The Garland Community Church of God will soon be leaving Garland.

After meeting at the former Garland school house for nearly 70 years, the congregation recently purchased the former First United Methodist Church building in Powell. A move is planned for sometime this summer.

Pastor Shane Legler said the Garland church had been looking to build new when they learned the Methodist building was available.

Not only does the facility offer more space for the Garland congregation — and space specifically designed as a church — there’s also enough room to host the Powell Christian School, which will be relocating to the West Second Street building as well.

“All the needs that we needed to have met were met in that space,” Legler said last week. “It was just a God-brought thing.”

Hosting a school

The Christian school has been housed at Trinity Bible Church. While that building is well suited for education — it once served as Southside Elementary School — the space can fit no more than 60 kids, Legler said.

Roughly 40 children are signed up for the coming year at the Powell Christian School, Legler said, but it’s been growing. And by moving to the basement of the Methodist church, the school should have plenty of space for the future.

“This will provide everything we need, really,” said Legler, who also serves as the school’s administrator.

He added that the Garland Community Church of God congregation is excited about hosting the school.

“That’s their heart, is to see this ministry thrive,” he said.

Building, lot for sale

As for the church’s current building in Garland, it’s up for sale.

Constructed in 1918 as the Garland school, it later became the Garland clubhouse and then, sometime in the mid or late 1950s, became the meeting place for the church, Legler said.

The building is 5,400 square feet, situated on a nearly 1-acre lot with a two-car garage. It includes three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms with two kitchens, as the second floor previously served as a parsonage.

“You can reconvert that to a living space, or else you can convert it to a rental place or have a studio down there,” Legler said of the property. “I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff that you could do with it.”

It’s currently priced at $595,000 while another nearby 0.32 acre vacant parcel owned by the church is separately listed for $125,000.

Future plans

No date has been set for the Garland church’s move into Powell — nor has the congregation decided what it will call itself going forward.

“We just figured the important stuff [first],” Legler said with a laugh.

While many details are still being pinned down, the church already knows it would like the annual Vespers Christmas concert and other events to remain at the building, Legler added, “so the community’s not going to lose out on anything.”

Methodists set service of farewell to building

Leaving its longtime home building at 137 W. Second St., First United Methodist Church will hold a worship service of de-consecreation on Sunday, June 2 at 4 p.m.

“We welcome all who would like to attend this meaningful service as we say farewell to our worship time in this facility,” said Patty Wurzel, chair of the UMC council.

After the service, there will be a procession to Union Presbyterian Church at Third and Bent streets. Going forward, Methodists will be joining in worship with the Union Presbyterian Church as a combined congregation in a federated church.

The Methodist church building has been sold to the Garland Community Church of God which will take full possession of the Methodist church building on July 1.

Established in 1915, First United Methodist Church of Powell has been active in the community “and seen many changes, withstood storms and been a part of many family celebrations and gatherings for nearly 110 years,” Wurzel said.  “We also encourage everyone to join us in worship as we look to the future, embarking on this new spiritual journey for the United Methodist Church.”

— By Dave Bonner