$4.3 million renovation planned for St. Paul’s

There may not be a zip line leading from the youth area to the sanctuary as some younger members may have liked, but make no mistake - a $4.3 million renovation project at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids is every bit congregation-planned.

In Phase I of a three-phase master plan, the church's main entrance will be moved to the center of the building with a wider opening and easy access to an elevator. Spaces will be opened to provide a more welcoming area for congregants and community members to gather.

The current main entrance of St. Paul's is on Third Avenue Northeast, but with the renovations, it will be moved to Second Avenue Northeast with a covered drop-off and three stories of windows. The entrance will be used as a connector between the original Sullivan Building, which will house the sanctuary and parlor, and the education wing.

The parlor, offices, music areas, nurseries and library will be renovated and moved in correlation to the building's new entrance.

'Hospitality is the main focus of this first phase,” said the Rev. Sherrie Illg, lead pastor at St. Paul's. 'Our building has always allowed us to build authentic relationships both with the congregation and with people in the community. With the renovation, there will be ways our new spaces will be used, ways we haven't even thought of yet.”

The capital campaign for Phase I is the first such campaign in several years for the congregation. Almost the full $4.3 million cost has been committed. Illg said the first phase should be paid off before Phase II begins.

Phase I is expected to be completed by August.

St. Paul's, at 1340 Third Ave. SE, is housed in a building that is more than a century old and is landlocked on all sides by one of the city's oldest residential neighborhoods. Initially built as a 'neighborhood church,” its congregation has evolved to include those from throughout Cedar Rapids and surrounding areas.

'When St. Paul's was first built, it was built to be a seven-day-a-week church, somewhere people would go every day,” said Lois Mather, a member of the church's building committee and chair of the St. Paul Foundation Board. 'This renovation would let us be a seven-day church well into the 21st century.”

The church has long served members of the neighborhood in ways reaching beyond Sunday morning services. A grant-funded preschool program, FOCUS, is available for 3- and 4-year-olds living in the surrounding Wellington Heights neighborhood during the school year. In summer months, the church offers an activity program, SPRINT, neighborhood children ages 4 through 12, and is one of six churches participating in the Neighborhood Meals and Enrichment Program for area children and their families.

Continuing to offer those programs and other community-centered missions - as well as those more far-reaching - is an important part of St. Paul's future, and one reason church leaders opted to renovate and expand the existing building rather than relocate.

'When we first started with this project, we heard a lot of, ‘Why would you spend so much money to stay there?'” said Brad Hart, who serves on the building committee and is co-chair of the capital campaign committee. 'This is a historic church. Our mission has always included serving this neighborhood - how would we do that if we were to leave?”

Illg said the missions serve the greater purpose of the church and of the community itself.

'We see people who come here either to join St. Paul's or to just worship here because they want to be a part of a church that is making a difference in peoples' lives,” she said.

'We've really had the opportunity to not only serve people, but to build real relationships with those people,” said Wendy Morton, a member of the Sending to Serve committee at the church. 'That's hard to do if you're not a part of that neighborhood.”