Vibrant Church has launched a $17 million initiative that includes projects from an expanded worship center to founding a ministerial college.
The projects are part of what church lead pastor Jason Delgado introduced as the “Greater” initiative. The initiative focuses on three areas: the church, the community and expanded global outreach.
The Greater initiative’s most notable project is a plan to expand the church — which is located on Holly Hills Road in Columbus — to accommodate the rapid growth its experienced in recent years.
Pastor David Stephens said the church has grown to more than 2,000 members — well beyond the current facility’s roughly 650-person capacity.
“The broad view is that we want to do greater things for our church,” Stephens said. “Part of that is that we’ve run into huge amounts of congestion. We’re averaging over 2,000 people every weekend and this facility was not created to hold that many people. We’ve been doing three services. Of course we want to expand our auditorium — we already have plans and already have architects.”
Vibrant Church’s plans call for a new 1,500 seat auditorium. The new facility will also include gathering spaces, expanded early childhood areas, additional parking, a cafe and a bookstore.
Stephens said the facility will cost approximately $10.5 million. The church hopes to have the facility completed by Easter 2017, according to an informational pamphlet.
The church is also planning to establish Vibrant College, a two-year ministerial school, through a partnership with Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Stephens said the school will be fully accredited.
“That’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s one of those things where people will be able to come here and get a two year degree. They can also intern here at the church to learn about ministry and learn about the church.”
The Greater initiative includes a range of other projects, such as starting satellite campuses to make attending easier for church-goers who come from afar.
“We have a great number of people coming from Starkville and even Tupelo to our church,” Stephens said. “We thought if there’s people coming that far, maybe we should start planting some campuses in other areas. ”
Stephens said the church also plans to launch Vibrant Cares, a faith-based counseling service, within the next year.
Beyond that, the church wants to grow its staff to keep up with the demands of its growing ministries. The initiative further seeks to see the church more involved in church planting across the country, and to launch the “GoGlobal” imitative with the ultimate goal of sending missions around the world.
Stephens said the church’s end goal for global outreach is to be able to send at least one mission abroad every month of the year. However, he said that, like other aspects of the Greater initiative, will take time.
Stephens said the church is encouraging members to determine for themselves how much they can increase giving overall. He said Vibrant Church is not asking members to donate to a specific fund separate from normal giving.
“We’re a debt-free church, and we want to remain that way,” he said. “We feel like God honors a church that doesn’t owe anyone money. Whatever we do for this initiative, we want to be able to pay that off rather quickly.
“Part of what we’re doing with this Greater initiative is asking people seek what they want to do,” he added. “We’re open to other people who want to contribute to this church, but we feel like we need to make a sacrifice.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.