Bible Baptist Church and Pastor Kelly McInerney celebrated the church’s anniversary May 22 with a dedication service to officially begin using their new worship auditorium. Construction began on the nearly $4 million project in June 2010, and the first services were held in the new church on Palm Sunday of this year.
The 35,000-square-foot facility features a 1,200-seat worship auditorium, 10 new classrooms, a fellowship kitchen, new restrooms, and almost 5,000 square feet of gathering/foyer space. The project was the third and final phase of the church’s master plan, which began with a multi-purpose building in 2001. Now completed, Bible Baptist Church has over 70,000 square feet under roof on their 32-acre campus, and Pastor McInerney reports new visitors and prospect families have come every Sunday since they opened.
On dedication day, the church invited the major contractors to the service to receive awards from the church for their participation. Dugan and Myers of Cincinnati and Sunrush Builders of Chillicothe were the general contractors. Also that day, gospel artists, The Hoppers, were special musical guests. Attendance for the day was well over 1,000, with more than 900 back for the evening concert.
The new auditorium is allowing the church to conduct one morning service now, after more than 13 years of multiple services. When necessary, plans are in place to utilize the gym for overflow/satellite services, and McInerney says the church may return to multiple services when growth warrants it.
The outlook was not always so rosy. Wilmington and Clinton County, where the church is located, were hit hard in 2008 with the loss of almost 8,000 jobs, giving the region the highest unemployment numbers in the state, 19 percent, for a time. The church building was put on hold for over a year while the economic factors were carefully studied. However, in March 2010, the congregation voted to go forward by faith to meet the needs of the growing church and to show the community that God’s work never lacks God’s supply. Bible Baptist Church became the largest construction project underway in a multi-county area, bringing jobs, a boost to the local businesses, and a testimony that God is able, even in difficult times, McInerney says.
McInerney started Bible Baptist Church in January 1995 with six other people as a mission of Hillsboro Bible Baptist Church where Dan Lamb is the pastor. Today, Bible Baptist is one of the largest independent Baptist churches in southern Ohio, a great missionary-supporting church, and a training ground for church planters.
In the meantime, Bible Baptist has also started four other churches in Ohio since 2000 in Springfield (2000), Chillicothe (2003), Marysville (2007), and Greenville (2010). Gospel Baptist Church of Greenville held their charter service Sunday, June 26. Bible Baptist’s website is www.bbcwilmington.org.