Growing Faith Baptist Church breaks ground on new addition

The church’s parking lot is overflowing — 12 cars line the edges of the pavement, tires in the muddy grass. The seats in the sanctuary are full, too, but if you’re a visitor, they’ll squeeze in just a bit tighter to make sure you get a spot.

Faith Baptist Church, located on Brown Station Road, needs more space, and it is finally getting the addition it needs. Ground was broken Sunday on an addition that will add 16,000 square feet to the humble building Faith Baptist currently calls home. In six years, the independent Baptist church has grown from 20 to 250 regular members.

“We’re limited now,” member Fred Nelson said. “Even the kitchen is being used for Sunday school.”

The new addition, which will be connected to the original building, will have two levels to maximize the available land. The main level will include a large foyer and a sanctuary able to seat 500, not including the choir. The lower floor will have six new offices and an apartment that will provide temporary housing for the missionaries the church supports. Most of the lower level will be left unfinished, extra space for the church to use in the future, possibly for a Christian school.

The project is expected to cost $1.5 million and will be paid for through special offerings. Church members have raised $100,000 so far and plan on paying for most of the expansion as they go. Because the church is not affiliated with a convention, members have to raise all the money themselves.

“But the nice thing is,” the Rev. Joe Kline said, “we have the liberty to decide what we want and how we want it.”

Kline said large parts of the work will be completed by church volunteers to cut down on costs. Foundation work is expected to begin this week.