NEW PALESTINE — Brookville Road Community Church is buying land west of its building and planning expansion.
Leaders of the church have signed an agreement to buy five acres west of its building at 7480 W. U.S. 52. The land is owned by the Institute in Basic Life Principles.
The purchase, to be paid for from savings, is meant to pave the way to build a new worship space on the west end of the building. That in turn will allow church leaders to relocate youth and children’s programming away from the eastern, older end of the building.
The church, whose three weekend services attract 900 to 1,000 worshipers, began in 1983 as a church plant of Community Church of Greenwood. It met in a Seventh-Day Adventist church on South Franklin Road in Indianapolis. Hubert Nolen, now co-founder and executive director of Hope Center Indy, was the church’s founding pastor.
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In 1986, the church bought five acres on the western edge of New Palestine and raised its first building. The structure was expanded in the early 2000s by 34,000 square feet to include a kitchen, classrooms and multi-purpose space.
In recent years the church had considered remodeling the first sanctuary, known as “The Dome” to the congregation, as space for continued children’s ministry but found that unfeasible. Adding on would free up the current worship space, a multi-purpose gym, for children and youth.
“After bringing in consultants and experts in the field, it became apparent that our current children’s environments would be inadequate to invest heavily into,” lead pastor Kris Sorensen wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter.
Church leaders worked with Aspen Group, a ministry-focused design and build firm, on a master plan.
In January the church launched a campaign called Boundless that asked the congregation to make voluntary commitments as to what it might contribute over the next two years. Church leaders called it a one-fund campaign, meaning giving commitments are not building-specific contributions apart from the usual offerings.
Rather, the campaign goal was set with the aim of covering everything the church hopes to accomplish in the next two years — day-to-day operations, missions giving, the building expansion and renovation, and funds to help three congregations in India construct church buildings of their own.
In April, the pledge total was announced: People of the church said they plan to give $7,042,998 over the next two years toward making all these things happen.
The contributions “will allow us to repurpose existing space to create safe and engaging rooms for children and youth, increase our missions outreach locally and globally, and build a dedicated sanctuary,” Sorensen wrote.
The pastor said some of those pledging shared with him that this was a new step for them, and he has said that means more to him than a pledge total.
“Boundless has not been about the bottom line; it’s really about discipleship and faith,” Sorensen wrote. “It has been a blessing to see God stretch our faith and generosity, and to see Him do the miraculous.”
