Members of Celebration Community Church’s Capital Campaign Committee and Building Committee gather around a sign announcing The Rev. Carol A. West Community Center. The church held a steak cookout on Sunday, Aug. 19, to view the footprint for the planned expansion.
The congregation at Celebration Community Church celebrated the church’s upcoming expansion Sunday when details of the new community center were announced.
A capital campaign kicked off last year for the $1.3 million building and is expected to be complete by the end of 2013. Construction will take about a year.
More plans of the building were released Sunday. The building will serve as a meeting place for about 400 people and will be built north of the church with a covered walkway linking it to the current sanctuary. It will be named The Rev. Carol A. West Community Center in honor of West, who marked her 14th year at the church Sunday.
West said the name was announced again Sunday with the new expansion details after the church’s Board of Directors voted to name it for her after last year.
“I was very honored,” West told Instant Tea. “It was a very sweet surprise.”
West has seen the church grow from 35 members when she started more than a decade ago to the roughly 600 members now. She said the expansion will help the church, which is the largest Tarrant County church with a primary LGBT outreach, offer more groups and organizations to use the church as a meeting place.
“We’ve forged ahead in the community and this expansion is part of reaching out to the community,” she said.
Tom Guerin of Jepsen Guerin Architects in Dallas will be the architect on the project. Nan Faith Arnold of Nan Faith Arnold Co. in Dallas will serve as project manager.
To learn how you can support the capital campaign, call 817-335-3222.
Read the press release below.
CELEBRATION COMMUNITY CHURCH
STAKES OUT FOOTPRINT FOR MAJOR EXPANSIONFORT WORTH — The congregation of Celebration Community Church took another giant step toward realizing the dream of building a community center for the entire GLBT community in Tarrant County.
Church members met for a Stake Out/Steak Out event on Sunday to view the footprint for a $1.3 million expansion to the Fort Worth church’s campus. An outline of the building expansion was staked out to the north of the existing facility, and church members and guests enjoyed a steak cookout to celebrate the milestone.
The Rev. Carol A. West Community Center is part of a master plan that will triple the amount of meeting space available in the church’s Fellowship Hall, provide enhanced recreational facilities and community gardens and erect a columbarium where members of the church can be laid to rest.
A year ago, the church’s Board of Directors voted to name the new building in honor of Rev. Carol A. West, who celebrated her 14th anniversary at the church last Sunday.
“Quite often Rev. West speaks to us about stepping out on groundless ground,” said Ron Hill, chair of the Board of Directors and a co-chair of the Capital Campaign Committee. “It’s appropriate for us to remember that message as we step out in faith to build a church facility that will accommodate not only our growing congregation, but also the increasing number of GLBT community groups that rely on Celebration for meeting space.”
CCC owns most of a city block south of downtown Fort Worth in the Medical District. The new addition will expand northward from the historic sanctuary, built in 1950. A formal entry lobby on the northwest corner of the property will lead visitors to three large meeting rooms that, when combined, will accommodate 400 people. Additional restrooms, improved catering facilities and other gathering areas will be added. The new structure will be tied to the existing sanctuary via a covered walkway.
Tom Guerin of Jepsen/Guerin Architects in Dallas has been retained as architect. Nan Faith Arnold of Nan Faith Arnold Co. in Dallas has been retained as project manager.
A capital campaign to raise Phase I funds for the project is under way and is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. Construction will take up to a year to complete.
To learn how you can support the capital campaign, call 817-335-3222.
About Celebration Community Church:
CCC is the largest church in Tarrant County with a primary outreach to the GLBT community. It is a non-denominational Christian congregation of 500-plus members located in the heart of Fort Worth’s Medical District. The congregation’s backgrounds are varied and diverse, representing well over 50 religious faith traditions. To learn more, visit www.celebration-community-church.com.
