By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — Montgomery Ministries has received a $50,000 grant from the Presbyterian Church Foundation, one of only eight such awards given in the U.S. for 2007.
The Sam and Helen R. Walton Award originated with a $6 million gift from the founder of Wal-Mart and his wife to the foundation in December 1991.
The Walton gift included a $3 million endowment, with the earned interest to be used by new churches that have placed an emphasis on site acquisition. The Mission Development Resources Committee (MDRC) of the foundation has been annually awarding the grant to Presbyterian churches since 1993.
A nomination from a Presbyterian leader or group of leaders and well as a complete grant application were required in order for a congregation to be eligible to receive a grant. The Presbytery of Montgomery nominated Montgomery Ministries for this award.
The Rev. Michael Prewitt, founding pastor of Montgomery Ministries, said the foundation selected Montgomery Ministries because of its vision of a church without walls. The approximately 100-member congregation worships in the Montgomery Upper Middle School’s media center every Sunday. Its vision includes “never building a building” the Rev. Prewitt said.
”Traditionally when a church starts off, the first thing it does is buy land and starts a building program, but we felt from the beginning that we’d really focus on the ministry of the church and the people as opposed to the facility,” the Rev. Prewitt said. “Not having a building means we can put our resources into mission, not upkeep of a facility.
”I believe this grant has allowed us to become much more involved in our mission work in the community,” he added.
Part of the grant will be used to pay the approximately $15,000 a year the school district charges Montgomery Ministries to rent its space for Sunday worship services, the Rev. Prewitt said. The rest of the money will enable the church, which operates under a $200,000 budget annually, to serve the community by continuing to offer the Divorced and Separated Support Group and Active Parenting, a program that encourages parents to communicate with their children, he said. It will also support the new Montgomery Food Pantry.
The Rev. Prewitt said the grant could also allow the creation of new services to the community and has inspired him to begin a second weekly worship service.
”Montgomery Ministries is still trying to raise money, but the grant was a tremendous vote of confidence for what we’re doing and makes me feel like we should go ahead and stretch for a second service,” the Rev. Prewitt said.
The first of these new worship services will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday in the media center.
A co-founder of the food pantry, the Rev. Prewitt said transforming the food pantry into a clearinghouse for people with a variety of needs to go to for help will be one of Montgomery Ministries’ next projects.
