A major shift is under way among Lawrence churches, and it’s not spiritual — it’s geographic.

Since 1999, there’s been a tide of congregations moving to the city’s western edge and beyond, where they’ve purchased sizable tracts of land, built new facilities and, in some cases, completed the first stages of entire campuses.

For example:

• In August 2001, the 3,000-member Corpus Christi Catholic Church moved from 1100 Kasold Drive to a 25-acre campus at 6001 W. 15th St. The cost of the land for the whole campus was $990,000; cost of construction for the first phase of the project was $7.8 million.
• In October 2001, the 1,600-member First United Methodist Church — established in 1854 and a presence on Vermont Street since 1890 — bought a 67-acre site west of Lawrence for a second campus. The land, acquired from the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas for $1.7 million, will serve as the location for a multiphase development project that will culminate in 2004 in a facility tentatively called Celebration Center.
• In the fall of 2002, Heritage Baptist Church left its five-acre property at 4340 W. Sixth St. and moved into the first phase of a planned complex on 26 acres of land at 1781 E. 800 Road, just north of Interstate 70 and one mile west of the Lecompton interchange. The church will use the proceeds of the sale of its old property to help pay for the new land and buildings. It already has paid off a $1.1 million construction loan it obtained to finance the project.
• And in early March, Morning Star Christian Church — which had met for six years in the gymnasium of Sunset School, 901 Schwarz Road — celebrated its first Sunday worship services in its new home at 998 N. 1771 Road in northwest Douglas County. The church bought the five-acre site for $60,000 and already has raised $500,000 through a building campaign to pay for the facility.

Children play outside Heritage Baptist Church, 1781 E. 800 Road. Heritage Baptist financed its move through the sale of its previous property at 4340 W. Sixth St.

Affordability influences

What’s behind this shift to the west?

“In every case, I think you’re going to find out that the churches that moved were land locked. There was no more room for growth; they were surrounded on all sides,” said the Rev. Scott Hanks, Heritage Baptist’s senior pastor.

The more affordable cost of land situated west of Lawrence is another motivation for the moves.

“The land that we had (along Sixth Street) sold for $1.2 million, and the 26 acres we bought here were a quarter of a million — a big difference,” Hanks said. “Churches can get land cheaper and get more of it (on the city’s western edge).”

Heritage Baptist financed its move through the sale of its previous property, and through a giving program called Vision Unlimited, in which members have committed to giving for three years. The total cost of the project so far is $1.4 million, according to Hanks.

Morning Star moved out west for the same reasons that Heritage Baptist did. The congregation needed more room — as well as a building of its own — and land was much less expensive on that side of Lawrence.

“Granted, we would love to have been in the city, because that’s where our heart is. But there’s just no way you could afford the land down there,” said the Rev. John McDermott, Morning Star’s senior pastor.

“We paid about $60,000 for five acres. You have to drive a little farther (to reach the church), but the difference in price pays for a lot of gasoline.”

Going against the trend

Not every congregation, however, is heading west.

First Church of the Nazarene, for example, moved to southeastern Douglas County.

In the spring of 2001, Nazarene shifted from its longtime home at 1942 Mass. into the first phase of a planned complex on a 93-acre site south of Lawrence at 1470 N. 1000 Road.

The first phase of the project, including the cost of the land, was initially appraised at $1.35 million. The congregation moved into a 16,000-square-foot structure on the site in spring 2001.

“We had a piece of land all picked out, right by Corpus Christi. But we were able to purchase four times as much land for a third of the cost (of real estate on the city’s western edge),” said the Rev. Donald Dunn, Nazarene’s senior pastor.

The move, which goes against the westward trend, has already paid off.

“The church is growing numerically and financially. We’re developing new ministries. It’s really neat,” Dunn said.