From Staff Reports
The congregation of Celebration Community Church formally dedicated the church’s new community center on Sunday morning, Oct. 1, after their weekly worship service.
The Rev. Carol A. West Community Center, located just north of the church’s historic sanctuary at 908 Pennsylvania Ave. in Fort Worth, is intended to serve the entire LGBT community in Tarrant County, church officials said.
The new building is part of a master plan to double the amount of meeting space available in the church’s fellowship hall. And the church’s board of directors voted to name the new facility in honor of the Rev. West, who recently celebrated her 19th anniversary as the church’s pastor.
“Quite often, the Rev. West speaks to us about stepping out on groundless ground,” explained Building Committee Chairman Ron Hill. “As a congregation, we kept that message in the front of our minds as we stepped out in faith to build a church facility that accommodates not only our growing congregation but the increasing number of community groups that rely on Celebration for meeting and event space.”
Celebration Community Church owns most of a city block, just south of downtown Fort Worth, in the Medical District. The new community center stretches northward from the already-existing fellowshop hall and will eventually be linked to the sanctuary via a landscaped and covered walkway, church officials said.
The new community center encompasses 5,300 square feet of space and will accommodate up to 300 people at once. It was designed in an open concept, with a unique “cloud” ceiling, large custom sliding bard doors and a separate entrance for catering staff.
The project cost $1.3 million. The architect was Tom Guerin of Jepsen/Guerin Architects in Dallas, and Nan Faith Arnold of Nan Faith Arnold Co. in Dallas was the project manager.
Church officials called the new center “ideal for wedding receptions, business meetings and many other types of events.”
Celebration Community Church is the largest church in Tarrant County with a primary outreach to the LGBT community. It is a non-denominational Christian congregation, with more than 400 members who come from more than 50 religious faith traditions.
For information, visit Celebration-Community-Church.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 6, 2017.