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A Place to Grow

Charlotte Ferrell Smith
Daily Mail staff

Tuesday February 21, 2006

Bible Center Church does not live by the motto, "If you build it, they will come."

The crowd has already arrived and is overflowing.

Bible Center Church, located at 1111 Oakhurst Drive, now holds three Sunday services with a combined attendance of 1,550.

"We have no more room here," said the Rev. Shawn Thornton, senior pastor. "We are building and relocating our ministry because people are here and still coming. We see our building as a tool, not an end. It is humbling that God is using us that way."

The church plans to break ground in April on a new $15.9 million facility on 96 acres farther south on Corridor G. The church bought the land in 2004 at a cost of $2.6 million.

The $15.9 million will cover the first phase of the project, including the building, professional services, furniture, lighting and sound system. The building will include a worship center, children's chapel and classrooms. Administrative offices and the school will remain at the current site.

Lee Walker, church administrator, said current commitments total $8 million with half of that amount already collected. Plans call for a capital stewardship campaign to begin in January of 2007 with the goal of raising an additional $5 million.

"Then we will finance the remainder," Walker said.

Local architect Silling Associates, Inc., is working with consultant Bill Chegwidden of Georgia, an architect who has been involved in building more than 300 churches in nine states over a period of 28 years. Chegwidden is author of "The Next Step, How to Discover the Right Solutions to Plan, Design, & Build Your Church."

"I enjoy working with community groups and, at the end of the day, I feel I've done something worthwhile for the community," said Chegwidden, who added facilities are designed to fit the ministries of the respective churches.

Jody Driggs of Silling Associates said the two architecture firms work well together.

Chegwidden, of CDH Partners in Marietta, Ga., brings expertise in church design to the table while Silling Associates is familiar with local contractors and terrain, said Jody Driggs of Silling.

Neither firm would have done a good job alone, Driggs said.

"Our two firms are a great marriage, technologically and philosophically," he said. "It's a great fit. We're a local firm and have been around for a long time. If the church needs anything we can be there in a heartbeat."

Plans have been submitted to the congregation and parishioners will be asked to give it a stamp of approval this month.

Photo: Tom Hindman

Ground will be broken in April and the 66,500-square-foot facility is expected to be ready by November 2007. The new building will have a 1,100-seat worship center and a large entrance with tall windows, a fireplace and high ceilings with wooden beams. The facility will be decorated in earth tones so that it fits nicely into the natural surroundings of the wooded land. "It's a beautiful piece of property with beautiful trees and a great terrain," Chegwidden said. "Every building we work on is unique. Most of our churches are not traditional." Thornton said, "The building is to accent God's creation with a lot of glass, natural light and earth tone colors inside." The facility will be a place where men and women feel equally comfortable, everyone can enjoy nature and parking is plentiful, he said. "Our Sunday attendance is 1,550," he said. "Out there we can grow to 3,000 without complications." In years to come, plans call for adding onto the new building and moving the school as well as administrative offices to the new site. Eventually, the new worship center will be a fellowship hall and a 2,400-seat sanctuary will be built along with a gym and a chapel. It is a dream that Thornton believes is attainable. Bible Center got its start in 1942 when a small group began meeting in borrowed space in a downtown Charleston store's shoe department. Church construction began in 1943. Since the beginning, the congregation has been in four locations. In 1997, Thornton became the church's fourth pastor. "Bible Center is approaching 64 years of age," Thornton said. "It has steadily grown over all those years. It has stayed focused on the Bible, declaring the good news of Jesus Christ. We keep it simple. As you stay Bible centered, a church stays Jesus focused. We don't get caught up in politics and social things." Check out the Web site www.biblecenterchurch.com for more information. Contact writer Charlotte Ferrell Smith at 348-1246.