Covenant UMC expands children’s area, sanctuary

By Jessica Brodie

GREER—One church in the Upstate now has a new children’s building and an expanded sanctuary to address the growing size of its congregation.

Covenant United Methodist Church held a grand opening Aug. 18 for its Children’s Building, sanctuary, expanded parking and various other changes to the church campus.

The Children’s Building will be used by Covenant’s Children’s Ministry and Covenant Christian Academy, its weekday preschool.

Joseph Huntley, Covenant communications director, noted the church is the fourth-largest attended church in the conference and, with heavy population growth in they area, they expect more people to join in the coming years.

“We have seen on average 80 professions of faith of children, youth and adults. Our faith-based Covenant Christian Academy is growing to 170 students, 25 percent of which are our members,” Huntley said. “This expansion allows for our children, youth, adults and faith-based education to have their own spaces. Our youth and adults will be gaining rooms that were previously used for our children’s ministry.”

The sanctuary expansion added 300 seats to help accommodate the new growth, and the church now has 100 more parking spots.

The Aug. 18 grand opening included worship and a tailgate celebration with games, tents, chairs and lunch. Before the tailgate, Huntley said, members, visitors, staff and clergy joined hands and circled around the entire campus, asking for the Lord’s blessings on Covenant and the church’s impact outside of its walls.