NORMAN — It’s only taken 70 years, but Immanuel Baptist Church is getting a new home.
The church broke ground Sunday on their new facility at 1289 Northcliff Ave.
Pastor Ken Huddleston said the process of building a new church has taken almost nine years.
Huddleston said the church, currently located at 715 E. Eufaula St., is at the same location it was when the church started 70 years ago.
“We did need more space; we are pretty well land locked. We are in a residential area and there are houses all around us and no more land,” Huddleston said.
The new church will sit on about 15.5 acres and provides the opportunity for expansion later, he said.
Work on the new church is being done by Wynn Construction.
Huddleston said they have already started working with the city to get all of the required permits.
The 9,000-square-foot facility will hold the same amount of people as the church’s current location, but will be laid out a lot differently, he said.
“When we first started looking at relocating, we had a Realtor help us. We found two or three spots and this one seemed to be the best,” Huddleston said.
“Our Realtor called and said, ‘If you want this piece of land you had better put a contract on it, because it’s going to have a contract on it very soon.’ We got together and decided that we were not ready to make a decision,” Huddleston said. “Then a couple months later, we were looking again and found out that contract fell through. We just feel like God was giving it to us.”
Huddleston said his congregation of 150 members expects to move into the new church sometime in late winter or early spring.
Shana Adkisson 366-6544 sadkisson@normantran-script.com
