St. Joseph the Worker is making plans for family life center and future
By Dan McWilliams
St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Madisonville is planning to build a new family life center as the community in Monroe County has outgrown its current spaces for office staff and ministries.
The building, whose cost is estimated at $4 million, will be approximately 10,000 to 12,000 square feet. The center will “completely blend with the existing sanctuary building and fellowship hall to appear to be one larger facility,” said pastor Father Julius Abuh.
“During construction, the FLC will be built parallel to our current church building. There will be a main covered entrance set between the two structures to accommodate easier entrance to the church. The two buildings are connected by two corridors, one in the front and the other to the rear.”
Drawing up a new building
The George Armour Ewart firm in Knoxville is designing the new building.
“George’s organization was one of the architectural firms recommended by the diocese,” Father Abuh said. “We are so pleased with their creativity, quality of work, and timeliness of completing approved work phases. His organization is a true partner with us.”
The Ewart company’s design is “beautiful and inclusive,” Father Abuh said. “The facility will provide a healthy, safe, and fun place to continue to grow and build on the legacy our founding families created so many years ago.”
St. Joseph the Worker has raised almost half of the total amount needed for the family life center project.
“Currently, $4 million is our original estimated cost to build our project, and that is our stated capital goal,” Father Abuh said. “We are in the process of working to identify a general contractor who will help us determine the accurate cost of construction that will guide our efforts going forward.
“We are pleased with our capital fundraising progress so far. We have received pledges in the amount of almost $2 million. In addition, our fundraising committee has developed a sound strategy to augment our pledge dollars, and that is starting during the Lenten season. We’ll begin publishing a rolling fundraising event calendar after Easter of this year.”
Fundraising for the new family life center kicked off last May and focused on a parishioner pledge campaign, Father Abuh noted.
“We engaged with Greater Mission, a professional fundraising organization, to lead our efforts,” he added. “In addition to our pledge campaign, our fundraising committee developed a four-prong comprehensive strategy that involves reaching out to the community, businesses and organizations, and foundations as well as conducting regular fun parish events such as meals, galas, wine and chocolate tasting, a brick sale, and children’s activities such as car washes.”
St. Joseph the Worker Church is located at 649 Old Tellico Highway in Madisonville. (Photo courtesy of St. Joseph the Worker Parish)
A good problem to have
Father Abuh likes to refer to his parish as the “only one” in Monroe County, and it is a growing one for the priest who has served Madisonville-area Catholics since 2018.
“Together with my team, we have seen that St. Joseph the Worker has a high-class problem: we are growing!” the pastor said. “Our numbers, from registered families and individuals to Mass attendance, have been surging. Our annual weekend Mass attendance in December 2021 was 15,420. At the end of December 2024, our weekly Mass attendance was 23,522. All our key metrics show similar growth.
“Religious education grew in enrollment to 60 students this year; RCIA has 30 people enrolled, a record number for us; Bible studies now offer two different classes to accommodate the need. Considering the rural nature of our location and the distances our parishioners travel, this is indeed a blessing.”
Those aren’t the only areas of increasing numbers.
“Another critical area where we feel the crunch of growth is in our church hall,” Father Abuh said. “Social activities—such as Sunday coffee and doughnuts after Masses, monthly buffets, Christmas and holiday parties, sacrament celebrations, parish special events like a bishop’s visit—find us renting tents or encouraging people when they are done eating to leave so more parishioners can join the fun.
“Fellowship and spending time together are what encourage our happy-family reputation. We are a welcoming and friendly parish, but it’s difficult to feel that when we can’t accommodate everyone for our celebrations.”
Committee leaders find it difficult to secure available meeting space in the church hall or the Marian center to conduct their business, Father Abuh said. Choirs need more practice space, he said, as they serve at four weekend Masses.
“With our English Masses starting with the 4 p.m. Saturday vigil as well as the 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday morning and our 12:30 p.m. Spanish Mass, the logistics of choir practice can be quite a challenge,” Father Abuh said.
Parish staff need more room, too, he added.
“We have completely outgrown our offices and storage spaces,” he said. “Having adequate space to conduct back-office operations of bookkeeping, recordkeeping, coordinating funerals and weddings, working with parishioners’ needs, and extending helping hands to our less fortunate neighbors has illustrated that some of those activities require security or confidentiality or both. Both are difficult in our current office arrangement.”
Forecasting key events for the project
It’s still early days for the family life center building effort, but a groundbreaking for it might occur later this year, Father Abuh said.
“Despite the fact that the steering committee has been working on this project for two years, we are still in the early stages,” he said. “We have come a long way from gathering parishioners’ input for the project to securing an architect to create a picture of our vision. But now the hard and exciting work begins to bring our vision and plans to fruition.
“Our best estimate of key tasks is the selection of our general contractor to partner with the architect and the committee by mid-February, completion of the detailed construction drawings in April or May, completion of construction crews and material orders in late August, and groundbreaking in the fall. Of course, all these targets are predicated on securing the funding needed. The new fundraising strategic events will begin in March and continue until the new mortgage is paid off.”
The new center could open sometime next year, Father Abuh said.
“Since we still have many details to complete before construction can begin, our best estimate would be nine to 11 months from groundbreaking,” he said. “We are praying for late 2026 occupancy providing all the necessary funding is in place to stay on our schedule.”
St. Joseph the Worker has been coordinating with Shannon Hepp, diocesan chief financial officer, and Deacon Hicks Armor, director of the diocesan Office of Stewardship and Strategic Planning.
“The diocese has been very supportive of our building initiative,” Father Abuh said. “We have worked with Shannon Hepp and the Diocesan Finance Council. Deacon Hicks has been very instrumental in advising and guiding us on this journey. We are grateful to the other parishes that we contacted to gather the lessons learned from their construction projects. It is the input of these people and their different experiences and insights that is helping us as we plan and execute our family life center vision.”
A peek inside the family life center
The new center will have two floors, Father Abuh said.
“The first level will be our new social hall, a reception area, and a large kitchen area to include a storage room, pantry, and utility closet,” he said. “The lower level will include meeting and classrooms and the director of religious education’s office along with a reception area.”
St. Joseph the Worker is considering a new worship space but has to juggle that effort with the family life center construction.
“The steering committee and I recognized that we couldn’t conduct Mass in a construction zone,” Father Abuh said. “If the church was the first building project, we wouldn’t have a location for Mass. We would need to rent facilities, which would add costs to the project. By starting with the family life center, the social hall could be converted to a configuration for Mass.
“This strategy would allow us to continue to grow while paying off one loan before undertaking a second building project to expand or replace the church sanctuary.”
Father Abuh and the steering committee must “exercise prudent financial judgment and be good stewards of the parish’s funds while planning for future growth,” he said.
The present parish hall in St. Joseph the Worker Church is located in the basement and includes a commons area for meetings and dinners and a small kitchen. As the number of parishioners continues to grow, St. Joseph the Worker is needing expanded space. (Photo courtesy of Father Julius Abuh)
A look back
St. Joseph the Worker Parish began life in 1992 as the Monroe County Catholic Community, meeting for Mass in a leaky Madisonville storefront on U.S. Highway 411. The community was then staffed by the Glenmary Home Missioners, with lay pastoral coordinators Jay Gilchrist serving the mission church from 1992 to 1999 and Paul and Ginny Witte from 1999 to 2003, when the diocese took over its care.
Mr. Gilchrist, with diocesan founding Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell’s approval, initiated a project to build a new church. The Monroe County community purchased land in 1997, then broke ground for a $570,000 building on June 24, 2000, on a 17.2-acre site on Old Tellico Highway.
Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz issued a decree that was read by Mr. Witte during Christmas Mass in 2000 stating that the parish would be named for St. Joseph the Worker.
The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on May 27, 2001, and Bishop Kurtz blessed the downstairs parish hall that would serve as the worship area on June 23 of that year. Construction was completed on the 6,764-square-foot church in fall 2002, and Knoxville’s second bishop returned to consecrate the altar and worship space on Jan. 12, 2003.
Prayer for their new building
St. Joseph the Worker parishioners are saying a prayer for their family life center campaign:
“Dear most merciful and loving God, we pray for your guidance as our faith family is moving forward to construct a family life center to further Your work of evangelization in our community.
“The additional space will allow us to expand our ministries to serve our family and our neighbors. Please guide us as we consider all possibilities for our space needs. Open our hearts to share the blessings You have given to us with others. May Your light shine on us as we align with Your divine will to provide the resources that will be needed to make this vision a reality in Your name.
“Guide us as a faith family to consider, prayerfully, Your will in all matters. In the name of St. Joseph the Worker, we pray. Amen.
How to help
Anyone who would like to make a donation to support the family life center may contact Claudia in the parish office at office@sjtwrcc.org or call 423-442-7273.
“Our parishioners are very generous; however, we are also relying on the generosity of other Christians who may be happy to support this worthy cause,” Father Abuh said. “Our immediate goal is to achieve the $2 million in available cash from pledges and fundraising efforts to begin construction, with the idea of securing a loan for the balance. With our trust in God and in the generosity of other Catholics, businesses, and community members, we will be successful.”
East Tennessee Catholics may also support St. Joseph the Worker’s building project by attending meals in the church hall at 5 p.m. on the Fridays of Lent, followed by Stations of the Cross in English at 6 p.m. and in Spanish at 7. The Women’s Group, Knights of Columbus, and Hispanic community are among those providing the meals. Tickets may be purchased in advance for adults for $10 and children 2 to 12 years for $5, using the contact information above.
Updates on the new building are posted at sjtwrcc.wixsite.com/sjtwrcc.
“As the pastor, I have been enjoying the cooperation of my parishioners. I am very happy to be in this parish,” Father Abuh said. “We are hopeful, through the cooperation of families and friends here and around the country, that this worthy project sees the light of day.”
Another project underway in LaFollette
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in LaFollette is building a new adoration chapel. To contribute to that effort, donors may e-mail OLPHLaFollette@dioknox.org.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the diocese’s fourth-oldest parish and achieved parish status in 1988.
The present church building was dedicated on March 26, 1994, and the parish’s 100th anniversary was celebrated on Oct. 3, 2004.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help is one of 16 parishes in the Cumberland Mountain Deanery and is located at 1142 E. Elm St. in LaFollette. The pastor is Father Sam Sturm.
