By Brenna Eller
McPHERSON, Kan. — Just in time for the Christmas season, Revolution Free Methodist Church, located at 1337 W. Kansas Ave hosted a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of their new expanded space that includes youth classrooms, restrooms (for youth and adults), offices, a living room space, and a technical booth.
Chamber Ambassador Emilie Rains of Bluestem PACE started the ribbon cutting off on Tuesday by sharing a conversation she had with someone who goes to a church in town that said they do a lot of volunteering with Central Christian College of Kansas and told her that a lot of the students go to Revolution Church.
“As a pastor, my husband also has a passion of reaching young people and just knowing in those college years they’re really at a time to look at faith and maybe not in ways they were raised,” Rains said. “Kudos for being attractive to that audience.”
Carlyn Lemon, Chamber President-Elect with Peoples Bank and Trust presented Steve Gray with a certificate of appreciation.
“One of the things that I enjoy about being involved with the Chamber, is not only getting to celebrate new businesses in the community but also successes and expansions. In this case, of businesses that are already enriching the community,” Faith is a strong pillar of our community of McPherson, so thank you for everything that you are doing to enrich our community.”
Steve Gray, Lead Pastor of Revolution Church said the church was actually launched three weeks before everything was shut down by COVID-19. They went from having about 150 people on the first Sunday down to nothing in three weeks.
“It wasn’t our greatest plan, but we didn’t know,” Gray said. “Since that time, God has just been very gracious and blessed us incredibly. We are excited to open this up.”
The most important thing to the church leaders is spirituality according to Gray.
“We’ve seen dozens and dozens of people say, ‘Yes’ to Jesus,” Gray said. “We have a lot of people in the church that don’t attend anyplace else. We are not a typical church if you come here. We have earplugs if you don’t like live music because it’s very loud on Sunday mornings. We enjoy working with the community.”
Gray introduced some of the staff present at the ribbon cutting on Tuesday, including his wife, Marlene (of about 36 years) who is a Children’s Pastor. He credited her with the idea of getting the ball rolling on the renovations because she brought up that the kids’ room needed more space.
Priscilla Poettker, who is an Executive Pastor/Spiritual Formation Pastor at the church, has been with Revolution Church since the beginning and her husband Jacob is also the Worship Pastor.
Lizzie Caron, the Operations Pastor, who many may recognize from Central Christian College of Kansas, has had a lot to do with the decorations/design you see in the new space.
Gray also gave a shoutout to Jim’s Plumbing, Johnson Electric, George Henry (Henry Construction), and Rob Delaney (carpet work).
“It was an inserted effort from a lot of different people,” Gray said. “I just want to thank everybody that’s been involved in this. It’s an exciting opportunity, we hope for greater things to come.”
McPherson Mainstreet Director, Lauren Pesek presented Steve and Marlene with a McPherson Main Street Paver.
Marlene is a very active member of the McPherson Main Street Board according to Pesek. She also thanked the Grays for their contribution to Mini-Main last Saturday, telling them they did a fantastic job, the kids really enjoyed it, and that she loved seeing the items they brought.
“We just really appreciate all of the things that you’ve done for the community and being a part of the Main Street and the Board, so thank you,” Pesek said.
Debbie Hawkinson, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director said it’s quite the blessing to have so many churches in the community.
“I’ve heard so many great things about this church community and so the fact that you are growing is a testament to that too, and I drive past here every single day twice and it’s pretty cool to see there’s always activity here,” Hawkinson said.
Mayor Tom Brown shared that he watched a video on Sunday of different phases of the construction done to add to the space.
Mayor Brown also shared a story that Steve’s father told him on Sunday about an accident their family was in, where Steve and his sister were in the back seat. Since it was 1970, there weren’t seatbelts. They hit a large gravel truck head on at 60 miles an hour. The car ended up under the wheel well of the gravel truck. The message was that sometimes we don’t know God’s plan, but He knew.
“This is one of those days that God has done something,” Mayor Brown said.
Mayor Brown also mentioned that both Steve and Marlene are active in the community and are currently involved in helping with a Native American project coming up for the McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation.
Revolution Church Services are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. The music is contemporary and loud according to Gray, with drums and guitars.
Revolution Church Events: On Dec. 9, the Brian McComas County Christmas Concert will be at 365 Complex at 7 p.m. and on Dec. 17, there will be a Christmas Play at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. as well.
