The First United Methodist Church of Murphy has always been one of the town’s most recognizable landmarks, sitting in the heart of the business district and the community. A year ago as the calendar turned on its 100th anniversary, the church also approached a milestone in thinking about how to better serve its community.
“Our church had just celebrated its 100th anniversary,” said the Rev. Wil Posey, the church’s pastor. “We completed a visioning process … and knew we were poised and ready to do something big. That’s when the NC Rural Center’s Faith in Rural Community’s Community Connect Program became available.”
The church participated in the 2023 cohort of Community Connect. Through this program, a community team explored local challenges and opportunities. The increasing need for child care options was identified as the spot where the church’s assets could respond to a local challenge. In Spring 2024, the church opened FUMC Children’s Center, a Montessori-based preschool with assistance from a grant funded in partnership with the NC Rural Center and The Duke Endowment. Rev. Posey said it became apparent that a preschool program was the right project at the right time.
“The Montessori School Project aligns with the church’s calling to impact children and young families. In addition, a number of our congregation members had Montessori teaching experience. The Community Connect program helped tie everything together.”
Early childcare education programs not only provide care that allows parents to work, but also offer developmental support for a child’s long- term educational and economic success, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The average participation in early childcare and education programs is lower in rural communities than in metropolitan areas, according to DHHS research. And using these services widely improves the economic outcomes and well-being of students throughout the course of their lives.
Research revealed a desperate need for affordable preschool in Murphy.
“Our area faces a drastic shortage of opportunities for parents to place their children. We felt called as a congregation to make a difference in the lives of children and young families in our church and community,” Posey explained. “This was … like a “holy spirit” inspired thing.
“In a rural community the separation between church and community is thin, if it exists at all. A number in our town already were church members, or participating in the church in some way. They are people in town leadership or part of other nonprofit agencies. And so we had these folks kind of already at the table.”
The Rural Center’s program invited the church to participate in its Community Connect program and capture some of the energy that was building for a community project.
“Community Connect is an 18-month program for churches with the desire and capacity to make an impact,” said Dr. Heather Kilbourne, director of the Faith in Rural Communities program. “Churches invited to this program identify a need in their community and then form a team of leaders across a broad range of sectors. The team receives training in collaborative leadership, as well as asset-based community development and on-going coaching as they develop a project and work to implement it.
The church applied the key concepts of community partnership and upstream thinking to implement the preschool program. Training provided a common language for the team and helped as they approached challenges.
The town and surrounding area face shortages in workforce, affordable housing and childcare, said Murphy Mayor Tim Radford. The launch of the church’s Montessori-based preschool program addressed a critical need for parents in his rural area and supports the local economy.
“I know the church very well, so I knew they would be successful in this program,” Radford said. “It was needed. We have a lot of parents struggling to find affordable care for their kids. This not only helps with that but also helps with the parents being able to get out and work jobs. That helps our workforce and our economy all around. The North Carolina Rural Center has played a pivotal role in supporting small, rural communities.”
Spearheaded by church parents, and facilitated by Rev. Posey, the new Montessori-based part-time preschool initiative appointed Bridget Esterhuizen as director.
“I started as a parent in the community who has two little ones about to be preschool age. I wanted a part-time option for them. A Montessori-based option was exciting, but it didn’t exist,” Esterhuizen said. “Things just kind of aligned. I have a teaching background and ended up in a conversation with Rev Posey. That led to joining a committee to research the formation of a school, which then led into me becoming the teacher and its director.”
The Community Connect program was instrumental in securing the success of the program.
“They funded us to help get us started, both monetarily and with expertise. This program wouldn’t have happened without the Rural Center’s Community Connect,” Esterhuizen said. They helped us in the planning. They helped us articulate our vision.”
Helping with the nine students currently in the program, assistant teacher Joann Moore explains the advantages of the preschool.
“Montessori is very different. It’s very innovative. The children enjoy it. I enjoy it,” Moore said. “They move at their own pace, so if they’re not ready for the next step, then they don’t go to the next step. And when they are, they know it.”
The program has become well-accepted within the Murphy community. Stephen Aft, whose 3-year-old daughter Ava is a student, emphasized her developmental readiness and the importance of peer interaction.
“This is the only opportunity available in Murphy for a Montessori-type environment that takes little ones,” said Aft, an insurance agent. “She talks a lot about school. She’s got about three or four friends she shares stories about. What they did on the playground, or who she shared a toy or cookie. The development of peer socialization is so important at that age.”
The class meets for three days a week for three hours in the morning, and the church plans hopes to expand the class to 15 students by the end of the year.
“We hear things about childcare deserts, particularly in rural communities, and that is certainly true for us in Cherokee County,” said Rev. Posey. “We knew before we ever started this program that there’s a variety of different needs for parents. Many of the parents in our church knew firsthand there was no preschool available for their kids. There were people who needed full-time childcare and those who needed part-time opportunities or early childhood education. We knew the part-time preschool was our sweet spot. That was going to be the community need that we could meet as a congregation right now.”
The program has become well-accepted within the Murphy community. Stephen Aft, whose 3-year-old daughter Ava is a student, emphasized her developmental readiness and the importance of peer interaction.
“This is the only opportunity available in Murphy for a Montessori-type environment that takes little ones,” said Aft, an insurance agent. “She talks a lot about school. She’s got about three or four friends she shares stories about. What they did on the playground, or who she shared a toy or cookie. The development of peer socialization is so important at that age.”
The class meets for three days a week for three hours in the morning, and the church hopes to expand the class to 15 students by the end of the year.
“We hear things about childcare deserts, particularly in rural communities, and that is certainly true for us in Cherokee County,” said Rev. Posey. “We knew before we ever started this program that there’s a variety of different needs for parents. Many of the parents in our church knew firsthand there was no preschool available for their kids. There were people who needed full-time childcare and those who needed part-time opportunities or early childhood education. We knew the part-time preschool was our sweet spot. That was going to be the community need that we could meet as a congregation right now.”