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A Home for Fellowship, Discipleship, and Mission

For more than fifty years, Lawndale Presbyterian has held to a simple calling: we exist to love God and love others. We live that out by gathering for worship, growing together in grace, and going out to speak and show the Gospel. God has grown this community season after season, and with that growth has come a joyful realization—our building needs to change so we can keep serving our community well. By faith, and with grateful hearts, we are renewing it, so that life in Christ keeps taking root here, and keeps being carried from here into our city.

Archival pen-and-ink drawing of the original Lawndale Presbyterian Church building in Tupelo, Mississippi

Our Story

Life happens here because grace came here first.

Our story began in 1972, when a small and hopeful congregation gathered in a borrowed room at the Barber Milk Plant, with no building to call their own. Even then, before there were walls, grace was already at work. In time and by faith, this church built its first home on the ground we still love and occupy today. The body grew, and the building grew alongside it. The very rooms where the church first gathered became our Education Wing. And so the place where one generation began gathering is where the next is coming to know God today. That is no accident. It is grace, handed down.

This is what we mean when we say life happens here. God has been shaping individuals and families in these rooms for more than fifty years: through first prayers and baptisms, weddings and friendships, from childhood to grandparenthood, one ordinary season at a time. And by every sign of His goodness, that work is only getting started.

Our Opportunity

Our church has always been ready for mission, and our desire is to continue to identify ways to support this.

What we know is that the spaces holding us are dated, and no longer keeping pace with the growth God keeps giving us. We have listened carefully and responded thoughtfully, conducting a congregation-wide survey of our priorities and needs, adding a second worship service, building a new parking lot, and more. We strive to own the lostness of Tupelo, welcoming more neighbors through our doors, and going out to speak and show the Gospel to a community we love.

So the question before us is a joyful one. Not whether to move, and not simply whether to grow, but whether our building can serve the mission as fully and faithfully as our people already do. 

By faith, and with glad hearts, we are choosing to enhance, build, and make room: room to gather, to grow, and to go.

Members of the congregation sharing a meal together around tables in the fellowship hall

Our Campaign

Everything we hope to build serves one of the three ways we love God and love others.

  • Gather – Welcoming

    A welcome that says you belong here.

  • Grow – Community

    A place for families to grow, generation after generation.

  • Go – Outreach

    A launching point for the mission we already carry.

Total Campaign Goal = $4.5 Million

$1,800,000 – Education Wing  |  $2,700,000 – Welcome Center

Fulfill Your Pledge

Our Vision

Room To Gather, Grow, Go

We are making room in places the church already lives its life together: in the Education Wing and at the door where every guest first arrives. It is simple, purposeful space, shaped to serve the people God keeps bringing to Lawndale.

The brick monument sign at the church entrance reading Lawndale Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church in America
Architectural rendering, aerial view: the renewed campus with the sanctuary, new welcome center, children's wing, and playground Architectural rendering at street level: the new covered welcome entry with guests arriving

The full vision — the Education Wing and the Welcome Center, realized together, by faith.

These renderings show the vision we are building toward. (Final designs are still being refined.)

Education Wing – Our Commitment

This is the work we have joyfully resolved to do: renewing the Education Wing, the heart of our building and the very ground where our church began.

  • A new children's chapel and refreshed classrooms, so our youngest have a bright, joyful place to learn about Jesus and worship him.
  • A new pastoral and counseling suite, aiding in the support and shepherding of our flock.
  • A single, welcoming entry with a new check-in desk, so families arrive to a safe, settled, and cared-for place to grow.
  • Bigger, refreshed, accessible restrooms for this space.

The new children's chapel: a bright, joyful space where our youngest gather to worship and grow. (Final designs are still being refined.)

Children's Chapel
Eduction Wing Desk 1
Eduction Wing Desk 2
Entry 1
Entry 2
Entry 3
Partition Entry 1
Partition Entry 2
Partition Entry 3

Welcome Center – Our Prayer

By faith, and with hopeful hearts, we long to build further in this same season: the Welcome Center and Education Wing completed together. A new center for the church, a front door that opens not merely into a building, but into belonging, into growing, and into the ministry that serves the whole body, all from one welcoming place.

  • A new welcome and gathering entry, with a covered drop-off, so the very first thing a guest meets is a warm hello and room to belong.
  • Three new adult classrooms for study, discipleship, and community - so the welcomed keep growing, just steps from the door that brought them in.
  • New central office space, so the ministry that serves the body is close at hand, near the very people it serves.

The new welcome and gathering space: room to belong, linger, and to be drawn in. (Final designs are still being refined.)

The Education Wing is what we have resolved to do. The Welcome Center and Education Wing, completed together, is what we are believing God for and trusting Him to provide as only He can.

Map Key

A
Three new adult classrooms
B
Multi-purpose and gathering space
C
New church office
D
New children's chapel
E
Renovated classrooms, offices, and Lesley Chapel
F
Pastoral and counseling suite
G
Bigger, refreshed, accessible restrooms

One combined plan, shown here in full. (Final layouts and finishes are still being refined.)

Color-coded architect's floor plan of the renewed building, showing new adult classrooms, multipurpose space, church office, children's chapel, renewed classrooms, restrooms, and the senior pastor's office

Our hope is simply that you can see, with joy, exactly what your gift is building and what it is reaching toward.

Our Progress

$308,746 given toward the vision

  • $835,200 PLEDGED TOWARD THE VISION
  • $4,500,000 OUR PRAYER – THE WELCOME CENTER & EDUCATION WING COMPLETED TOGETHER

  • Our Prayer  – Education Wing and Welcome Center Completed Together

    $4,500,000

    Total Cost

    $2,250,000

    50% cash in hand to begin construction on both phases

  • Our Commitment
    Education Wing

    $1,800,000

    Total Cost

    $900,000

    50% cash in hand to begin construction on the Education Wing

Every gift, from every heart, moves us toward the next marker. There is a place in this for everyone: those who have given before, and those giving for the very first time.

Fulfill the Pledge

We give because God first gave to us.

Every gift to Life Happens Here is grace answering grace—given freely and joyfully, as each of us has decided in our own heart. We warmly invite everyone to share in this good work! No gift is too big, and none is too small, and every one is received with gratitude.

Give online

Set up a recurring commitment or make a one-time gift.

When making a donation toward your pledge, select the fund:
Pledge - Life Happens Here

If making a one-time gift not tied to a pledged amount, select the fund:
One-time Gift - Life Happens Here

Please cover the small processing charge if giving online.

Give by check

Make checks payable to Lawndale Presbyterian Church with
"Life Happens Here" on the memo line.

Mail or bring them to 1500 Lawndale Dr., Tupelo, MS 38801.

Give in other ways

Gifts of stock, securities, real estate, or a gift through your estate can carry the vision further. To explore any of these, contact the church office or Louis Holmes, and they will connect you with the PCA Foundation, which will facilitate your gift to our account there.

Questions?

Please visit the FAQ page for common questions and answers.

If additional questions arise, please reach out to Brad Hollinger or Louis Holmes.

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