SPOTLIGHT
what we’re doing with Texas Baptists is we can take a church from the planning stages all the way through moving into the building. We think that’s going to be a great advantage to our church families moving forward.” VisionBridge worked with Anderson Baptist Church to make a plan for a new building for worship that has more seats to continue expanding their church. It will include a large atrium with a fellowship area, and the activities building they currently meet in will
become a children’s ministry area. They paid special attention to ensuring that the building blended in with the existing campus and the historic rock chapel. The chapel now has a Spanishspeaking service that meets on Sunday mornings, led by Anderson’s Associate Pastor, Jose Maldonado. The point of the project is not to do away with ministry in the old buildings, Childress emphasized, but to create space for even more ministry to happen.
“It may be a slow process for us, but at least we have a vision and a future plan,” he said. Anderson Baptist Church’s mission is to be “real, relevant, and ready.” The goal is not to grow the congregation’s size of the church, he explained, it is the heart behind it that matters. Childress believes the plans to build a larger building will help them continue to be relevant and ready by making room for more people to continue worshiping at their church. “We’re not trying to be a big church at all, we’re trying to be a church where people love on each other and serve together and be real. Just people doing life together,” he said. To learn more about Church Architecture and how your church can benefit from its resources, go to txb.org/architecture.
FEBRUARY 2022 / TEX AS BAPTISTS LIFE
“Our goal is to protect our churches from overspending and wasting time on the front end and trying to get them the tools they need to make the right decisions.”
Now that the plans have been made, Anderson Baptist Church has begun raising the funds. Childress explained that it will not all happen at once and they will probably complete the building in stages, beginning with the parking lots, moving the playground and other first steps.
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