By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
In 2016, a strategic assessment of New Work Fellowship identified — and removed — roadblocks to growth in its facilities. Today, as a result, the church enjoys the modern curb appeal it wanted, plus twice the room for worship and fellowship.
And it all happened without missing a single Sunday service. New Work even got a few “bonus buildings” in the end.
Pretty soon, all that growth the church made room for, happened… in a big way.
Now everyone is back at the table to map out Phase 2. This time, the church will reimagine its children’s ministry spaces, add plenty of multipurpose-style “room to maneuver,” incorporate outdoor gathering areas for the first time, and — critically — lay a firm foundation for Phase 3. (Because it’s coming, and fast)
How is Lead Pastor Kevin Lee managing it all? With the help of a good friend, who also happens to be his building partner.
BEFORE
As a church planter in Colorado, Kevin Lee was a great fit for the lead pastor role at New Work Fellowship in Hopkinsville, Ky. The church met in a few places around town after it was launched in 1997, before landing in its current location.
When Lee came on board in 2007, it was probably hard to imagine this young church would someday need a plan to develop all 33 acres of its land just to keep up with growth. But fast-forward to current day, and here Lee is: New Work is finished with Phase 1 — a major expansion / remodel of the facility — and on the verge of Phase 2, with Phase 3 likely in just a few years’ time.
Fortunately, it’s all part of a plan — specifically, a comprehensive master plan created by The Goff Companies.
AFTER
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, FIRST
“Back in 2015, when I first connected with Goff, we already knew there were a number of ‘pinch points’ that were prohibiting growth,” Lee recalls. “We needed more space for worship. For small groups. For our kids. There wasn’t enough parking. Our commons area was woefully too small.”
Lee wanted to tackle these challenges in a way that was “measured and reasonable, step by step.” A ministry colleague — the CEO of a church consultancy / research firm — connected him with Billy Goff, founder and CEO of The Goff Companies.
It was a pivotal, powerful introduction.
More than 30 years ago, Billy Goff devoted his career to helping churches build well — to guide congregations through the complexities of commercial construction. True to forum, his company has delivered more than $750 million in successful church projects to date.
For Lee, Goff’s commitment was clear and comforting: “Hearing Billy talk about his personal faith was key.”
He also credits much of New Work’s overall building project success to Goff and his team asking the right questions up front. “I knew he wouldn’t spend a lot of time designing and drawing something that would be way out of our scope of possibility,” Lee explains. “Because honestly, how many churches have closets full of architectural drawings that never get built because those plans don’t even meet their ministry needs anymore when the time comes?”
New Work was intent on avoiding that mistake. So was Goff.
The first step was implementing a proprietary planning process written exclusively for churches, Strategic Assessment for Facility Expansion (SAFE), which identifies barriers to continued growth on an existing campus.
“It started with them asking things like, ‘How do you do ministry?’ and ‘Where do you want to do ministry?’” Lee recalls. “Then, they looked at all of that intention, alongside our fiscal capabilities and limitations, to determine the steps toward growth.”
In other words, they removed the barriers and got to work.
GOING BEYOND NUTS-AND-BOLTS
A church builder might not typically be expected to get involved with project funding — but that’s exactly what the Goff team did for New Work Fellowship leading up to Phase 2. Introducing Lead Pastor Kevin Lee to Brad Leeper, founder and principal of Ministry Essentials, laid the foundation for results that exceeded anything the church had ever experienced.
“Seven years ago, leading into Phase 1, we raised $1.6 million in commitments over three years. That was the last time we did a campaign,” Lee says. “This time we raised $4.5 million. We were presenting the church with a goal of $5 million, but I didn’t have a clue where we would come out. We’re rejoicing over it.”
More than $1 million in pledges has already been received. As Lee points out, this puts New Work in a great place of leverage as leaders prepare to secure a loan for the rest of the project cost.
Here again, the Goff team came alongside New Work in an unexpected way: by writing a Loan Request Package for the church to use in soliciting lending offers. This resulted in several options and favorable financing terms — all without adding to Pastor Lee’s plate.
“I was involved in that process as much as I wanted to be; it was very valuable to see how it operated,” Lee says. “But really, I pointed the Goff team to the right people in the church to get the financial information they needed, and they put it all together for us.”
A PUNCH LIST OF PRIORITIES EMERGES
The Goff Companies team created a phased master plan to develop the entire property. Overcoming the limitations identified in the SAFE process came down to a handful of critical steps.
First, with four services being held on Sunday, New Work needed more capacity in the worship center. So, seating was expanded from 385 seats to 630.
A larger Commons area was also in order to promote connection and facilitate people-flow.
More paved parking was essential, too; 150 new spaces were added.
The existing floor plan had to be reconfigured to allow for a larger, more secure area for children’s ministry. Accordingly, kids’ spaces now have a single point of entry. “Before, we had about six different ways to get into the children’s area, which created real problems,” Lee recalls. “Now we have a check-in area. We have a security team. Nobody gets in unless they have their security tag.”
Another thorn in the church’s side, design-wise, was lack of curb appeal. True, its tilt-wall concrete construction left a lot to be desired.
“I don’t know that anybody in the community ever said we looked like ‘the Alamo in Kentucky,’ but that was how we described it internally,” Lee says, laughing. “It wasn’t bad, just … flat-looking.”
Now, a front façade with lots of glass — and the kids’ ministry entrance positioned front-and-center — provides a much better initial experience. “Anybody who comes in the building immediately sees the high priority we place on kids’ ministry, so we’re able to reach a lot of families,” Lee points out. “To me, it looks like a thoroughly modern facility now. It’s a fresh look, open and inviting.”
In fact, Lee says, no other church in town looks like it — and that’s a good thing.
“It speaks to the philosophy of New Work,” he says. “We don’t necessarily want to look like a church, because we’re trying to reach people who didn’t grow up in church.”
With Phase 1 construction coming in under budget, New Work was even able to add two portable buildings for its youth ministry.
While these spaces couldn’t be added under one roof in the main building, their separate-and-apart nature actually works better for New Work’s purposes.
“Every church struggles to accommodate their kids’ transition from elementary school to junior high and then to high school,” Lee points out. “In the middle school and high school spaces, we know they all want to be together. At those ages, either everybody is there or nobody is there. They like to be in a pack.”
THROUGH IT ALL, NO MISSED SUNDAYS
Amazingly, New Work continued to worship in its facility throughout construction. Looking back, Lee says social media played a big part in creating this continuity.
“Construction is messy, with lots of dust everywhere, but we communicated constantly,” he explains. “We were always sending out updates, letting people know which doors they could enter through, mapping out the traffic flow. And when work was happening on the kids’ area, we kicked out all the adults and moved the kids’ classrooms over to that wing of the church.”
A POST-PANDEMIC “GROW-UP”
After Phase 1 wrapped up in 2019, attendance grew even faster than before. After a pause during and immediately after the Global Pandemic in 2020 and 2021, it began to explode again.
“We hoped that we’d be able to go from four services back to two when Phase 1 was finished, but we never did — we went to three,” Lee recalls. “It’s a good problem to have. Still, we were getting to some of those pinch points again.”
And how: while pre-COVID attendance averaged 900, it dropped to half that amount during the pandemic. By 2022, attendance was back up to pre-pandemic levels. By 2023, it reached 1,000 for the first time. At that point, Lee traveled to Dallas to reconnect with the Goff Companies team.
“We had — and still have — a great relationship with them, so I’d mostly been able to just communicate, update, and share what was going on along the way,” Lee says. “But that meeting was when we actually said, OK, let’s begin looking at the next steps.”
Goff got to work on Phase 2, partnering with Andrew Oxley, AIA LEED AP, founding principal of Fort Worth, Texas-based OXLEY Architects. Design documents will be completed this fall, with construction expected to begin soon after.
This time, the plans include a new children’s ministry entrance with dedicated children’s commons area, as well as multi-purpose “flex space” that will serve as overflow for the worship center.
“Right now, a bottleneck occurs near the children’s area, where almost everyone comes into the building,” Lee says. “It’s great because there’s a very clear, identifiable entrance, even if it’s your first time there. But when Phase 2 is finished, people will be able to enter the building from a second alternative entrance at the back of the building.”
A new, alternative worship venue will have a different feel than the main sanctuary — more like a bistro or coffee house. “For some folks, that’ll be their first choice,” Lee says. “But if we can get another 200, 250 people in a space like that, then the other service can continue to grow as well.
“One of the challenges we have is the tilt-wall construction of our sanctuary; every wall is basically concrete,” he adds. “We can’t expand wider or deeper because that’s the parameter, period.”
A new student building is also planned and will be connected to the main building by outdoor gathering areas and covered walkways.
While the coffee house-style multipurpose flex space mentioned above will accommodate worship center overflow for the time being, Phase 2 plans do allow for a larger sanctuary — and youth building, too — in the future. “Eventually, as the church continues to grow, we’ll need a larger sanctuary, maybe a 1,000-seat auditorium” Lee explains. “At that point, the existing worship center could be converted into whatever else the church needs.
“That’s still a few years down the road and will likely be the last build on this property,” he adds. “We have 33 acres, and we’re rapidly approaching the reality — for the first time — that we’ve reached capacity.”
Until then, Lee anticipates New Work will be a church of 2,000 with the completion of Phase 2. He also expects the kids’ ministry to grow to 500 and the student ministry — already maxed out at 70 per week — to fill up the new 9,000-square-foot building in the plans for Phase 2, welcoming upwards of 250 young people.
Of course, more parking will also be needed: another 150 spaces on top of the 300-plus already in place.
“And honestly? We could have used that two years ago,” Lee points out.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Clearly, New Work isn’t done growing; certainly, Phase 3 is imminent. But Lee continues to take it in stride.
“One thing that helps us is that we measure everything. We count everything. That lets us see where we’re going,” he explains. “When I look at this world, it’s very clear that things grow naturally when there are no barriers. In the Church, if we can eradicate the barriers that artificially keep us small, we’ll grow.”
And as New Work continues its growth, Lee and his team will be in good company.
“One of the things I value most about Goff Companies is the personal relationship that Billy and I now have,” he says. “He has a clear calling on his life and great insight into how churches operate.”
