Umatilla Baptist To Break Ground Sunday On $14 Million Expansion

    Decades after it was first conceived, and years in current planning, Sunday will usher in the formal groundbreaking of a new, 45,000 square foot sanctuary at the First Baptist Church of Umatilla. A formal ceremony will be held this coming Sunday evening, October 16, on the east side of the church campus, located at 550 Hatfield Drive in Umatilla. The $13.5 million project will feature a 1,270 seat sanctuary and other amenities.
    “God is sovereign in his timing,” said Brooks Braswell, lead pastor at the church on Monday. “This has been over 20 years in the making.”
    The sanctuary, at least the concept, was part of the church’s original development plan, and was first conceived when the congregation was still located at its former home on Orange Lane.
    In 2002, the church moved into its current sanctuary, the first building at its current location. In 2013, the doors opened at the next large project, the current events center and home to the Sonshine School preschool. It wasn’t many years before planning for the new sanctuary began. Members have contributed an estimated $7 million to the project so far.
    Braswell said site work could begin in the coming days, with heavy equipment moving in next month, as long as final permitting and other pre-construction items are checked off.
    As for this coming Sunday, a short program is expected to begin around 5:30 p.m. at the site of the new building, just east of the preschool’s playground. The corners of the new building will be marked off, and the ceremony will take place near the location of the church’s new alter.
    “We’ll have a time of prayer,” Braswell said of the ceremony. “There will be a very brief challenge from me as to where we go from here, and then we’ll turn some dirt.”
    Afterward, attendees will be invited into the events center for a time of food and fellowship.
    Once started, the project is expected to take 12-15 months to complete. Immediately after that, the events center will undergo a renovation that will add nine classrooms to that facility.
    “We’ve raised a lot of money, and there is a need,” Braswell said of the church’s growth, which has seen over 100 people baptized this year alone. The church currently hosts three services each Sunday, welcoming well over 1,000 people to the property.
    “This is it. It’s happening,” Braswell said of the excitement of seeing years of planning finally becoming a reality. It’s a reality that has been decades in the planning, and praying, for.