By Chris Wilson

The First Baptist Church of Gainesville members put on their walking shoes and took to the woods of Jonesville to break ground on the congregation’s new property at the end of February. The church is relocating from its current home downtown at 425 W. University Ave. to 23.8 acres located at the intersection of C.R. 241 and NW 39th Ave. Church officials expect the new facility to be ready in about 15 months.

About 100 church members gathered at the site for the groundbreaking ceremony on February 24. The membership prayed, sang and even mixed soil that had been taken from the church’s current home to mix with the soil at the new location.

The building will be done in two phases. The first phase, which already is underway, is the site preparation, which is expected to take two to three months. “There is a little more site work that needs to be done than there normally would be, just because of the property,” says the church’s trustee chair J. Phillip Weidler.

The site currently is loaded with trees, leaves and thick vegetation. According to Weidler, less than 50 percent of the trees will be removed from the property. “Plus, we’re already planning to plant more trees once the building is completed,”?he says. By our press time, work on clearing parts of the land already had begun.

The church’s plan is to preserve the area’s natural setting to provide ministry opportunities for generations.

The second phase will be the actual construction of the 170,000 square foot building, which will include a 400 seat sanctuary, classrooms, offices, a fellowship hall and another gathering hall.

Mike Stoebler, who is the head of the church’s building committee, says the new building will feature a better use of space for the congregation. “The old building is more than 80 years old,”?he explains.

The process of moving began in 2004, when an offer was made to purchase the existing First Baptist Church on W. University Ave. through a vote of its membership in May 2005, the church decided to pursue both the sale of the old church and find someplace suitable for the congregation’s relocation.

According to church officials, the University Ave.location was beginning to show its age and the county’s westside development and growth had contributed to the church’s declining membership.