign raised $300,000
from the congregation, which was supplemented with
an additional $25,000 grant from Partners for Sacred
11 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Summer 2014
June marked the one-year anniversary
of the new kitchen’s opening. The
Missions Committee prepares breakfast
there once a month for those attending
services, many of whom often stand
outside the building for hours waiting
to enter. Additionally, cooking classes
through a local nursing school’s
nutrition program are now being
offered.
Grace UMC hosts five different nonprofit organizations on
its small campus: the Agape Medical Clinic, which is open
four days a week and helps more than 3,500 medicallyunderserved patients per year; the Open Door Preschool,
which serves multicultural and non-English speaking
students; Ally’s House, providing support services,
education, and mentoring for teen mothers; Bonhoeffer
House, a monastic community of seminary students in
service to the homeless; a legal clinic –the only pro bono legal
aid program in East Dallas; and a program that assists the
approximately 40 refugee families who attend the church.
In addition to these programs, Grace UMC has been able
to add, with no additional staff, a new worship group
Texas Advisory Board Members
James R. Nader, FAIA, Chair
Kenneth Barr
Cynthia Boyd
Diane Bumpas
Richard H. Bundy, AIA
Kris Calvert
Louise B. Carvey
Robert I. Fernandez
Donald Gatzke, AIA
Marty Leonard
Robert F. Pence, PE
The Reverend Brenda W. Weir
Ex Officio
Fernando Costa
Randle Harwood
William J. Thornton, Jr.