The Bible Center Church, which attracts 1,700 worshippers to three services on Sunday mornings, will break ground at 2 p.m. Sunday for a complex that will accommodate even more worshippers.

The $16 million project will take the fast-growing evangelical church from a 700-seat sanctuary at its present home across from Ashton Place to a 1,200-seat interim sanctuary further out Corridor G, administrative pastor Lee Walker said.

The new building, expected to be ready in December 2007, will stand within Charleston city limits just south of Southridge center near the new Metro 911 facility.

The 66,000-square-foot first phase will also include a movable-seat auditorium for up to 200 young people, and a large, high-ceiling gathering space, Walker said. It will provide enough space for a congregation of 2,500.

The church’s attendance was around 800 in 1999 when church leaders first embarked on an advertising campaign that continues to this day.

The new complex will stand on a 96-acre property that the Bible Center bought from a former quasi-governmental agency, the Business and Industrial Development Corp., in February 2004. BIDCO officials tried for 10 years to sell the plot to a business customer and had earlier rejected the church as not suitable.

A month after buying the land, church officials rented the Clay Center for a Celebration Sunday and raised $4 million in pledges in a single day, Walker said. “We spent three months preparing for that day. That was the day we collected the cards and added them up.”

Church officials have received $3 million in pledges since then, and will launch a second capital campaign in January 2007 to raise more money, Walker said. Pledges are payable over three years.

The planned three-phase project will cost an estimated $58 million in 2006 dollars, Walker said. All three phases together call for 250,000 square feet of building amd 1,200 parking spaces. The current property has 310 parking spaces.

Phase II would add a gym with a full-size basketball court, a walking track on another floor, and a lower level fitness center and locker rooms, as well as classrooms and administrative offices for both the church and affiliated school, Walker said.

 

Phase III would build a permanent worship center with 2,500 seats, a 300-seat chapel for weddings, music recitals and funerals, and a downstairs music center where teachers would give lessons and students can practice.

There are no time schedules for Phase II and III. Until Phase II, the Bible Center School, which 215 students grades K-6 attend, will remain at the current church, Walker said. So will the pre-school that 115 students attend. Those programs will have room to grow there.

The Bible Center added about 10,000 square feet to its current building in a $1.9 million renovation five years ago. “That filled up quickly,” Walker said. The congregation has outgrown the sanctuary, classrooms, fellowship space, and the spaces where people circulate and socialize, he added.

Senior Pastor Shawn Thornton said he originally expected to break ground this August, but people at Silling Associates architectural firm and Pray Construction advised an earlier start.

“It’s exciting,” Thornton said. “It’s a big undertaking. There’s some energy and enthusiasm. There’s a sense of this is a big step, Lord, and He keeps opening doors for what we’re doing.”

Thornton said he expects the church to continue on the same course it has been on for 60 years, including the last nine since he arrived. “The history of Bible Center is to stay Bible centered,” he said. “We try not to get off into politics and social discussions and controversies. We try to let the Bible speak to those things rather than us. So we have Democrats and Republicans, white-collar and blue-collar.”

Thornton expects 1,200 to 1,500 people for the groundbreaking. He has asked each family to bring a shovel. Shuttle buses will transport people to the site from the parking lots of Marquee Cinemas, Sam’s Club, Home Depot and Telespectrum.

To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, use e-mail or call 348-1249.

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