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“Holy ground!” exulted Pastor Shriner in the Call to Worship. “We are standing on holy ground.”

“For where God is, the ground is holy,” responded the congregation, which filled the sanctuary to overflowing.

An estimated 1,300 people attended the service under the watchful eye of the fire marshal, while another 300 watched on closed-circuit television under a huge blue-and-white-striped tent to the east of the Worship Center, where a breakfast of fruit, pastries, and coffee was catered earlier in the morning. The opening of the new sanctuary had been delayed long enough so it coincided with the third three-year Building Fund Campaign called “Reaching for Tomorrow,” and it was thrilling to watch the parishioners wind their way through the aisles of the brand new Worship Center to place their three year commitments in baskets. Shriner’s sermon was “Time to Walk on the Water” and the RUMC church family pledged another $1,551,479 toward paying off the building program. Though there were plenty of refinements to be made, the Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church was once again in a new house of worship, this time only a few yards from the old one.

Shriner had not been the pastor for a year before he found himself at odds with city fathers over a code violation. During the Lenten season in 1996, a 12-foot-tall cross fashioned from auto fenders, wheel covers and bumpers was erected in front of the church near Graham Road. A sign said: “Christ Repairs Wrecks Here.” It was meant as an attention-getter. “We all have wrecks in life,” said Shriner. “The church is a place where you go to get help.”

But a city building official, after receiving a complaint, said the church lacked a permit to erect the cross, and said it could blow over into the road. He ordered it removed. Shriner at first refused, and after a front-page story and photo in the Columbus Dispatch, the city agreed to allow the cross to stay up after it was securely anchored. At dawn on Easter, the auto parts sculpture had been replaced with a white cross and the sign: “He Lives.”

The following year, the church observed the Easter season with three white crosses, far back from the road, adorned with 2,000 tiny white lights.

The next expansion project kicked off May 7, 2000, with a church-wide worship service in a huge tent in the back parking lot east of the church. Hundreds of worshipers gathered on a warm, sunny day for 90 minutes of praise music, scripture reading and the preaching of the Word. The theme was “Believe in the Promise,” and the goal was to raise more than $1 million to pay down the debt on the Worship Center and to begin construction of more Sunday School rooms in a wing connecting St. Andrew’s Hall with the original church building. Red balloons waved in the breeze and banners sparkled as Rev. Doug Shriner preached: “Why I Believe in the Church.”

“God has His hand on this church,” Shriner preached. “I want the world to know Christ. Don’t you want it to know Him, too?” After members made their commitments, the service concluded with the singing of “Victory In Jesus.”

Ground was broken for the two-story educational wing April 29, 2001.

“We give you thanks for the possibilities that will emerge through this ground-breaking,” prayed the Rev. John Edgar, superintendent of the Columbus South District.

Bruce Dillon, minister of music, sang “Believe in the Promise,” the song he wrote to fit the theme of the building campaign.

Mike Gallagher, chairman of the Building Committee, said the committee worked for more than two years developing the plan and preparing for the construction.

“It’s really God’s plan,” said Tom Hoffman, chairman of the Administrative Board. “We’re just carrying it out on Earth.”

For the ground-breaking, a dozen shovels were manned by members of the Building Committee and the Education Committee, Sunday School superintendents and youth representatives.

“Kids that haven’t been born yet will be in Sunday School in these rooms,” said the Rev. Douglas Shriner, who closed with this prayer: “May we believe in the promise. May your vision be the dream that we have for this church. May our doors be open to everyone of every color, of every age, of every station of life.”

Dave Travis, executive director of the financial campaign for “Believe in the Promise,” said: “This is one ground-breaking of many ground-breakings since we started at Kirsch Hall. And there will be many groundbreakings in the future because you – all of you, whether you’ve been here one year or twenty years or fifty years – are the church. You’re fulfilling God’s promise to go and make disciples and when you do that, we will have many more ground-breakings in the future.”

RUMC rocked on September 9, 2001, with an outdoor fall kickoff called Koberfest. An estimated 600 people from the community gathered on the front lawn to listen to music, worship and visit. A huge, inflated slide provided entertainment for kids and young people, and church members donated to the Bob Kober Endowment Fund for the right to hit Senior Pastor Doug Shriner in the face with a shaving cream pie. Donated food took up two 60-foot-long tables. Music was provided by the Reynoldsburg Community Band and several praise and rock bands from the church. A total of $5,000 was contributed to the Kober Fund, which supports seminary students.

Just 36 hours later, on September 11, 2001, church members joined the nation in reacting with disbelief as terrorists directed airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A prayer service that evening attracted many worshipers. One the one-year anniversary, a commemoration service was held, and volunteers took turns reading the names of the more than 2,000 killed in the attack on America.

September 7, 2002, marked the consecration of a triangular Prayer Garden linking the east. The handsome garden, funded by benefactors, contained an expansive brick patio with tree islands, a variety of plantings and concrete benches for visitors. Surveying the scene from the corner was a statue of an angel.

The focal point of the garden was a fountain beneath an open gabled arbor with a round arch, directly across from a white pergola supported my Greek Doric columns. Flowers in concrete urns dotted the garden, and the crosses atop the Worship Center and the original church steeple were visible from most locations.

Tom Hofmann, chairman of the Administrative Board, accepted the garden from the trustees on behalf of the church, promising to “use it reverently, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation and turning our heads toward God in prayer.”

Pastor Douglas Shriner recalled that Jesus said, “My house shall be a house of prayer.” Shriner added that prayer “is what the church is about. May (this garden) serve as a reminder to all who enter this building of our desire and our responsibility to be a people of prayer.”

A prayer of thanksgiving was offered by Rosamary Amiet of the Prayer Ministry. She prayed that the garden would be a reminder that “prayer must be first, last and always the center of our lives.”

In the spring of 2003, RUMC renewed its capital stewardship campaign with a goal of $2.1 million over three years in hopes of paying off the mortgage, expanding the Worship Center and building new rehearsal facilities for the music groups of the church.

The “Power of the Cross” campaign was undergirded by months of planning, prayer and preaching. It culminated on May 3-4 with two worship services under a giant tent set up in the east parking lot.

Hundreds of the faithful joined in the 90-minute celebration at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, with traditional hyms, praise songs, testimony and special music, including the song, “The Power of the Cross,” written by music minister Bruce Dillon.

Senor Pastor H. Douglas Shriner preached from 2 Samuel in which David was counseled to listen for the wind in the top of the mulberry tree to know when to attack.

“I hear the sound in the top of the mulberry tree this morning,” Shriner said, “God is moving in our midst. That voice that calls us says we have to advance…we have to reach out. The world still needs the power of the cross to set us free.”

Charles Annis, a co-director of the campaign, presented Shriner with a silver skateboard emblematic of the pastor’s desire to reach out to youthful skateboarders who frequented the church parking lot.

“This is not about money and buildings,” Annis said. “It’s about providing an environment where more and more people can come to meet God and get to know Him.”

Later that evening, several hundred people returned to the tent to enjoy a concert by contemporary Christian music favorite Michael Card. The following evening, two-time Heisman trophy winner Archie Griffin headed a service of music and ministry