MINT HILL — One of the newest parishes in the diocese is launching a capital campaign towards building a larger, more permanent church home.
St. Luke Parish has grown from 300 families to nearly 1,500 families since it was established – and the multipurpose building that the parish has been using since 1995 no longer meets their growing needs. The church’s current location on Lawyers Road offers no usable land to expand, either.
So the Mint Hill parish has launched a “Cornerstone Campaign” to build a new church on 30 acres on Highway 218 – close to its current location.
The $2.7 million campaign kicked off this month and has already raised over $1.1 million.
The parish community got its start in 1987, when Catholics in the area began gathering for Mass in a storefront and later a local movie theater. Dedicated in 1995, the current church was designed to be a general-purpose facility, not a church, and its interior is simple, with no pews or kneelers for people to use. It seats 400 people – more than enough for the parish in the beginning. But over two decades later, Mint Hill is booming – and so is the parish.
Nearly every Mass is now standing-room-only – with people sitting on the windowsills, leaning against the walls, crowding the hallways, cramming in anywhere they can. Overflow parking is on the grass, which becomes a soggy field after a hard rain.
“We need to build, but we are not able to do anything more at this location,” said Father Paul Gary, pastor. “On Ash Wednesday, we had people not able to get out of the mud in the overflow parking. One family had to leave their car behind for three days.”
For years parishioners have been studying their options for expanding, but the current property is not usable. The creek on the property is an important habitat for the critically endangered Carolina heelsplitter, a freshwater mussel found only in the Carolinas. Environmental regulations limit the ability to expand the buildings on the site or pave over the property.
“Even though there is technically land, we are basically stuck with what we have at this location,” said campaign co-chair Eric Weghorst.
“Father Paul gets phone calls about people that have tried to come to our church and couldn’t park,” Weghorst said. “We are currently not able to serve all the Catholics in our surrounding community. My personal hope is that we can accommodate those we can really not accommodate now.”
Over the years parishioners have been working diligently on plans for building a new church home.
This effort is the parish’s seventh capital campaign since the parish was established over 30 years ago.
“They have consistently had to address issues of growth over the years,” noted Jim Kelley, diocesan development director. “St. Luke’s is a strong parish family that continues to attract more parishioners in the vibrant Mint Hill community.”
“They never seem to tire of investing in the future of their church with all these capital campaigns,” Kelley said.
The 30-acre site the parish has already purchased will give them the space they need to grow. Already, work is under way to build a rectory and an open-air recreation pavilion on the site. But building a church is the major next step the parish needs to begin planning and raising money for.
After a recent Mass, Father Gary pointed to the campaign pledge board on display in the church and said, “Look how far we have come and how close we are. We are so close! We can do this.”
Plans for a new church are still in the very early stages in consultation with diocesan officials, but the building will feature a traditional cruciform design and provide seating for 1,200 people.
“It will have plenty of natural light,” noted Father Gary, plus “a bride’s room, a nursery and a large narthex/gathering space that can also be used as a cry room.”
The new church will also have a few of St. Luke’s current traditions, Weghorst said.
“A lot of families like the idea of a bell tower because one of our hallmarks are kids ringing the bell after Mass,” he said. “The difference between churches and styles is what is beautiful about the Catholic faith. We can all find worship that is unified in the same Mass that is meaningful for us. At the end of the day, we are all seeking the same thing: God.”
Parishioners hope the “Cornerstone Campaign” will help them set the foundation for a new church that will enable even more people in Mint Hill to live out their Catholic faith.
— Lisa Geraci, correspondent