New Building – Central Baptist Church

Unlike a lot of churches, since COVID-19, our church attendance has greatly increased. Before COVID-19, our average Sunday attendance was 90-100, but as of today our average attendance is anywhere between 120-140 depending on the given Sunday. Our church can seat approximately 160, but its extremely crowded. If we had a full Sunday and a new family came to worship with us, they would have a hard time sitting together. God has been good to help us prosper during a time when a lot of businesses and churches have had to close their doors.

Due to the increase in attendance, we are running out of room in the worship center on Sundays. To make more room for seating we plan to remodel the worship center by removing the side closets and classrooms to make the building one big worship center with two bathrooms in the foyer.

Before we remove classroom space in our current building we need to make space for those classes which is where phase 1 of our 3 phase project comes into play.

Phase 1 – Build a new multi-purpose building on the lot we own behind the church. The building will be 12,000 sq. ft. with a gym, large dining space with commercial kitchen, offices for staff members, and Sunday school meeting spaces for children, youth and adults.

Phase 2 – Remodel the worship center to fit as many seats as possible to allow 200+ attendance and expand the nursery to include the Pastor’s current office.

Phase 3 – Covered walkways, hallway expansions, etc. for easier access to and from the worship center to the new building. This is in anticipation of high traffic once the building is built.

Here is a copy of the floorplan. This may change as we make progress, but the general idea will remain. The floorplan includes:

Gym/youth worship space. This will serve as the after school program area for the youth (7^th – 12^th grades) as well as the worship and Bible study space. If needed, it could seat up to 300 people for the larger events that our church hosts.
Large Fellowship Hall. This space will serve as the regular Wednesday night adult Bible study space and where all of our meals will be served. It will consist of large stainless commercial refridgerators, freezers, sinks, and a 20’ serving counter. This space could fit up 160 people for meals and Bible study which is over twice as big as our current Fellowship Hall.
Kid Central – We have set aside an entire section for the children that we are going to call “Kid Central.” The children’s coordinator’s office will be the first room with a “Kid Check-in” desk right outside. It will also be placed on the north end so it is close to the playground. These rooms are more spacious than our current ones to help accommodate for the large children’s program that God has blessed us with. The smallest class can fit 20 people whereas the largest of the kid’s classrooms could fit up to 30.
Restrooms – There will be spacious bathrooms with each having one private shower and changing area which will be extremely helpful for youth retreats and other overnight events. There will also be a family restroom with a changing table near the fellowship hall.
The Loft – There is an upstairs portion that will be overlooking the gym which will have the pool table, ping pong table, a small bathroom, and counter space. This will serve our youth during the after school program as well as another meeting space for Sunday School when needed.
Miscellaneous – There are a couple of storage closets, mechanical closets, and a pantry that will help store all of the necessary items for janitors, maintenance, and tables for all of our events.

Now that you know what is going to be in the building, here is how we will utilize the building to serve the people in our community:

Weekly Sunday School meetings for all ages except nursery.
Commercial kitchen to serve mid-week meals, dinner on the grounds, Trunk-R-Treat, Community-Wide Thanksgiving Meal, Community-Wide Christmas dinner, etc. When we have community-wide events, we tend to serve hundreds of people.
The gym will serve as the mid-week youth after school program, but it will also serve for outreach events that outgrow our new Fellowship Hall or when we need indoor events due to bad weather.
When we have a meal after church, we will no longer have to walk outside in the cold or rain for a block to get there. This is going to be more convenient for everyone, but especially the elderly and handicapped.
This new building will also inspire us to reach out to our community in new ways and help share the Gospel more effectively.

Here’s how you can help. We know this is going to take a lot of money, but if we all pitch in, we believe God will multiply and provide plenty to accomplish His plan. Please consider donating to our building here at Central Baptist Church so that the Gospel can continue to go out from our facilities at greater measures!