The Community Post

Faith Alliance expansion complete

By COREY MAXWELL Managing Editor

NEW BREMEN — A crisp, cool evening was the setting Saturday night for the fall festival that took place at Faith Alliance Church.

Pony rides, various games, contests, dancing and food took over the front parking lot.

Pastor Trent Fledderjohann, who has been with Faith Alliance since 2016, was happy to welcome community members to the church over the weekend.

“It’s been great. I’m happy with the turnout, and I’m glad people are coming out and having fun,” he said.

While the church has held fall festivals in the past, this year’s was a little bigger than previous years as the church has finished its renovation that added 2,800 square feet to the building, providing more room for children’s classroom as well as a new foyer and a renovated sanctuary.

“This is a little bigger than what we’ve done in the past. Just because of opening up the building,” said Fledderjohann.

“We’ve opened it up to the communities, invited them into the space to celebrate it.”

In addition to the new parts of the building, about 17,000 square feet of the church was renovated as well.

“It really just started as a conversation about the kid’s ministry. We had an overflow of kids so we needed more space,” said Fledderjohann. “So we expanded the kid’s space, added better classroom space for them and then it transitioned into the other areas. We added

on some office space that really doubles as a group room. So every Wednesday night we have groups that get together and they meet in those rooms. We have a meal in the fellowship hall and then our foyer and sanctuary was all redone too. Really it’s been great. It’s been pretty seamless and I’m really happy with it.”

Faith Alliance held its groundbreaking a little over a year ago in September 2020 following the church’s 9 a.m. services.

The expansion project was titled “Saturate 17,” with the name coming from the 17mile radius that makes up the majority of the church family.

Along with the Southwestern Auglaize County Chamber of Commerce, the church held a ribbon cutting ceremony at 6:30 p.m. to officially open the new building.

“Our church family — we’re a multi-generational family that really just loves getting together, investing in relationships with each other and growing in our faith and our trust in God,” Fledderjohann said prior to the ribbon cutting. “We’re well-represented by all age brackets which we really like. We’ve had people been seeking after the faith for years and years and have laid a great foundation. We have lots of little kids running around.”

Fledderjohann recalled how in 2017, the church began discussing how to structure things moving forward, saying that there were 30 babies born within about two years and the space for the children was becoming too small.

“As we were welcoming in people and getting lots of kids, it kind of led to this building project that we’re in part celebrating today,” he said. “That was just to create space for all our little kids, create space for our families.”

The church has been in its new sanctuary for about six weeks now and any are welcome.

“A big part of our project was not to be self-centered, not to do it for ourselves. But we wanted to care for the people around us. We want to live with open hands. We want to share our space,” said Fledderjohann.

“We invite people into the space. At Faith Alliance Church, we believe and teach that all of are born with shortcomings. We all have insecurities, we all have doubts and we’re hungry for more. At Faith Alliance, we believe that God is the answer for all of that.”

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2021-10-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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