St. Luke’s United Methodist Church broke ground August 2 for construction of a new, modernized Woodshop, to be located at 2614 Edloe Street, directly across the street from the main church campus. A ceremonial “turning of the dirt” took place with the volunteers who make up this storied ministry, along with other church members and St. Luke’s staff.

The new 3,370 square-foot Woodshop, with both indoor and outdoor workspaces and office/meeting space, will replace the current, much smaller workshop located just down Edloe Street – a former storage shed – that the Woodshop Ministry had long ago outgrown. The St. Luke’s Woodshop Ministry was begun by senior church members who wished to lend both their wood crafting expertise and their tools, to an enterprise where their skills could be used to benefit not just the church, but the larger community.

Soon, the Woodshop Ministry was refinishing church furniture, building sets for church theater productions, making and distributing thousands of wooden toys annually for programs across the U.S. serving low-income children, and partnering with Kids Hope USA to build bookcases for children in mentoring programs in Houston schools.

The new Woodshop is one project funded through St. Luke’s recent Transformed capital campaign. Other projects funded by the campaign include a Community Youth Center currently under construction next door to its St. Luke’s Gethsemane church, at 6856 Bellaire Boulevard, in the Gulfton community; partnership with Small Steps Nurturing Center to open a no-tuition, quality early childhood education program on the St. Luke’s Gethsemane campus; and restoration two years ago of the church’s then-60-year-old steeple at its Westheimer campus.

Dr. Tom Pace, Senior Pastor of St. Luke’s UMC, welcomed more than 70 guests and noted how important the Woodshop Ministry is at St. Luke’s and how it has impacted the local community, people in other U.S. cities and the volunteers who have sustained it over the years. It is comprised mostly of retirees, some with extensive woodworking skills, some who are beginners.

Founding, still-active members of the Woodshop Ministry were on hand, including Founder Hugh Parker, Jeff Creel, Lee Denson and Tom Brown. Others in attendance were Bruce Jamison, co-chair of the Transformed Capital Campaign; Jennifer Boubel, Chief of Staff for St. Luke’s; Anne Culver, Director of Advancement; Rev. Katie Montgomery Mears, Associate Pastor; Rev. Amy Sumrall, Outreach Pastor; Suzi Pitts, Director of Communications; Tom Forney, CEO of Forney Construction, the contractor; Ryan Nunn, Forney Chief Operating Officer and Daniel Kendrick, Forney Project Manager.

For more information about St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, please visit www.stlukesmethodist.org.