Prince Avenue Baptist Church is expected to complete construction on a new 97,000 square foot building off of US 78 on time and on budget.

Featuring a 1,400-seat sanctuary, a number of ministry-specific assembly rooms and an indoor half-court basketball court, the new facility is expected to be ready for its first service in January.

Building Committee Chairman David Carter expressed excitement over the ministries around which the building was planned.

“What we did in designing this building is we started looking at ministries inside and outside our denomination that were reaching communities and young families,”

explained Carter.

“We visited those churches to look at their ministries and buildings. It’s easy to design a building, but difficult to design a building for specific ministries.”

That process of designing the building around specific ministries involved far more than the Building Committee according to Carter.

“The first thing the committee did was go to the staff. We let the staff dream and tell us ‘I would like my ministry to go in this direction. Target this group.’ From that point, we went out and looked at ministries doing the same kinds of things.”

Among the ideas the staff contributed is a gathering area for teens that includes a refreshment area, coffee house, video games and the basketball court. Carter also explained that each area for high school age children and younger has limited access and exits creating self-contained units for security purposes.

“The building is designed for ministry and outreach to meet the needs of young growing families. It is designed to be a living building, able to add on and expand in different areas. This way, we can see where God takes different ministries and the building can expand. It is about ministry, not about a building.”

Carter said the project has yielded few unexpected challenges.

“Actually, it’s been a project bathed in prayer because the contractors keep saying this has gone too smooth,” he said. “There haven’t been any huge surprises, thus far anyway.”

Though it has been several years in the making (the Building Committee first met in late 2006), Carter described the final stages of the project as “bittersweet.”

“The team God brought together – the architects, the contractors, everyone – has been such a great team working towards the common goal,” Carter said. “They’ve become good friends and it will be like losing friends when they finish up and leave. It has been such a special relationship.”

Mike Sprayberry is a reporter for The Oconee Leader. He can be reached at 706-310-1104 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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