Please feel free to contact the church at (270) 843-3942 with any questions or to receive help with setting up online giving.
History of Growing Forward at BUMC
Since 1908, Broadway has grown alongside Bowling Green to meet the needs of our community. Founded in a shoe store at the corner of Broadway and Highway 31-W, the church moved to its current Melrose Street location in 1959. A revitalization in the late 1990s brought renewed focus to children’s ministries, engaging worship, and community outreach. In 2007, BUMC merged with Greenwood UMC, launching the Greenwood Campus on Scottsville Road—a small-church atmosphere supported by a larger congregation. Today, BUMC continues its mission to be a contagious community of hospitality, growth, and action as we follow Jesus together.
Our growing county needs the safe, brave, and sacred community God has created among us to grow with it. The population of Bowling Green is projected to double in size over the next 25 years, and it is critical that we maximize our current facilities to welcome new people into our church family.
This project will:
-Launch a new worshipping community in the current Melrose Sanctuary during the 9:30 worship hour
-Expand the current Greenwood Campus facility to more than double the capacity of the existing Sanctuary
We are committed to investing deeply in young people through early childhood education and highly relational ministry with children, youth, and families.
This project will:
-Reimburse the expenses from renovating the current Melrose Campus Youth House to provide a designated space for youth to gather, connect, and grow
-Expand the children’s area in the current Greenwood Campus facility to not only welcome more children on Sunday mornings but to also serve preschool families during the week
-Renovate the basement of the Greenwood Campus Carver Fellowship House to provide additional space for youth programming
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the current plan allows for significant growth of the Greenwood Campus. Sanctuary seating increases from 110 to 320, space for children more than doubles and the facility becomes more adaptable to our needs.
If Greenwood reaches capacity AFTER expansion we would plant another campus. Our vision is to create spaces intimate enough for people to know each other—around 250 in worship attendance.
The preschool expansion will allow Broadway’s Early Learning Center to serve more children and families in one of the fastest-growing areas of our community. We have assembled a team of Broadway members who are also leading experts in the preschool field who are guiding our plans for the preschool expansion.
The cost in the campaign for the 9:30 service is mostly for parking expansion when the current Melrose parking is maxed out. We have a Melrose Master Plan that will guide Melrose campus expansion, including parking.
Numerical church growth happens two ways—through our current services and by intentionally planting new ones. Think of how families grow—existing members grow and mature. But also new members are born. Growing churches are intentional about both kinds of growth, through existing and new faith communities.
We will assemble a lead team for the new service which will meet over the course of several months before launch, helping us decide what the 9:30 service will look like.
Yes. We need to be responsive to what God is already doing. Greenwood Campus expansion has been needed for a long time. Preschool is one of the top community needs. Plus, we want to be faithful to what we have long called Broadway’s “pioneering spirit.” While there is always risk in taking action, we also believe the greater risk is not acting faithfully and boldly.
The Growing Forward Campaign will rely on the generosity of those who give above and beyond their regular giving. Capital campaigns are designed to strengthen our long-term financial health. The campaign process allows us to be wise and fiscally responsible. We will ask people to make commitments ahead of time. Giving will be spread out over a three-year period. This allows us to make a reasonable estimate of giving and plan accordingly.
The Youth House was updated over the summer and fall of 2025. Broadway’s Church Council approved funds from our contingency fund to accomplish this update. The Growing Forward Campaign would replenish the contingency fund.
Broadway is working with Horizons Stewardship to guide a process in which the entire congregation is informed and involved. We are planning for feedback from leaders this fall with monthly updates to the congregation. Then we plan for a church-wide time of prayer, discernment and commitment in early 2026.
Broadway’s Church Council is guided by a long-term vision. The goals of Growing Forward are directly related to this vision. We invite the people of Broadway to read and pray over our vision, asking for nothing more or less than God’s will for our church and our community!
We intend to be a City on a Hill, a network of close-knit worshipping communities scattered throughout South Central Kentucky. We will multiply the contagious thing that makes Broadway special—our healthy DNA—through the dynamics of church with preschool and preschool with church. We will understand our role as the light of the world—people characterized by unconditional welcome, transformational growth, and selfless service. We will use a spiritual discernment approach to understand the problems and opportunities of our region, bringing hope and faithful action to help solve the unsolvable. And in the end, our greatest gift to our region is our people, flourishing and fruitful—a movement of those fully alive in Christ