Sunday, February 13, 2000
Sunday, February 13, 2000 |
The New Hope Baptist Church has come a long way since its inception in the 1880s. At that time it was housed in a small, white, country church building which it has preserved. In the 1930s, its quarterly budget for purchasing Sunday School materials was $12.50 — currently it's WAY up there in the thousands of dollars. Two years ago New Hope took the Starr's Mill Baptist Church (originally the Glen Grove Baptist Church) into its fold, purchased 62 acres across the road from Starr's Mill and is about to go into a $3 million facility. It has announced Sunday, March 26 as the official grand opening. The original Starr's Mill church sits on eight acres at the corner of Ga. highways 85 and 74, and will be used as a youth complex. The church has a membership of 5,000 and is in the process of expanding the facility on New Hope Road. Sitting on 94 acres, it has plenty of room for a number of projects. Currently, a $6 million expansion program is taking place and will provide a new dining room that can seat 750, as well as a youth cafe and meeting space. The dining room will have dividers available to create 12 classrooms each Sunday morning. Three hundred square feet of the expansion will be used for a new library and media center. Also included are a full gymnasium and weight room. New orchestra rehearsal space also is included in the expansion and a 24-hour prayer chapel. The church has a 30-member orchestra that plays on Sunday mornings. The former rehearsal space will be renovated into additional space for its pre-school. High at the top of its wish list is building a mission training center to house a short-term mission training facility. More than 200 lay people were put through the program last year, with graduates serving in various mission fields both in the United States as well as overseas. The average length of service considered to be short-term is anywhere from ten days to ten weeks. The graduates are all volunteers and pay a part of their plane fare and expenses. What's in the future? Perhaps an assisted living center, as well as additional ball fields. A new program for singles will begin April 25 at the South Complex. The programs will begin at 7 p.m. and will be led by the Rev. Al Mead, associate pastor for cross cultural/singles/sports outreach. The Rev. Barry Thompson, associate pastor for discipleship, firmly stated that New Hope Baptist Church is one church with two locations. “The same philosophy and Biblical teachings are the same at both the North Complex and the South Complex,” he said. Worship services at the North Complex are Sunday at 10:45 a.m. and at the South Complex at 9 a.m. New Hope Baptist Church can be reached at 770-461-4337.
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