The Birmingham-based Church of the Highlands, Alabama’s largest church, has broken ground on construction of its new Shoals campus, to serve Muscle Shoals and Florence.

The Shoals congregation started on Feb. 5, 2017 in the Marriott Shoals Conference Center, with Pastor Caleb Chambers as campus pastor. Service will continue there until the completion of construction of a 1,100-seat sanctuary on the new campus at 751 County Road 46, Gresham Road in Florence. Construction is projected to be complete by the end of 2024.

“We’re grateful to be a part of this community,” said Church of the Highlands founding Pastor Chris Hodges, who founded the Church of the Highlands in 2001. “Everyday we’re inspired and motivated by what God is doing in the Shoals, especially among students who are discovering their purpose and embracing an authentic relationship with Jesus.”

The Shoals congregation currently has an average weekly attendance of about 1,400, with much of the growth in student ministries for junior high and high school students and college students from the University of North Alabama.

Hodges, in his sermon on Sept. 24, also mentioned the church will break ground in October on a new campus in Opelika in addition to the one under construction in Florence. “We start churches portably, and after five or six years or so, we are able to build a building with cash,” Hodges said. “We already have all the money that we need for both those buildings.”

Hodges’ sermons are streamed into 26 auditoriums in 22 campus locations throughout Alabama, plus two in Georgia, which serve as branch locations for the main campus on Grants Mill Road in Irondale.

See also: Church of the Highlands opens Alabaster campus

Church of the Highlands tries to match Huntsville’s growth, begins meeting at movie theater

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