By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
With decades of sustained growth, leaders at Faith Fellowship were looking to add space and connect their existing facilities. And they did — under budget.
Since 1999, Faith Fellowship in Wirtz, Va., has enjoyed consistent growth. How church leaders accommodated the expanding church family took varying forms.
Over decades, it became clear that the campus needed a sense of greater permanence. It needed cohesion between its numerous structures … and it got it.
Here’s how a 27,000-square-foot expansion was seamlessly integrated with the existing spaces — and was delivered under budget despite COVID price hikes and supply chain delays.
For leaders at Faith Fellowship, the need for more space has been an ongoing blessing (and challenge) all the way back to the late ‘90s. Situated off a four-lane highway, the church was highly visible and steadily growing. So, when the opportunity presented itself, leaders seized on the chance to purchase 12 additional acres of adjacent land from an oil company. As a result, it owned 20 acres: more than enough room to maneuver.
On this land, the church erected a few prefabricated, tensioned-membrane structures to house its sanctuary, classrooms and offices. These structures served their purpose well but were never intended to be a “forever” solution.
Plus, the need for more space was ever-present.
Fast-forward 10 years, and Faith Fellowship builds a family life center in a commercial-style steel building. Here, youth and children meet for fellowship. The building features a moveable soundproof wall which enables it to also function as a fellowship hall.
Then, in 2016 — driven by more than a decade of continued growth at that point — Pastor Gary Hoffman and his team launched a major building campaign to begin funding yet another expansion: a 27,000-square-foot sanctuary to accommodate Faith Fellowship’s growing community and blend flawlessly with its existing structures.
But first things first: the land needed to be prepped. To make that happen, Hoffman and his team faced some obstacles.
A (lovely) challenge — and opportunity
Situated at the edge of the mountains, Faith Fellowship’s vast acreage is beautiful. However, portions of the site are sloped, creating water runoff issues. Consequently, the new sanctuary would need to be built over a retention pond on the property.
Not only that, but an eagle — an endangered, protected bird — had made its home on the church’s land.
To help navigate these challenges, Pastor Hoffman began by looking within the congregation for recommendations, initially for architects.
“But most of them don’t build churches, normally,” he explains. “That’s when somebody put me in touch with Charlie [Daniels, president and CEO of nationwide design-builder Churches by Daniels], and that’s all they build. I was really intrigued by that.”
Hoffman also liked that, as a design-build firm, they had an in-house architect.
Three companies bid for the job. Eventually, Churches by Daniels won out by a large margin based on the firm’s familiarity with and heart for churches.
“They knew what I wanted; they understand pastors,” Hoffman says. “It was just really a blessing for me.”
Daniels and his team got right to work. With a commitment to staying within Faith Fellowship’s budget, they moved fill dirt from the back of the property to provide a foundation for the new sanctuary. A new retention pond was created.
To tackle the “eagle issue,” the Daniels team also came alongside Faith Fellowship with the knowledge of how to protect the bird’s natural habitat. The solution was to work around the green space stamp requirements and yet ensure enough forestry remained on which it could continue to live.
“We still feel like a small church”
With a solid foundation in place, Daniels and his team got to work making the 27,000-square-foot sanctuary a reality.
The new facility provided a lobby, which the church didn’t previously have. It also created multipurpose space, new nurseries, and new offices. “Everything we need is now in-house in this building,” Hoffman says.
At its heart, the design of the sanctuary itself reflects the unique spirit and tone of Faith Fellowship’s worship experience. With a slightly sloped floor and risers in lieu of a balcony, churchgoers feel close to each other, literally and figuratively.
“They’re not so far away from each other, and I think it just makes us really feel tight,” Hoffman points out. “We still feel like a small church, somewhat, yet we have enough seats that we can accommodate several hundred.”
Overall, an important aim was to ensure this new facility blends in seamlessly with the tried-and-true steel building and two tensioned-membrane structures already on site. Preserving the tensioned-membrane structures, in particular, was important for Hoffman. Though they are now more than 20 years old, they remain viable through re-skinning. Now, Faith Fellowship uses them as wedding venues and to house co-op businesses.
Hits to take, calls to make
At this point, it might sound like the entire project at Faith Fellowship went off without a hitch. But there was one — a big one: COVID.
The pandemic struck just as Faith Fellowship broke ground on its new building. With heavy equipment in place and ready to go, Hoffman had a big decision to make. He called Charlie Daniels to talk about it.
“I asked, ‘Well, what are other pastors doing?’” Hoffman recalls. “He said, ‘Well, some are pumping the brakes, some are taking a little bit of break, and some are continuing on.’”
Hoffman prayed about it.
“I thought: Lord, You haven’t been surprised by this, and You haven’t said anything to me about it, so we’re going forward,” he recalls. “And we did.”
Not surprisingly, there were equipment and material delays. Air conditioning units. Pipes. The list goes on.
“But the cool thing was, we got everything at the original prices,” Hoffman points out. “As soon as we got our supplies, the prices of everything started to skyrocket.”
All along, and with a capital campaign still underway, Hoffman focused on good stewardship by practicing the payment: putting aside in a savings account the highest possible payment amount on the new building, every month.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT
FAITH FELLOWSHIP
Year established: 1979
Number of staff: 12
Combined weekly attendance: 1,000
“I was proving to myself — and the congregation — that we could afford it,” he explains. “Besides that, we were building a huge down payment as we went.”
Wrapping up in 2021, the project came in under budget.
“It’s pretty miraculous, really,” Hoffman says. “And I really appreciated that we were more than just numbers for our builder.”
In fact, Daniels and Hoffman remain close friends.
“There were times that Charlie would come into town, and we hardly even talked construction; we just talked the word and the Lord,” Hoffman says. “You just don’t hear about that. I really appreciated him taking that time.”
