The Next Chapter Initiative

Building on God’s Faithfulness, Preparing for God’s Future

For more than a century, A&M United Methodist Church has had a unique place in the story of Northgate. Generations of Aggies have walked through our doors. Families have raised children here. Faculty, staff, alumni, longtime members, and neighbors have worshiped together, served together, shared meals, asked questions, celebrated, grieved, and found community here.

Through all of those chapters, Northgate has changed. Texas A&M, Bryan-College Station, and A&M United Methodist Church have changed, too. But through it all, God has been faithful. 

Now, we believe it is time to prepare for what comes next.

A&M UMC is beginning The Next Chapter Initiative, an eight-month generosity initiative with a $1 million goal to strengthen our financial foundation and create greater capacity for the next season of ministry in Northgate and Bryan-College Station. 

But before we talk about dollars, debt, or buildings, we want to talk about why.

Northgate Is Changing Again

You don't have to look very far beyond our doors to see it. New apartments are rising. Thousands of students and new neighbors are arriving. Longtime residents and members of this community have moved farther away as construction, rising costs, and a changing neighborhood have reshaped Northgate.

Through it all, A&M UMC remains here. Our campus includes some of the largest green and community gathering spaces remaining in Northgate. That gives us both an extraordinary opportunity and a responsibility. We want the students who now live in the high-rises surrounding us to know there is a place for them here. We also want the people who no longer live within walking distance to know that Northgate is still part of their community, too. In a neighborhood being transformed around us, A&M United Methodist Church can remain a place where people come together.

Creating More Room for Ministry

The Next Chapter Initiative will make two significant investments in that future.

First, we seek to eliminate $750,000 in existing debt. As our Centennial Campaign concludes, A&M UMC carries approximately $2.5 million in new debt from the Christian Life Center remodel, along with approximately $693,000 remaining from the 2017 remodel of the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall. We are currently making interest-only payments, but full principal and interest payments begin next April, creating an annual impact of approximately $300,000, or $25,000 per month, on our operating budget. By retiring our oldest $693,000 loan before those payments begin, we can keep our total debt payments from exceeding the approximately $226,000 per year (or $18,858 per month), that the church has previously carried—protecting more of our annual resources for ministry and mission.

Paying off debt may not sound like the most exciting ministry project. But debt reduction isn't the destination. Ministry is.

Imagine what diverting more than $76,000 each year toward debt would mean for the life of our church. Those are resources that could otherwise support worship, discipleship, congregational care, outreach, service, children and youth, college ministry - and many opportunities we haven’t yet imagined.

Financial freedom creates ministry freedom. 

Creating More Space for Belonging

This initiative will also invest $250,000 in the spaces and resources we already have.

Some of that work is practical. Aging and failing HVAC systems need attention and spaces used by our growing College Ministry need repair and improvement. But this investment is about more than maintenance. It’s an opportunity to cultivate what we already have into places where people find belonging, build relationships, and connect with each other. 

We envision a comfortable place welcoming to college students to gather, study, talk, build friendships, or simply be. But its purpose is bigger than any single ministry or generation. 

Together with our green spaces and the rest of our campus, A&M UMC can become a community space that doesn't require you to live in a particular building, belong to a particular generation, or buy something to have a reason to be there.

A place where generations can encounter one another. A place that can help serve as the soul of Northgate.

People Before Projects

That distinction matters. The Next Chapter Initiative isn't ultimately about paying off a loan or renovating a room. It's about people. 

Buildings exist to build the Church. Our facilities matter because of what happens inside and around them. Financial stability matters because of what it allows us to do beyond them. We want children growing up surrounded by people who know and love them. We want college students to find a church family while they're away from home. We want older and younger generations learning from one another. We want people experiencing grief to find companions. We want hungry neighbors to be fed. We want people with questions about faith to discover that this is a safe place to ask them.

And as Northgate continues to change, we want A&M UMC to remain a place where the whole community can belong. 

That is what we're building toward.

Rooted Here, Together

Earlier this year, members of A&M UMC gathered for our Vision Summits and talked about who we are, what we value, and what God might be calling us to become. 

Again and again, several things rose to the surface: our joyful multigenerational community, genuine hospitality, service beyond our walls, our willingness to remain rooted while adapting, and our desire to help people find belonging.

Those aren't aspirations for some hypothetical church in the future. You can already see them here. Around the tables on Wednesday nights. In worship on Sunday mornings. In our children's and youth ministries. In mission and service. In the relationships between college students and members who have called A&M UMC home for decades. The Next Chapter Initiative is about creating the capacity for those things to scale up.

And it will take all of us.

Not everyone will participate in the same way or give the same amount. That's not the point.

Everyone has a place. Every gift matters. And we build the next chapter together.

Taking the Next Faithful Step

Our fall worship series will spend the coming weeks exploring the story of Nehemiah and what happens when God's people recognize a need, trust God's vision, and decide to build together.

Nehemiah didn't begin with every answer. He began with a burden. Then came prayer, discernment, courage, people willing to work alongside one another—and the faith to take the next step. That's a fitting place for us to begin, too.

We don't know everything the next chapter will hold. But we know the story we're building upon. For more than 100 years, faithful people have worshiped, served, given, and built so that generations they would never meet could find a church home here on Northgate.

They left us more than buildings. They left us a place. A place rooted in the heart of Northgate. 

We are building on God's faithfulness. We are preparing for God's future. And together, we're taking the next faithful step into A&M United Methodist Church's Next Chapter.