The $12.2 million project added 24,000 square feet of space to the original 19,000 square feet. It includes a new sanctuary with Colonial touches, giant windows, a blend of old and new pews, and a half-moon chancel.
In the basement, there are several classrooms with modern technology, as well as a daycare center. There’s new landscaping around the church’s perimeter. New rooms will be used for everything from Sunday School to support group meetings. The ministry offices now can be moved from the house adjacent to the parking lot into the building itself.
More important, the church, which used to have about 300 seats, can host the entire congregation in only two services.
“One of our values is unity within our church family, and when you start having three to four services, multiple nights a week, you become lots of little churches that are disconnected,’’ Rinne said.
The church may need even more space soon.
“We’re hoping for growth,’’ said Phillip Cain, director of ministry support. “We’re just being faithful to the Bible, faithful to the Gospel, and we’ve been growing … if that trend continues, we’ll be maxing out our space here pretty quickly in the next couple of years.’’
When that happens, church officials said, they would look to open daughter congregations on the South Shore.
Yet that’s a plan far in the distance, and members are still taking in and enjoying the new space.
“My first reaction was awe at the sheer aesthetic beauty of the space,’’ Rinne said.
“At a human level, I look and see what a beautiful building. From a spiritual level, I look at it and see what a faithful God. It could have been a minefield of problems that have just not emerged.’’
Although problems did not emerge during the building’s construction and completion over the past 15 months, the 13 years leading up to the project’s approval were strewn with controversy.
