Photo by Erin Nelson.
Construction updates continue at Trinity United Methodist Church on Oxmoor Road in Homewood.
Trinity United Methodist Church at 1400 Oxmoor Road is well on its way to being an upgraded house of worship for the Homewood area.
Church member and project leader Mark Limbaugh said construction is currently 60% complete, with multiple phases already finished. The new children’s worship space and administrative offices have been completed, but larger projects such as the contemporary worship space and classrooms are not finished yet.
Limbaugh said the entire project will be finished in March 2020.
The church was in dire need of upgrades because of a moisture problem in the walls of the eastern courtyard area, Limbaugh said. This problem prompted the church to look into different options to fix it. Limbaugh said after looking into costs, it was clear Trinity needed to upgrade its facilities.
“We conducted a study to determine the cost of remediating this problem,” Limbaugh said. “The study concluded it was going to be very expensive to remedy and would not result in creating any additional space for the departments and ministries that needed more space. So, we hired a design firm to assist us in developing a master plan for the future needs of our growing church.”
Limbaugh said he recently retired when the master planning process began. But after Trinity’s senior pastor approached him about heading up the project, he could not turn down a chance to help his church. He has since assisted with design and construction.
The project will create 10 new children’s classrooms that the church desperately needed, Limbaugh said, along with a much larger worship center that will hold around 450 people. Limbaugh said the church’s worship services have become cramped thanks to membership growth. The church is currently worshiping in the gym until the project is complete.
The office space also has become too small, Limbaugh said, as many new staff members have been housed in different areas of the campus instead of together. Limbaugh said Trinity is almost complete with the narthex renovation, and the new welcome center is slated for completion by early December.
Limbaugh said the group that will benefit the most from the renovations is the children’s ministry.
“They were limited in the space they had prior to the expansion,” he said. “I’m excited to see how that department will grow in its new space.”
Limbaugh said this process has been difficult for church members, but he thinks this construction will benefit Trinity in the future.
“Our church members have been very supportive of this project, and they have been patient as different areas of the campus have been temporarily closed,” he said. “We believe that this project will help Trinity continue to serve Homewood and the surrounding areas for many decades to come.”
