The members of Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church will finish a long prayed-for dream Sunday, holding a grand opening of their new church in Holts Summit - a church built through giving and, in large part, by their own hands.
Service will start at 11 a.m., and the grand opening will include a meal catered by Mid-America Bank, live music by "The Harris Brothers," and special recognition to everyone who helped in the construction.
The new church has long been in the works, Pastor Nolan Wynn said.
The property, which is 12.1 acres, was bought in 2009 and construction began in April 2017. The original building was built in 1884 and was starting to get tight on space, Wynn added, so the new church already is being put to use.
"We've seen an influx of visitors since we moved over here, definitely," Youth Pastor John Burcham said. "The church has been out knocking on doors and inviting people to church effectively for the past year and a half or so, and we just outgrew the other building and we finished this one so we could move in."
Wynn said members of Pleasant Ridge have been going to a rock on the new property for more than 20 years to pray the land could become the site for a new church. Then members made it possible by donating, he added.
"There have been members who have been sacrificially giving for the past (10 or more) years in praying that God would allow us to build the building," Wynn said.
Much of the work to build the church was done through the members' own labor. Using "sweat equity," Wynn said, Pleasant Ridge members poured concrete, installed flooring, put up walls, painted and more.
"Everybody in the church has gone above and beyond," Wynn said. "They took the 'second-mile Christianity' to the next level."
Multiple contractors were used as well, he added, with the bulk of the contractor work done by Tim Clink.
The new building is 21,000 square feet and includes a larger fellowship hall, seven Sunday school classrooms, a children's church, a nursery, and an auditorium that potentially seats more than 400, Burcham said.
Construction was interrupted late last year after the theft of tools and materials at the site, but Wynn said the work continued and the church continues to pray for the man charged in the crime.
"I'll say this about our congregation - they're the most loving and the most welcoming people I've ever seen in ministry," Wynn said.