Gratefully Enacting God’s Grace
March 8, 2018
Twenty years ago, Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church in Katy was a worship community in search of a place to gather. The congregation ended up renting a facility from an equestrian center and paying $1 per head for each worshiper.
Today, Grace Fellowship UMC sits on a 30-acre campus, with a worship center, a children’s center, a youth ministry building, and an administrative and meeting facility. And TMF has been there every step of the way.
“Since my first conversation with David McCaskill years ago, I realized that TMF was really about relationships,” said Mitch Peairson, Executive Pastor at Grace Fellowship UMC. “They believed in us and our vision for our church.”
Grace Fellowship’s vision included creating a faith community that shared a desire for prayer, discipleship, and outreach. The first building the congregation constructed in 1997 was not a worship center, but a children’s center constructed on a piece of land the church purchased adjacent to the facility they were renting.
“It was easy to make TMF our lender of choice for many reasons, from rates to how easy it is to work with them,” Peairson described. “But it’s also because of the great work that is done by and through TMF.” Working with TMF, Grace Fellowship UMC was able to purchase an additional piece of land that included an open-air equestrian facility.
“The structure of columns and beams was in good condition,” said Peairson. “We literally poured a slab, put a new roof on it, put up walls, and threw in some cold air. Today, that horse barn is our 1,500-seat worship center.”
With a growing and active congregation, Grace Fellowship has been able to support mission efforts to “reach the unreached,” whether those people live nearby in Houston, or are an unreached group on the other side of the world.
It’s also one of the reason’s the church continues to strengthen its relationship with TMF. “We know God has been good to us,” explained Peairson. “We’re fortunate to have money to invest, and we’ve elected to invest with TMF and the Methodist Loan Fund. With TMF, we know our money is being put to good use, whether it’s funding great programs like their Leadership Ministry or supporting groups working to advance the Kingdom of God.”
Did you know that congregations who receive loans from TMF depend on investors in the Methodist Loan Fund to assist them in growing their ministries? Without the backing of investors, TMF could not have provided 442 loans last year to help churches like Grace Fellowship spread the Gospel in their communities and beyond. If you're interested in how you can invest in the mission of the church through the Methodist Loan Fund, open to both individuals and churches, contact Sara Beltran at: 800-933-5502 or 512-331-9971 | sbeltran@tmf-fdn.org