Add Heritage Baptist Church to the list of Lawrence congregations heading west to build for the future.

Following in the recent footsteps of Corpus Christi Catholic Church, First United Methodist Church and First Church of the Nazarene, Heritage Baptist is establishing a new campus on the city’s west side.

The church has undertaken the ambitious project with an eye toward growing the congregation in the coming years.

Heritage Baptist had maximized the use of its five-acre property at 4340 W. Sixth St. Â its home since 1980 Â and an expansion of some kind was clearly needed.

Rather than just add another building to its old site, or relocate to a building with slightly more room, the independent Baptist church took the plunge.

“We figured if we’re going to have to build anyway, let’s go ahead and purchase the 26 acres so we can have room for future growth. We have a lot of ministries in our church, and to have the ministries, you need room,” said the Rev. Scott Hanks, senior pastor.

He’s referring to Heritage Baptist’s new home, a property at 1781 E. 800 Road just north of Interstate 70 and 1 mile west of the Lecompton interchange.

At its new site, the church will soon have no trouble finding the elbow room it needs.

Construction is well underway on the campus, which will ultimately feature a 22,000-square-foot building for a bus barn; workshop and print shop for producing religious tracts; a 15,000-square-foot education building with classrooms; a gymnasium and three apartments for church staff; and a 33,500-square-foot auditorium for worship with a seating capacity of 700.

Heritage Baptist closed the deal on the new property in January.

The church’s old site was broken down into three lots, two of which were purchased by Coldwell Banker McGrew Real Estate for $400,000.

Douglas County Bank bought the third lot, at the corner of West Sixth Street and Folks Road, for $800,000 as the site for a new bank.

The church will use the proceeds of the sales to pay for the new property and buildings. It has paid off a $1.1 million construction loan it obtained to finance the project.

Heritage Baptist had its first worship service on the property Wednesday night. Wooden pews were pulled into the concrete-floored bus barn, and a 9-11 memorial service was held.

‘Good bunch of people’

Members of Heritage Baptist have done almost all of the work at the new campus themselves  electrical wiring, trim carpentry, installing ducts, hanging Sheetrock, painting, even the heavy-duty job of erecting the steel framework for the buildings.

The only tasks the church contracted out was for the plumbing, pouring the concrete foundations and putting up a brick facade on the education building.

Since April, work parties of church members have labored at the site from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Any construction equipment that was needed was rented or purchased.

“We have members who know how to do these jobs. And if we don’t know how to do something, we learn how. We bought a lot of (instructional) videos and books,” Hanks said.

To construct the new education building, members tore down the church’s gymnasium at Heritage Baptist’s old location. They hauled all the materials to the new property and rebuilt the entire structure, in the process extensively reconfiguring the floor plan and adding a brick facade.

“When we were really pushing these last five weeks, we’d have people out here laying tile, putting in duct work, framing  everything. I don’t know how the church has done it. They’ve come together and really worked hard. It’s a good bunch of people,” Hanks said.

Still more to do

Heritage Baptist member Everett Edwards can be found volunteering at the site from four to 12 hours per day.

“I just like to. I feel like it’s a service I can do for the church, and I enjoy the fellowship, being with the people here,” said Edwards, who retired after 30 years of working at Lawrence’s Hallmark plant.

“The best part of this has been the spirit of the people. If they haven’t known how to do something, they’ve been willing to learn. I think it’s a miracle, I really do. I’m absolutely amazed at how much we’ve got done in this short a time.”

But there’s still a lot of work left to complete.

After the education building is finished, church members are going to take a break until spring before they construct the auditorium.

When will it all be done?

“I don’t know  I don’t know if we’ll ever get there,” Edwards said, laughing.

“I don’t think you can ever say there really is a finish to it. We’ve got 26 acres out here, so we’ll probably build some more.”