Eau Claire (WQOW) - An Eau Claire church is ready to expand. Calvary Baptist Church broke ground last month on a new building on Epiphany Lane on Eau Claire's northwest side.
"We have seating capacity in there right now of about 290, and we're getting very close to filling that on some Sundays," said John van Gorkom, who is Calvary Baptist Church's pastor.
Calvary Baptist Church in Eau Claire is bursting at the seams.
"People sitting side by side in the chairs, packed into certain areas of the church. Down in the basement, in the lower auditorium, you're going to see every possible inch of that basement used," van Gorkom said.
Since 1952, their congregation has been growing, so they are running out of room. Now, they are building a new $2 million and making it ADA compliant.
"We don't have any handicapped accessibility. This building will meet that. Handicapped people will have no problems getting in and out of our building," said van Gorkom
It took 12 years of planning and fundraising, but now, they're ready to build.
"Our new sanctuary is going to seat close to 700, so we'll more than double our seating capacity," adds van Gorkom.
When they move into that new facility, hopefully by April or May of next year, they will also have enough room for a growing congregation.
"We have a huge children's and youth ministry in our church. And our current facility is totally packed, with no space left. This new building will totally expand all of that so that we have room for several hundred kids if we ever wanted to grow to that," van Gorkom said.
For the time being, the Calvary Baptist Church splits time in their facility with the Chippewa Valley Church. When the Calvary Baptist Church moves on, the Chippewa Valley Church will take over the current building.
