Examining engaging design at Pleasant Valley Community Church in Owensboro, Ky.
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
When Pleasant Valley Community Church Executive Pastor Jay Mills began looking for a partner to help expand and accommodate rapid growth, he already knew who he wanted to call.
Lead Pastor
Mills had known Rodney James, founder and president of Master’s Plan Church Design & Construction, since the 2014 National Association of Church Business Administration (now The Church Network) annual conference. James was speaking about a biblically based approach to church construction. Mills — then a longtime college football coach transitioning into church leadership — was intrigued.
“He’s an excellent communicator — obviously a former pastor,” Mills recalls. “I didn’t know him, but the way that he was able to intertwine scripture, building, and construction principles was unique, to me.”
That first conversation launched a long-standing friendship based on a shared commitment to ministry. As the friendship became a working relationship, accommodating this ministry with thoughtful design emerged as a tenet.
Executive Pastor
Designing for connection
When Mills joined Pleasant Valley in 2021, the church was growing rapidly. Children were being turned away because there wasn’t enough space. Three Sunday services were necessary but unsustainable in the long term — even with them, the auditorium was crowded, and virtually every nook and cranny of the existing facility was being used.
Plain and simple, Pleasant Valley needed more space for worship, children, students and gathering.
But adding square footage wasn’t enough: the church needed a facility that could support the way its people actually experienced ministry. This meant thinking carefully about how the building could encourage connection, fellowship and participation.
Enlisting Rodney James for guidance, the resulting project at PVCC was completed in two primary phases. First, a new worship center and gathering spaces were created while transforming existing space for preschool and elementary ministry. Phase 1 was finished in January 2025; the second was completed by Easter.
Even better, the project finished four months ahead of schedule and $650,000 under budget.
All good things. But for Mills’ part, the most meaningful measure of success isn’t found in these figures. It’s evident, he says, in what happens when people walk through the church’s doors.
Building for belonging
Rodney James describes the design philosophy behind Pleasant Valley’s building projects in three words: intimacy by design.
Mills agrees: “I think you can have separation and operational efficiency, yet — at the same time — build fellowship opportunities,” he says, offering a few example of how this looks in practice at PVCC.
For one thing, a second check-in space was added in the elementary and preschool areas, but they share a lobby.
“It’s the ‘place in between’ where different ages, different demographics are congregating,” he points out. “It’s not like a line at Disneyland where you only see who’s directly in front of you, and maybe also who’s behind you.”
The old building had two lobbies –– one in the front of the church and the other in the back. “This made it logistically impossible for Jamus to be accessible to everyone who wanted to speak with him after services,” Mills says. “His vision for the new building was to create one centralized space where people could talk with him, along with a room where people could meet with a counselor to talk and pray. For first-time guests, there is also a Connection Wall where they can learn more about the church and discover ways to get connected.
“Additionally, there is a gathering area with a café and lounge.
“People have responded very favorably to this intentional hospitality and to the multiple touchpoints we are now able to offer.”
Where faith, leadership and growth meet
Indeed, Jamus Edwards’ history at Pleasant Valley is inextricable from the church’s amazing and sustained growth.
Twenty years ago, PVCC was down to approximately 25 people. Five families were preparing to close the church when they gathered to pray and became convinced the answer was, essentially, not yet.
Jamus Edwards, fresh out of seminary, stepped into leadership. Together, the five families pooled their personal assets as collateral and bought a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant which they transformed into a church.
“They really stepped out by faith,” Mills explains. “And then the Lord just took it from there.”
And how.
From those humble beginnings, Pleasant Valley has grown to about 1,100 people on a typical Sunday. Its two most recent Easter services represented the highest attendance in the church’s history, and the congregation has continued to set Sunday attendance records.
Again, Mills credits much of that growth to Jamus Edwards’ leadership.
“He’s a phenomenal pastor and wonderful individual — probably the humblest leader I’ve ever been around, secular or faith-based,” he says. “It’s his leadership, his willingness to tackle any subject from the pulpit. His vulnerability and transparency about his own struggles humanize him.”
This culture of authenticity was a driving force in Pleasant Valley’s building projects. In form and function, the facilities express the ministry happening there rather than defining it.
One of the clearest examples can be found in the design of the children’s ministry area.
Pleasant Valley needed to expand its children’s capacity, eventually doubling its size. The former children’s space became preschool space, while much of the old auditorium was transformed into elementary education space, with additional classrooms added.
For this endeavor, Mills says he relied heavily on Rodney James’ unique building expertise — and more importantly, his heart for ministry.
“I was new to this whole thing. I was a college football coach for 30 years. I didn’t even know what questions to ask, really,” Mills recalls. “But I could ask [James] anything about the design, about the ratios of adults-to-children needed for classrooms or what have you.
“His is a for-profit enterprise, but it’s never about profit,” Mills adds. “I’ve seen it reflected in the way that he runs Master’s Plan. The head of the Master’s Plan is Christ, just like Christ is the head of the church.”
Build for the ministry you have — and the one you’re becoming
Pleasant Valley’s construction projects also demonstrate why a church’s building plan should be viewed as a strategic framework rather than a rigid endpoint. While the original plans addressed the church’s most pressing needs, new ministry opportunities continue to gain traction.
For instance, the church has since created a special-needs ministry, including a sensory room and indoor play area.
It has added classrooms and converted a multipurpose room into office space.
Another forward-looking opportunity was the reimagining an adjacent automotive garage. Practically, its acquisition created 38 additional, much-needed parking spots. But the potential ministry payoff was an even bigger incentive.
“That space came to us like a godsend: we gave the owners property across the street, and they built a new automotive facility on it,” Mills says. “We painted the garage, polished the floor and flipped it into the student ministry.”
At 4,000 square feet, this facility now features a rec area and a worship space.
The church also plans to consolidate its offices and eventually repurpose an existing house currently used as administrative space. The long-term vision is to turn that house back into a residence that could accommodate missionaries on furlough, provide transitional housing for a new employee, or potentially serve women escaping abusive situations.
“This is all Jamus’s vision, but Rodney’s master plans are phenomenal,” Mills points out. “We don’t do a thing without going to him first.”
Stewardship: part of engaging design
Pleasant Valley ultimately finished construction four months ahead of schedule and $650,000 under budget. Mills says he understands why.
“Pastors in general are pretty trustworthy people, honest people,” he says. “If you get somebody unscrupulous — or just inexperienced with building churches specifically — pastors are going to take them at their word.”
When a project goes over budget, however, the contractor isn’t the one explaining the situation to the congregation. The pastor is.
The result is friction.
“Here again, with Master’s Plan, our leadership has a sense of a peace,” Mills says. “Here’s a guy who’s been the pastor of a church that’s done construction. And he’s about ministry first and the dollar second. You feel like you have a partner rather than an adversary.”
