Cape Christian breaks ground for new fellowship center
$1.1 million expansion to better serve the community has been long in the works
Cape Christian has begun work on its long-awaited, new fellowship center.
The expansion, celebrated with a groundbreaking Sunday, will allow the church to serve more people and provide more programs.
Founding pastor Dennis Gingerich provided some history.
“As the founding pastor, I’ve been privileged to celebrate the church,” Gingerich said. “We launched at Pelican Elementary School on that Easter Sunday, and 97 people showed up.”
Since then, the church has grown to hundreds of families who visit and attend services.
“We began the purchase of these three city blocks, assembling properties of 48 different homeowners,” Gingerich said. ” We started the idea in 1994 of making our campus a place where the entire community could enjoy it.”
Its history involves many moving parts, getting the $1.1 million to build the church and all of the efforts it took to grow within the community it serves.
Lead Pastor Cory Demmel led the majority of the ceremony and expressed appreciation to the community.
“We’re here, and many of our city leaders are here because we’re not just trying to build something for Cape Christian,” Demmel said. “We’re not just trying to get more people to a church service, but we believe, we believe 100% in this community.”
Cape Christian was founded in 1987 by Dennis and Linda Gingerich. The church has grown, adding a kids’ splash pad, basketball court, and various other features for the community to its campus.
With this new addition, many looking to join the church will be able to have proper room to enjoy the services.
Churches by Daniels is working with Cape Christian to build the new center.
“We didn’t want somebody that was just going to put up some steel and brick, but somebody we felt had our heart and our vision just to have a building but be a blessing to a community,” Demmel said.
Alaina Butler, marketing director for Churches By Daniels, talked about the community and how they plan to work hand in hand with Cape Christian.
“Similarly, we also kind of started in the God-sized vision; our founder, Charlie Daniels, was the son of a preacher throughout the church, and then spent some years in commercial contracting, until God got a hold of his heart to send him to Bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” Butler said.
Churches by Daniels’ similarity in drive with Cape Christian inspired the two to work together to build this new center, and they are excited to be a part of the project.
“I’m going to say now to you, let’s rise up and build it,” Butler said.
The service ended with a ceremonial dig to start the long process of creating this new building. Pastor Demmel had the chance to create the first hole.
For more information on the church visit, capechristian.com.