Dave Jones, preacher of the church for the last 13 years, said the main reason they decided to move was because of growth of the congregation and the overall flow of the building.
“It was becoming more of a necessity to get something on one level,” Jones said, since the elderly or the handicap were unable to get around easily in the old church.
The old building, located in Millwood, was built in the 1960s and has have several addition built on since.
“A family in the church owned this property and they farmed it for years,” he said about the new location. “It would have been about five years ago that they came to us and offered to let us build.”
It wasn’t until 2017 that they started excavation on the land and had a groundbreaking event in which some 140 church members attended. It was in the spring of 2018 they started construction on the building and it took little over a year to complete.
A deacon from the church, Dusty Buckingham, served as the general contractor as a volunteer. Jones said he lead the project from the original design stages to completion of the project. Other members of the congregation volunteered time doing things like clean-up, landscaping, and painting, among other things.
Local contractors helped in the construction with plumbing, heating, electric, framing, large-scale carpentry, flooring, and some stone work.
“I had different preachers tell me there’s going to be a division but everyone saw the need,” Jones said. “We were very open with the congregation about the issues we had down there. And once we started the project, everyone was on board.”
The new location is about 1,800 square feet. Jones said that he wants the place to feel comfortable for visitors.
Jones said the church hopes to be a better resource for the community in its new location. So far, the church has seen growth in the congregation, going up to about 225 people attending service compared to the about 175 when Jones first started preaching at Millwood.
The church is already helping the local community by becoming a collection place for Food For the Hungry and partnering with the park district to help with parking for the Fire and Ice, an event where luminaries light the way to Honey Run Waterfall. In September, they are hosting a house warming brunch for A Place For Grace, a maternity home which provides resources to single, young, pregnant women.
When the church moved location, Alista Mills moved with them to continue running her preschool from the church building.
Recently, the parking lot of the church has been used for bird watchers to observe a rare Swallow-tailed Kite, a type of hawk that is usually found in the south.
“It’s been really cool,” Jones said about the rare bird and having birdwatchers out to view it.
According to what Jones was told about the bird from the birdwatchers, the bird isn’t suppose to be this far north.
Jones said the bird is nesting somewhere across the road in the fields and Caves Road and flies by the church to catch grasshoppers and other insects to eat.
“Our goal, ultimately, was to be in a more visible location. So this has been a huge blessing to us,” Jones said.
