Church moves downtown for good reasons

When driving by the former Hinky Dinky and Buy 'n Save building on West B, many people are surprised to see that the spacious structure is being turned into a church.

"Why," the passers-by wonder, "would they put a church there?" The questions quickly turn to understanding, however, when the pastor and members of the McCook Christian Church explain why they chose the block-long site fronting the busiest street in McCook.

The congregation's reasons are dramatic: "Triple the space at half the cost."

Expanding on the statement, Pastor Clark Bates says: "The former super market building contains 25,000 square feet, which is three times more than we have in our present church building at 329 North Cherokee Road. And, cost-wise, we discovered we could buy and fix up the big building on B Street for one-half to two-thirds the cost of building an all-new church."

Now, those kind of numbers get your attention. In large part, the savings are possible because members of the church are doing much of the work themselves. "There have already been well over a 1,000 hours of volunteer labor contributed by the congregation, and there will be many more hours before the work is done," Pastor Bates said.

Because of increasing church attendance, the McCook Christian congregation started realizing seven to eight years ago that it needed a larger church building. In its quest, the church purchased a 5.9-acre site facing U.S. Highway 83. That prime location -- situated north of Four County Feed -- is now available for sale as McCook Christian moves forward with the B Street building project.

Following plans drawn by W Design Associates of McCook, the volunteers will join local craftsmen in getting the big building ready for use. When completed, the church will have 14 rooms for Sunday School classes, youth activities and fellowship functions. The abundant meeting space is a bonus, above and beyond the church's large new sanctuary, which will have seating for 419 persons.

All in all, the church project has been quite an undertaking ... with plenty of twists and turns along the way. But, to Pastor Bates, the important thing is how the congregation worked together to get the project to this point. "Not everyone agreed, but there was a commitment to unity which carried us through. Our goal throughout has been to get the project done in a way that brings glory to God. We will strive to continue that commitment throughout construction and into the future."

Keep watching. If all goes as planned, the McCook Christian congregation will move into their new church home by some time in August, and, in the process, will be getting triple the space at half the cost of new construction.