Written by: Matthew Orquia
The Collegedale Spanish-American Seventh-day Adventist Church, or SuCasa, hopes to have its new building on College Drive East finished by fall 2023, according to Senior Pastor Gamaliel Feliciano.
Groundbreaking for the project occurred on Oct. 11, 2020, and the church initially hoped to be finished with construction by the end of 2021. However, supply-chain problems and fluctuating costs have slowed down the project.
“It’s a little bit difficult to make a good prediction because of the changes in materials, production of materials, labor and the prices [that] have been going up because of COVID,” Feliciano said.
The cost for the project was originally estimated at $5.5 million, but the projected cost is now around $8 million, according to Feliciano. However, he said the church continues to work on ways to save money and spend wisely.
Funding for the project has largely come from donations within the community, according to Feliciano. He said the church continues to receive contributions and will host a dinner for donors and others interested in the project. The event will be held Oct. 23 at the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists.
According to the SuCasa church project website, the congregation has received a little over $4.6 million in donations. The hope for the new facility is that it will allow the church to offer more services to the community.
“We are so limited by the space in our church right now,” Feliciano said. “[We are] in a small church that was built during the 80s, and the vision that we have right now, 40 years later, is different. We want to impact the community. We want to impact the students at Southern, and we want to develop our presence online.”
Some of the new features include a larger sanctuary, a daycare area, an event room, a soccer field, an outdoor worship area and a video recording studio.
“The idea is to have something [for the community] every day of the week in the new building,” Feliciano said.
SuCasa also aims to use the new building to help further engage with Southern students.
“We are trying to involve the students of the university in a way that they feel like this is home,” said Feliciano. “We are more concerned about them growing as Christians, as disciples of Jesus, than having them only on Saturday morning.
“ … The new building will help us to give them the space they need to have conversations, to lead in services for the community,” he continued. “ … [The students] are willing, and we are excited to provide for them in any way.”
Once the building is completed, Feliciano expects that attendance will go up, and the church has a plan for how to keep new attendees engaged with SuCasa.
“For the whole church, but especially for the people that will be added to the church, we want to create a system that allows them to identify their gifts, their ministries, and to put them to work,” he said. “I think that the people will stay at our church if they feel that they have a ministry there, that they have purpose at SuCasa.”
While church members are excited about the new space, Feliciano said the ultimate goal is to minister to others.
“The construction of the church is not our goal,” he said. “It’s a tool that God will use to connect [us] with the community, with the students and with the world.”