It takes more than faith to keep a church strong. At Lakewood United Methodist, it takes a new $2.8 million Family Life Center.
And some vision. That’s where neighborhood resident Larry Ravert comes in.
When Ravert was first with the Lakewood congregation for two years back in the early ’70s, the mid-size church’s attendance numbers were 1,000 strong. However, when he returned last year in an official capacity, they sat at just around 200.
Ravert, a Perkins School of Theology graduate, had left LUMC for all those years to help build churches and strengthen their followings in towns throughout the Dallas area. After working for 28 years in this capacity, Ravert “officially” retired three years ago.
He was lying low as an associate pastor at University Park Methodist Church when he heard that the position of senior pastor was going to re-open at his old stomping grounds. He also knew that his old church was desperately in need of help. So Ravert decided to make saving Lakewood United Methodist, located at the corner of Abrams and Lakeshore, his last hurrah.
“You have to share a vision with the church. Sometimes visions come out of the laity, sometimes they come out of the pastor,” he says. “Our only hope is to really become alive in the next two years, and I think that this building is the key to the church’s growth,” Ravert says of the new Family Life Center .
When the new Family Life Center is completed in roughly two years, LUMC members will have a sparkling new place to go, and so will their children. A strong grouping of youth programs, including a learning center, are already in place.
As for Ravert, when the building is complete, his mission will be also. At 65, Ravert says he is almost ready to finally be a man of leisure.
“I am committed to seeing this building through,” he says, “ but I plan on retiring after this.”
