After two years of planning, construction and prayer, Exit Church held its first service at its new location on Sept. 6.
Welcomed by the familiar Edison bulb lights strung above the sanctuary and 600 doughnuts donated by Neighborhood Fresh, longtime members and first-time attendees packed into the new building for the church’s single 10 a.m. service. Located just off of Main Street in Gas City, the church occupies the former Walnut Creek Outdoors building.
While Exit’s former building held about 550 individuals over the course of two services, the new sanctuary holds between 600 and 650 people, allowing for a single service, Brown said.
“Long term, if we were to continue to have that many people on a Sunday morning, we probably would go to two services,” Forrest Brown, co-pastor and elder at Exit Church, said. “I’d want it to be full, but I just also want to make sure that people that are coming from the community feel like there’s a place for them.”
Brown felt encouraged by the turnout, he said.
“I have a number of stories of people who just don’t go to church or haven’t ever gone to church or haven’t been to church in years and years that came (to the service),” he said.
Grady Stanley, a senior politics, philosophy, and economics major, attended the new location’s first service. He enjoyed worshipping in a single service as “one body,” he said.
He looks forward to seeing how Exit’s new location impacts the surrounding community and connects with families in Gas City
“All in all, it’s a way for the gospel to be advanced,” Stanley said, “and I think that’s probably the most important thing.”
The church had several ways they wanted to utilize the new building. To occupy the space as soon as possible, they organized the construction projects in phases, Brown said. The first phase focused on the sanctuary, kids’ space and bathrooms.
Other improvements include the foyer and wide hallways, which create more room for fellowship, and the adult classroom, which provides space for smaller gatherings throughout the week.
Though finished with phase one, the church hopes to add more adult classrooms, a prayer room, an indoor play area and a counseling center in the future.
The church received the certificate of occupancy that allowed them to officially inhabit the building on Friday, Aug. 28 — ten days before their first service, Brown said.
On Saturday, they held a church workday to clean and prepare for move-in day on Sunday. After their last service in the old building, church members helped transport boxes to the new location.
“Then the staff … and the design team put a herculean effort into getting the building ready throughout that week,” Brown said, “(Being) there every single day, every single night, late into the night, sometimes into the morning.”
Though multiple tasks remained incomplete, the necessary projects — such as installing internet and setting up chairs — finished just in time for Sunday, Brown said.
The first service’s full parking lot and sanctuary recalled the initial reason for acquiring and renovating the new location.
“We just wanted to give people a place to sit,” Brown said.
When college kids flooded back into Grant County after summer break, the church would “burst at the seams,” Tyler Shirley, co-pastor and elder at Exit Church, said.
Creating more space proved to be a financial challenge, Shirley said. To build a bare-bones structure on the church’s old property required an investment of $3 million, a price tag beyond the church’s reach.
In the fall of 2024, a member of Exit contacted Shirley and Brown about an old Kmart building for sale in Gas City. The pastors explored the space with Darren Campbell, the planter of Exit Church and CEO of Slingshot.
After the walkthrough, Campbell encouraged the pastors to make the purchase. Needing storage space for Slingshot, Campbell offered to rent half of the building for 10 years, adding that the church could drop the lease as it grew.
At 70,000 square feet, the new building is more than ten times the size of the church's former space. With Slingshot renting out half of the building, the church would still have 35,000 square feet left to work with, Shirley said.
Within a week, another donor who did not attend the church donated $1.5 million to cover the down payment. Additionally, the bank partnered with Exit’s denomination, the Christian & Missionary Alliance, agreed to help with the rest of the funding, Brown said.
While all the pieces fell into place to acquire the building, the construction process presented challenges.
Shirley described the experience in one word: slow.
“One guy said, ‘With any construction project, it’s gonna take longer and cost more than you expect every time,’” Shirley said. “And that was accurate.”
Receiving state approval for the building’s drawings proved to be the most difficult part of the process, Brown explained.
After a year of waiting, the church reached out to Terry Munday, former vice president of advancement at Indiana Wesleyan University, for help. With one call from Munday, the drawings finally received a stamp of approval, allowing the project to move forward.
The anticipated cost soared as contractor bids streamed in, Brown said. But, the necessary resources poured in from various sources.
Church’s member, Rhonda Cox, assumed the role of project manager. With experience in construction management, Cox handled contractors, contract discussions and project completion.
Exit honored Cox during the new building’s first service, Shirley said.
“It’s not uncommon for a church to build a new building and the pastor to leave because it’s so exhausting,” Shirley said. “I’m so grateful that Rhonda’s here. The Lord answered that prayer before we even prayed it, which is crazy.”
Amidst the building’s modifications, Brown hopes to preserve the church’s culture. A nicer, more polished space, while a blessing, brings the temptation of “putting on a performance,” he explained.
As the church settles into the new location, Brown and the rest of the staff anticipate how God will use the new building to glorify Himself.
“It’s just encouraging to see the kingdom growing,” Brown said. “The building, it really is just a tool to help us make as many disciples as we can.”
